Very Cool Ignition Upgrade

[Mike W]

Chris,

I really think you will like this and I look forward to sharing some of our tuning stories. The people at the company have been great to deal with as well. This is a new market for them and so they seem to be doing all the right things to succeed.

Not sure what the rest of your ignition system entails, but if you control / drive your coil directly from your distributor (ie no MSD or equivalent) , you will need to make sure that the primary resistance of the coil you are using is greater than 1 ohm. The folks at 123 were pretty explicit about that and the instructions point it out as well.

Let me know if you have any questions during the install.

Mike.

[grannyknot]

Thanks Mike, I am using a 3ohm coil.

Found an interesting video made by 123 comparing Pertronix, points and the 123 system.

Interesting, but do yourself a favour and watch it without the sound track.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AAfHflrpm4s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Mike, I will be ordering one of these was well. It is just too sweet not to try.

[Zed Head]

I saw that video. Note that it's really a comparison of distributors AND their ignition systems. Maybe old worn distributors using the Pertronix and points systems too (as noted in the comments). If they had installed the Pertronix and points in place of the 123 ignition system, in the 123 distributor, that would be meaningful, comparing ignition systems. It doesn't tell how a new distributor with points or Pertronix would perform.

Again, not trying to be a downer, but sales is sales.

[ZCurves]

.... I would rather spend time in the driver's seat than looking at a computer screen, and fooling with "curves."

Hey! What do you mean...

[Patcon]

I have a question. Mike W what coil are you currently running and what kind of spark strength is it putting out? When I saw the smaller distributor cap, I was wondering how large of a coil could be run before cross firing became a problem? Many times the caps are larger to allow running stronger coils...

Charles

[Mike W]

Charles,

I use the Mallory Promaster #29440. The specs are as follows although I don't see any specific spec about spark strength. The max spark output is rated at 55kv.

Coil Wire Attachment:

Male/HEI

Coil Style:

Canister

Primary Resistance:

0.600 ohms

Coil Internal Construction:

Oil-filled

Coil Color:

Black

Maximum Voltage:

55,000 V

Turns Ratio:

105:1

Secondary Resistance:

12.3K ohms

Inductance:

7.3 mH

Peak Current:

100 mA

Spark Duration:

500 uS

Mounting Bracket Included:

Yes

Coil Wire Included:

No

Ballast Resistor Included:

Yes

Coil Shape:

Square

Height (in):

5.297 in.

Length (in):

3.706 in.

Width (in):

3.846 in.

[Patcon]

That's a good sized coil, I did some looking around at Summit Racing to see what else Mallory had listed. Thanks for the response. I have found this whole thread very interesting and much easier than trying to go trigger wheel and Megajolt. Would Megajolt be superior in any way? Just wondering out loud...

Charles

[madkaw]

Charles,

at the $ we are talking I might consider MS2. Then you have versitilty with FI also. Granted, the install will be more work. I'm not real familiar with Megajolt, so I don't have a direct answer for you.

[LeonV]

Going Megajolt/EDIS bypasses any possible slop in the distributor/crank gear as well as distributor bushing wear. Since EDIS6 has 3 coil packs instead of one, each coil can have 3x longer dwell time and maintain spark at higher rpm.

I already have a Z running Megajolt and another one running a ZX dizzy. I'm elated that this option has presented itself, as I wanted to keep the other Z a bit more period-looking! Now I can have the look of a distributor along with a fully and easily customized timing map, just waiting for that pesky budget to build itself up...

If there's one thing I would want, it would be for the 123Tune interface to be the more typical 3D spark map instead of virtual centrifugal and vacuum advance curves. Splitting up the curves like that in a digital, programmable distributor doesn't make much sense to me.

[Patcon]

Steve & Leon,

Thanks for the responses. I love the idea of a period correct looking install with the custom programability... Now to just get one of my Z's running

C

[grannyknot]

I received my 123Tune distributor a few weeks ago and with the kind help of Mike W I have programmed it, installed it and the engine is running well. I modified one of Mikes curves to a curve I think is conservative, 8* static at idle up to 29* total advance at 3200 rpm. That will allow me to toodle around town for now and make sure all of the other changes I made to the car this winter are working before I start the final tuning of the carbs and timing.

The instructions were translated from Dutch to English so there are a few awkward sentences and some missed steps.

The most important being, after you have installed the unit and powered it up you are turning the dizzy clockwise just until

the green LED lights up (putting the Hall effect sensor in the perfect spot for TDC), this is where you HAVE to tighten the screw and lock down the unit so it won't move again but there is no mention of that. But now you know or you have figured it out soon enough. Here are few pics, the unit is quite small, smaller even then the original 240Z dizzy but very well made.

The only real problem I ran into is my sparkplug wires from DatsunSpirt are measured and cut so that the #1 distributor posistion has to be about at 7-8 o'clock.

This is my stock dizzy,

This where the 123Tune unit sat at TDC,

So after rotating the oil pump driveshaft 90* I ended up with #1 TDC back in the old posistion and all of my wires fit perfectly.

Edited April 13, 2014 by grannyknot