Best ignition for the money?

[pazcarguy]

I am building a 289 for a Cobra replicar and currently have the engine assembled minus the ignition. The original engine did not have a "useable"distributor when I received it (seized and bent) so I am looking into my options. This being said, I don't have plans to buy an OEM distributor and upgrading to the Pertronix kit but was looking at either the Davis Unified Ignition HEI or a MSD type with the control box and external coil. I like the Davis as they actually curve the distributor for you given you supply them with cam info, vehicle weight, trans type etc. I had an MSD billet distributor. flamethrower coil and 6AL box in my 66 coupe and it worked fine. Has anyone used a full mechanical advance Davis Unified system or similar and what were your likes/dislikes? I dont want to have to go thru the expense of the additional "addons' with the MSD setup (needing a coil and spark box) and am really liking the HEI style for simplicity. Thanks, Brian

 

[zookeeper]

I have a full mechanical, Ford dual point with a Pertronix II and I love it. It looks original and has so far been faultless. My brother has a Davis Unified vacuum advance in his hotrod, and it, too has been worry free. I will say that if you do go with a mechanical advance distributer, be prepared to spend a little time tweaking it. I had to spend a whopping hour and a half tuning the advance curve on mine, but for some guys, that's not worth the trouble and they just go with a vacuum advance and call it good.

 

[EP429]

I used a Duraspark II Dizzy mated with an HEI module (concealed in an aluminum heatsink) works great, looks nearly original and gets a lot of "WTF?" 's once the whole system is explained

 

[D.Hearne]

The Davis DUI will litterally look retarded in a Cobra.The friggin thing's bigger than the carb. Simple and cheap? Go buy a reman points distributor at your local parts house, replace the points with a Pertronix I or II, or a Crane XR-1. Use a compatible hotter coil, use the small to large cap adapter (early 80's small blocks used this) rotor and EFI post cap, Ford Racing 9mm wires, Autolite plugs. I've used this setup on my 89 Ranger's V8 for nearly 8 years now. It's virtually trouble free.

 

[Hack]

The Davis DUI will litterally look retarded in a Cobra.The friggin thing's bigger than the carb. Simple and cheap? Go buy a reman points distributor at your local parts house, replace the points with a Pertronix I or II, or a Crane XR-1. Use a compatible hotter coil, use the small to large cap adapter (early 80's small blocks used this) rotor and EFI post cap, Ford Racing 9mm wires, Autolite plugs. I've used this setup on my 89 Ranger's V8 for nearly 8 years now. It's virtually trouble free.

Yes.

 

[Rapid]

MSD Pro Billet with 6AL box. Easy to adjust, givves you a rev-limiter and works.

 

[rbohm]

The Davis DUI will litterally look retarded in a Cobra.The friggin thing's bigger than the carb. Simple and cheap? Go buy a reman points distributor at your local parts house, replace the points with a Pertronix I or II, or a Crane XR-1. Use a compatible hotter coil, use the small to large cap adapter (early 80's small blocks used this) rotor and EFI post cap, Ford Racing 9mm wires, Autolite plugs. I've used this setup on my 89 Ranger's V8 for nearly 8 years now. It's virtually trouble free.

the only change to this recipe would be to use a duraspark dist with a chrysler orange ignition box and a blaster lll coil. it works great in my old 66 falcon. i have also used the allison xr700 conversion ignition. but you cant beat what DH did either. these are all solid, relibale ignitions that are virtually bullet proof.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

I used a Duraspark II Dizzy mated with an HEI module (concealed in an aluminum heatsink) works great, looks nearly original and gets a lot of "WTF?" 's once the whole system is explained

+1.

$45 for a rebuilt distributor and $18 for the HEI module. Add another $40-60 for a good coil and you have something that is almost as good as an aftermarket box. The 5.0s are known for having excellent factory ignitions and many say they are not worth upgrading unless a lot of boost or a ton of compression and rpm is involved.

Ideally I would have the big 5.0 distributor cap too, but I like the stock look and haven't noticed any crossfiring.

 

[bnickel]

here's my 2 cents for a low cost reliable, darn near bulletproof ignition system...buy a brand new Duraspark dizzy from Pro-Form (not that Pro-Comp chinese import crap) and one of the new MSD Street Fire ignition boxes and an MSD Blaster II coil.

Pro-Form dizzy (this is a 351w version, couldn't find the 289/302 version listed on summit's site but Pro-Form makes one for it as well)

Proform 66964 - Proform Ford HEI Distributors - summitracing.com

MSD Street Fire CD ignition box

MSD Ignition 5520 - MSD Street Fire CD Ignitions - summitracing.com

MSD Blaster II coil

MSD Ignition 8202 - MSD Blaster 2 Ignition Coils - summitracing.com

this is a great setup for a ford and if you use the early small points style dizzy cap it will look bone stock if you want it to, the large cap reduces the chance of cross-firing but under 5500 RPM it won't really matter much, if you plan on winding that 289 out past 5500 rpm then use the large cap that comes with the dizzy.

the really nice part about this system is that most auto-zones, advanced auto parts, checker, etc pretty much all carry MSD parts now and the duraspark dizzy is available at about all of them as well, maybe not the brand new Pro-Form one but rebuilt one can be bought anywhere and all the parts in the new one are stock replacement parts for a duraspark system too.

 

[D.Hearne]

the only change to this recipe would be to use a duraspark dist with a chrysler orange ignition box and a blaster lll coil. it works great in my old 66 falcon. i have also used the allison xr700 conversion ignition. but you cant beat what DH did either. these are all solid, relibale ignitions that are virtually bullet proof.

+2 There are far more & better looking choices than the DUI distributor.