New Petronics Ignitors

[Dale M.]

I see that Pertronics is now offering a
"Senses crank orientation from either the distributor cam lobe or a PerTronix magnet sleeve"

It is easier to use the kit with the cam lobe sensor, but is this as accurate as the old "magnet Sleeve"? (This magnet sleeve is the part that bolted to the mechanical advance plate.)

Any experience between the ignitor II and the ignitor III. There is not much difference in the price, but will a street car get much benefit increase spark and the multi-spark of the III units. The III also include a rev limiter, but my foot will control that for my street application.

[Bruce B.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Dale,

I was looking for a reply to your posting as I am interested in opinions on the Pertronics II and III.

Anyone have any information?

[Anthony P.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

I have used the Pertronix II on my other classic cars (non Chevy) for 4+ years and have had great luck. Last year I installed a III on one of those cars, mostly due to wanting a rev limiter (which is built in) and it appeared to work even better. Not sure if the II was starting to act up, but the III made the car run even better.

The main difference is that I needed to remove the vacuum advance plate with the III unit that has a vacuum plate as part of it and there is no magnetic unit installed over the cam.

Just my 2 cents.

Tony

[Dale M.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Just the type of real life input I wanted, Thanks very much. Dale

[Edward J.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Dale, I just received my new copy of summit racing and noted that MSD has a new digital module that fits in side the dist. and has a single wire, its digital and has some neat features, like mutliple sparks on start, for easier start, it moniter timing and dwell control through the module. and does use the cam on the Dist. not a magnetic plate. I though that its was neat. and that I may try it in the my 63 , I do have the older petronix in my 72 but its has the 2 wires.which I recently remove for judging reason, they work well. But you'll get alittle more from the MSD set up.

[Dale M.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Ed, Yes, that is what I am looking at myself. The more spark the better for performance, starting and fuel economy. I was looking for someone that had used these newer versions, and I suspect that they are so new that no too many people have installed them yet. So I plan on purchasing the Ignitor III myself. They are a good company in the past and I expect their new products to be good as well. PS: on my shopping around, Summit has the best price, but they wanted $12.99 handling fee and state tax as I live in Ohio.

[Stuart F.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

I too am an old time user of the II unit along with their matching coil. It works great and one has to be looking for the two wires (as in judging). Also, the coil is a normal shaped unit that fits under the shielding. My concern about the III is that the matching coil is an odd shape piece that does not look compatible with Corvette Ignition Shielding. Not sure about the advance plate. I didn't get the impression you need to change that as well. If so, that leaves me out because I don't want to change from my Dyna-Flite ball bearing plate. That piece works too well to consider swapping it out for an unknown. Besides, I already had to modify it slightly to use with the II. No, I'm quite happy with the II, and I too can control my RPM's myself.

Stu Fox

[Dale M.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Stuart, I am looking at the Flame Thrower III, #44011 coil at 45,000 volts canister coil. It looks in the pictures to be the same shape as the older coils. Did you see something different?

[Dale M.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Stuart, I mean to give you the web site of the coil I referred to:

http://www.pertronix.com/prod/ig/flame/coils/45000_volt_ft3.aspx

[Anthony P.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Stuart, I am looking at the Flame Thrower III, #44011 coil at 45,000 volts canister coil. It looks in the pictures to be the same shape as the older coils. Did you see something different?

I have been using a P II coil with my P III with no problems at all. When I first ordered the III a year ago the coils were on backorder so I used my existing coil and have continued with it.


Note that I have only used the Pertronix II and III on Ford distys and not a Chevy one.

[Stuart F.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Dale;

I took a look at their on-line catalog so I could see what you are talking about. Their #44011 coil is a typical round (6" x 2.5") coil. I had only been looking at their ads in magazines which always shows the heat sink mounted HC 60k coil. I still am not sure about whether their #71181 kit is a simple retro fit to our Delco distributors, as was the case with the II model. It is not clear the way they present it in their catalog whether you can use it with just your distributor cam (to sense crank position), or whether you need their magnet sleeve (one better than the other or equal?), or if it is better to use their billet distributor. As I said, their info is not clear. I had hoped to see some III units at the swap meets by now to clear this up for me, but none so far.

I watched their video on how to set the rev limiter as well. Seems a little hoaky to me, and not that positive (just my impression).

The only difference in their new III Flamethrower coil and the II that I now use is the input resistance = 0.32 Ohm (on the III) vs. 0.32 to 0.6 Ohm (on the II). I use mine w/o a ballast resistor now, so I guess the III would also be installed the same.

If what I see is right, you probably can see a simpler rotor removal for weight and spring changes with the III. The II has the sandwich attachment of the magnetic disc which makes it difficult, specially if you have used the small washers to shim the gap. I like that change.

Stu Fox

[Ken A.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Stuart, I am looking at the Flame Thrower III, #44011 coil at 45,000 volts canister coil. It looks in the pictures to be the same shape as the older coils. Did you see something different?

Dale,
If their coil actually put out 45,000 volts, then your spark plug wires would burn up and the plug tips would soon melt. A good up to date ignition system only "works" around 12K volts.

[Stuart F.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Ken;

Do you know of any ignition parts company that advertises their system as putting out only 12,000 volts?

Stu Fox

[Dale M.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

I wanted to pass this along to anyone interested in the new Petronics Ignitor III. I just purchased one at O'Reilly's Auto for $84.99. That's the price for the original Ignitor. Pertronics shows a retail price of $144.84. Great Price, I feel that this may be a mistake in their pricing, but my invoice shows List Price at $144.05.

If anyone is interested, you may want to run to your O'Reilly's ASAP

[Michael W.]

Re: New Petronics Ignitors

Ken;

Do you know of any ignition parts company that advertises their system as putting out only 12,000 volts?

Stu Fox

That's the actual 'operating voltage' of any conventional system. It only takes 12Kv to ionize a standard spark gap so that's as much as the coil 'accumulates' before firing. A coil with the capacity of 30,45, or whatever many bazillion volts is pretty much irrelevant.