Has anyone pulled the points and installed a
Pertronix Ignitor in the Y-block 312?
Any tips or gotchas?
Thanks!
The original/basic
Pertronix l unit is all that is needed in any street engine and is a straight swap for the points and condensor, requiring very litle time and no special
coil, ignition wires, etc. It retains the original resistor (which steps down the voltage from 12 to 8) and orignal
coil, etc. (the resistor is there to extend the life of the points and the
Pertonix unit will work fine with it). It's essentially the same process as replacing the points and condensor. This unit simply eliminates the worry of burned out points and is very reliable, with no worries about gapping it (it will operate fine with virtually any gap). I
f you go to a
Pertronix ll it will provide higher voltage and will also control dwell however, you will then also need a 45,000 volt
coil (
Pertronix sells them) which are internally regulated. That, in turn, will mean that you will need to swap the stock ignition wires because the stock type wires will eventually break down and will arc with a
Pertonix ll, causing missfire and fouled spark plugs - trust me on this. Hill's sells two types of ignition wires: regular and premium, for that reason (both look the same in appearance). You will also need to bypass the stock resistor because the Pertornix ll and the requisite higher voltage
coil want all 12 available volts.
Don't even think about a
Pertronix lll - there is simply no reason for it in a street car. In, fact, I seriously doubt that anyone with an essentially stock '50's T-Bird would notice any diffrence between performance using a Pertornix l or ll so, no need to spend the time or money on a ll.
Again, the original
Pertronix will deliver excellent performance and reliability for reasonable cost and very little installation time/effort - and you will never need to worry about points again. I have had the original
Pertronix unit in 6 of my 7 vintage ('50's through early '70's) Fords since it appeared on the market and have never had a problem or failure. I recently decided to try a
Pertronix ll in my '57 Bird (with
Pertonix 45,000 volt
coil) and am now having to replace the ignition wires after about 500 miles because the higher voltage is causing them to fail and arc, and as a result the engine is missing, fouling plugs and is running poorly after that amount of usage (I hve ordered the premium wire set (with brackets) from Hill's). Admittedly, I did not replace the ignition wires when I installed the
Pertonix ll and high output
coil but I have been advised that the problem will occur in time even with new wires unless they are "premium" and designed to withstand higher voltage (I have not replaced ignition wires with any of my
Pertronix l installations and have never had a related problem).
With the original
Pertronix l unit the recommended factory stock spark plug gap (c.35K ) should be retained. With the
Pertronix ll I have heard that plug gaps can be opened up to 40K and even 45K but I stayed just under 40K. Again, I doubt that anyone will notice more power in these engines from a
Pertronix ll than a l - I think the best you can hope for - in addition to better reliabilty, of course - is somewhat better fuel economy due to improved efficiency. You may be able to advance ignition timing a bit as well to further increase economy but that in turn will necessitate better fuel with higher octane ratings.
