I've got a '63 Chevy 153ci in a machine that I have. It runs like crap sometimes and I have trouble keeping the plugs clean. I don't think its the carb but will rebuild that soon too. It pops and sputters in the mid range. Lots of time on the motor and decent amount of blow by. I'll probably yank the motor after this hunting season. The plugs aren't wet, but black. I thought about putting a Pertronix unit in the distributor. Would this be a step in the right direction?
It may be OK for your application, but I am on my 2nd one in the GS. I will be going to a small body HEI on the next failure.
My Pertronix Ignitor 2 crapped out after just over a year. I put another one in just because it was quicker. Next time will be an HEI unit from the IgnitionMan.
Thanks for the input guys. I've got a '90's S-10 in a salvage yard with a 153 in it. I'll stop today to see if it's got HEI.
what when wrong with your pertronix?? i just installed the crane cams version, i like it because it has a rev limiter, i know some guys have run pertronix and mallory for years with out eney problems, i think i will go threw my hei and have it sitting on the shelf ready to go just incase!!!
In mine, the computer module puked itself. Other than that, I've liked the system. I also have a MSD 6AL in the car.
Old motor and Pertronix I had a Pertronix Ignitor (magnet ring style) in my GS several years ago. This was with a clapped out 400, 82k hard miles with lots of blowby, rings were pretty well shot. I put it in because oil was getting up through the distributor and a set of points lasted about a week. That version of the Ignitor had a ring with 8 magnets in it. The magnets were held in with a ring of what looks like packing tape. The oil ate the adhesive off the tape and the magnets fell out of the ring - talk about timing problems! After figuring out the correct orientation of the magnets and epoxying them in place, I hooked the module up backwards and burned it out. About this time I was rebuilding the motor and fixed the problem at it's source, so I went back to points. One set of points for the last 2 years - no problems:TU: . I can't recommend Pertronix, at least not based on my personal experience.
I NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH POINTS UNTIL I STARTING RUNNING HIGH H.P. AND RUNNING IT OVER 6000 RPM'S!!
From what I'm finding out now, the 2.5 from '62-'70 was a 153ci. The 2.5 from then on was a 151ci and from what I understand, parts don't interchange. Back to square one.
I had a Pertronics on my 462 and it lasted about 6 months. What owuld happen is it would rev fine in Park, but as soon as I put a load on it, I had a terrible miss. Sent my distributor to the Ignition Man and never looked back. He does high quality work and I highly recommend him. He does small body HEI and MSD setups. You won't be sorry! :TU: Brian
I would be interested in knowing what year your Pertronix was installed. As with anything electronic, breakdown is a matter of time. Mine's been in since Nov 1998 with (knock on wood) no failures o No: I guess I've got one of the good ones :Brow: I'll admit, if I ever do get a failure, I'm going to Daves, but I would like to know what year so many of these failures took place. Was it recently?
Marco, I purchased and installed it around spring of 2000. It was time consuming to troubleshoot that problem when it occured. The distributor was the last thing I swapped out. I put a junkyard HEI from a Riv in it and it ran great! Put the pertonix distrbutor back in and same problem. Put points back in and ran great. So I sent it to Dave and he fixed me up with a small body HEI in billet finish. It looks and runs great! Brian
I've got the early Pertronics on 2 cars and installed on 2 friend's cars with ZERO problems so far. (5 years now) Bruce
Try some spark plug non foulers. They are a plug extension that moves the plug back and allows the mixture to go through a small hole to ignite. They are available at most parts stores and used in old junk engines to limp by. They do work well, only use them in the cylinders that give problems with oil fouling. My old company made nearly 1 million of these a year until they started to buy them from over seas.
I have had pertronix on my stage 1 for just over five years now, not one problem. Definitely runs better than points ever did, make sure to bypss your resistance wire so it gets the full 12 volts. IMHO, I don't think a failure caused by another known problem is fair to blame on the unit itself. I know lots of guys with same system, none have problems. Hopefully stays that way. Everything electronic will crap itself eventually, including HEI units. The price is certianly right. later Tim
