Bill:
A very well put disertation on the Ignition system. You sound like you know
what your doing. I have never been called a sacred cow before. I wonder if
thats Royalty.
Anyway, I liked your explanation, even if I dont hold with it all. I can
only go with my experiences, like you with yours. You must realize that
most of the people out here dont race their cars. I know that this will
make a difference.
Again, good luck in your racing ventures. I was wondering if you might know
a mutual racer friend from down my way. His name is Butch Gilbert. He races
an Elva most of the time.
Cheers:
Skip...............At 12:08 PM 1/29/98 EST, you wrote:
>Gentlemen (and ladies?) - a note to clarify my previous post on Mallory
>distributors.
>I off-handedly dissed this product and in doing so apparently gored the
sacred
>oxen of a few of you.
>
>There is nothing wrong with the Mallory, and I'm sure that it will give years
>of reliable service. What is not true are the claims of the various vendors
>that this unit is a 'high performance' part, thus encouraging people who
don't
>know any better to spend a fair bit of money and wonder later why their car
>doesn't go any better than with a stock unit in good order. This is not
>dissimilar to the advertising that encourages you to put a Weber on your
stock
>engine - the added intake roar makes you swear that it's more powerful, but
>while you might gain a couple of bhp up in ranges you rarely use, the main
>effect is a lightening of your wallet. For the most part, the Mallory units
>are sold with a generic advance curve and without the drive dog on the shaft,
>so you have extra expense to fit it for your MG, and you won't have the
>factory advance curve, if that matters to you.
>
>I also said that in performance use, there can be some problems. I have
played
>with these and with the stock units for some years, and have noted the
>following problems with the Mallory:
>
>-both sets of points don't always open (doesn't really matter as long as one
>set does, but it does make it hard to read dwell sometimes)
>
>- they don't work with some aftermarket tachometers
>
>-the parts are not as easily obtainable (moral- plan ahead)
>
>-they are slightly larger and can foul things that the stock one doesn't (not
>much of a problem unless you run a TVR with HRG head and Webers, as my friend
>and I do)
>
>-in tight places you might want the choice of top or side entry caps
>
>Other than that, they seem to work just fine. But then so will your Lucas
unit
>if you rebush it.
>
>Finally, a note on some other ignition bits. The optically triggered units
>that replace the points like the Mallory are pretty good. We don't however
use
>them in racing. You must understand that in racing, we try to eliminate
>anything that _could_ cause a DNF, and once in a blue moon, you can get
enough
>oil fog at high engine speeds inside a distributor to cause an optical
trigger
>to malfunction or miss. For this reason, I use a magnetic triggered unit
>(Pertronics Ignitor) to replace the points and condensor, both of which can
>fail. The Ignitor itself can also fail, but at least there is one less thing,
>and with the ignitor, you aren't subject to dwell variations if your
>distributor bush happens to be worn.
>
>Some people think they have to change from points to avoid point bounce, and
>Mallory advertises that their unit also avoids that problem. As far as I'm
>concerned, point bounce just isn't an issue, We run the Twincams to about
>7800, and friends with 1071 Coopers have run 9500 rpm with the stronger
spring
>Lucas points without bounce problems.
>
>We also use the MSD units which work well with the Ignitor. I have seen
one of
>these jump a spark from the inside terminal of a Lucas high output coil all
>the way to the side terminal, over an inch! Unfortunately on one such
occasion
>my friend's fingers were in the way, and he still holds the local club
>standing high jump record for both height and volume.
>
>Hope I haven't been too long winded.
>
>Bill Spohn
>58 MGA
>
>
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