As some of you are no doubt aware, I am a bit of an outlier with some of the things I have done to my car. Most of them, actually.
A few years ago, before my life got (really) crazy – I converted my 2276 Type 1 to twin plug ignition. It was a bit of a science project, and truthfully the results were somewhat mixed before today. I read what little information there is regarding twin-plug heads, etc. on various forums (most of which is malarkey) and discussed some of the esoterica involved with Len Hoffman from HAM. For those who do not know of him, Len does all of Jake Raby's Type 4 heads. He'd never done a twin plug set up with Type 1, but he was pretty free with information regarding what works with twin-plug ignition (as it pertained to Type 4 engines).
According to Len, the second set of plugs should allow for one full compression point above what can safely be used with any given camshaft. Armed with this information, I had Blackline Racing in SLC built a 10.5:1 FK8 2276 with thermal coatings, using a set of Revmaster 049 twin-plug heads.
It took about a year to get everything I needed, and only after an idiot from theSamba destroyed a brand new $1000 set of Super-Pro heads. This actually was the easy part.
Firing two sets of plugs at the same time was the hard part. If I would have had any sense at all, I would've just done a Megajolt crank-fire setup. I actually started down that road by buying all of the stuff besides the trigger wheel (my crank pulley is smaller than stock, due to the dry-sump pump) before I changed my mind. Anyhow, I REALLY wanted a "bundle-o-snakes" distributor, so I switched gears mid-stream.
I bought a couple of CB Performance "Black-Boxes" and sent them to Mario Velotta for conversion to two coil drivers. It was a custom project Mario really didn't want to do, and it cost way more than it should have for the first one, and almost nothing for the second-- so I had him do both (one for spare).
Clark Callis from Awesome Powdercoat converted a locked out 009 with some machined adapters and an early 80s Datsun 4 cyl twin plug cap and rotor, and I reused my Pertronix points replacement module. This (the module, not Clark's work) was a bad mistake.
I never could get the thing to tune in the way I had hoped. I knew it couldn't be the hated 009 because it was 100% locked out, as per the Black-Box requirements. There was a lot of spark scatter, and it started horribly hard. I read a lot of hate-mail over on theSamba about the Black-Box and it's cranking performance.
I called CB and talked to Mark, who walked through everything I'd done with me step by step. When I got to the part about my Pertronix, he said, "I'll bet that's your problem". I thought, "yeah, right", thanked him for his time, and hung up.
Everybody was banging on the Black-Box and nobody's ever complained about the Pertronix. It's a pain in the rear to replace that module with this distributor, so I didn't.
I've struggled with preignition since I did this conversation, but it IS 10.5:1. I thought I had going to bridge too far with the compression, and was candid about that with several people who communicated with me privately. I was actually making plans to dial my compression back about one point (which isn't easy and involves dished pistons) once I finished the various building projects consuming all my time and treasure.
Last year I drove my car exactly 3 times due to not having a garage, etc. I'm still in the thick of it, but today I decided it had been long enough. It's 90° and sunny. I'm not going to Carlisle. My house still isn't done. Dad has a terminal cancer. I lost an important client last month. I'm broke until I sell one of the pieces of real estate eating my... well, everything.
I really needed some "speedster therapy" today and determined that it was now or never.
I had purchased a Comp-u-Fire module last winter, mostly just to satisfy my curiosity and to fill out an order with CB. This morning, I dug the car out of its hole in my business shop, pulled the distributor, and changed the module. I threw the thing back together without checking anything. I jumped in the car, twisted the key… and it lit right off. I did not adjust the timing, I did not play with the advance map, I just got in and drove it with last year's gas and oil.
The transformation was astounding.
It did not matter how hard I drove the thing (and I "may" have been speeding)-- there was not a hint of preignition. It's fast-- not "fast for what it is", but legitimately fast. I shut it off and restarted half a dozen times, and it always fired right up.
It's finally everything I hoped it would be in the beginning of this long and tortured odyssey.
The reason I'm sharing this is that I think there is some real utility for more sensible applications. There is no shortage of guys using these modules, and blaming the 009 for all manner of ignition issues. There are even more who are running way less compression and/or advance then would be optimal because if they try to run more, the engine tells knock-knock jokes that aren't funny.
I'd bet there is no small number of problems ("carburetor trouble" included) that should have the blame squarely laid on the Pertronix.
I spent many, many thousands of dollars on this project. I have hundreds and hundreds of dollars in the ignition system. In my mind, I was blaming the Black-Box, the compression ratio, and almost everything besides a crappy $75 module. I wish it hadn't taken so long, but I'm glad I found the problem.
The CB Black-Box is an excellent bit of kit, and I suspect their electronic distributor is as well.
If you're struggling with spark-scatter and running one of these modules in an 009, I'd recommend that you to try a set of points or something else before you condemn the distributor. It should be noted also that the same manufacturer (Pertronix) of this crappy module also makes a crappy copy of the 009 distributor that a lot of guys are running. After today, I'd buy any of CB's ignition products without a second thought. Pertronix will not get another dime of my money
Forewarned is forearmed.
Looks like I'll be slip-slidin' into Carlisle.
