Points out

[redmonster]

I know most of you guys have swapped out points for hei, but a friend on mine has turned to onto something called Petronius igniter. This is an electronic upgrade which rids the points. I don't get the hei hook up burned up my system once.
Have any of you heard of this or tried it on our trucks with an I6?
Petronius.com is the website for info any of your help is appreciated.
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[jocko]

Pertronix is pretty popular, Hall Effect trigger, I believe (but don't quote me on that...). I have heard a lot of folks complain about them going out on you, of course right when you are at the furthest distance from your house.... Anyhoo, HEI is probably more reliable overall, but I am a pertronix fan also. Have only used it once though. It never went out on me, but then again, neither has an HEI... All depends if you "must" have the stock look. If you must (and I must) and you hate changing points every so often, then Pertronix is a pretty good option. Btw, the web address is pertronix.com

And having said that, I currently have an HEI on my truck! But that's not my long term plan.

[VetteVet]

http://www.google.com/custom?domains...D%3A1%3B&hl=en

[mud.man.rj]

I have converted 2 Fords/one Dodge and a Gm to Pertronix II, including the better coil. Worked great everytime, gives a lot better spark and dwell time (length of spark holding time). Slight increase in MPG and ran a lot cleaner. I am all for it but in a Gm I would just run a stock HEI except in some cases of wanting to look stock or the size if the distrib is too big and hits firewall being the factory Gm HEI is about a 1/3 larger in size. Easy install. Just priced one in canada for a 62 Pontiac 389 and was $107 for igniter II module and $31 for the coil so not expensive and will have electronic ign and fit inside stock cap.

[truckster]

I'm just curious what you mean when you say HEI burned up your system once.

[allchevy58]

I have the Pertronix 1181LS in my 58', 71' and 72'. Going on 4 years in the 71 and no problems. Amazon.com has it for $80.93 and free shipping.

[crazy longhorn]

I ran 1 for 10 or 12 yrs(not bad for service), but it did sign off... Next trip, I will use a set of points for "trigger", & run an MSD box As far as the HEI,there is something to be said about a unit that you can get replacement parts ANYWHERE! Any parts house across the country, can get you rollin (sometimes the simplicity of that is really worth it)? CrazyL

[special-K]

If you must go from points to electronic you might as well do it right and go with the extremely reliable GM HEI. I have gone to HEI on trucks for years for the hotter spark on motors I have done performance work on. But,seriously,I have absolutely no complaints about the original points distributors. Points have always gotten me home where electronic has left me dead in the water and helpless.

[yuccales]

I'm keeping my points because my dwell meter still works.

[VetteVet]

One thing I found out after the fact when I bought my pertronix was that there is a difference between the ignition coils if you also buy a blaster coil along with the induction unit. The blaster coils for six cylinders are different than the ones for v-8s.

The six cylinder coils are 3.8 ohm coils and the v-8s are 1.8 ohm which is the same as the stock point coils. Pertronix says that the 6 cyl. coil will burn out the induction unit if used in the v-8. They say that some applications need the ballast resistor or resistance wire and some do not. I have not been able to sort this all out but it might explain the failures of some of the pertronix units if used with the blaster coils.

If you used a 1.8 ohm coil with the ballast or wire resistor that is also 1.8 then the total resistance would be 3.6 and if you used just the 3.8 ohm coil without the ballast or wire resistor then it should work out the same. I'll have to look at the instructions again and see what they say.

This setup is for my corvette and couldn't go with the regular HEI because the corvette distributor has a tach drive built into it.