Re: Help me pick an electronic ignition kit

Posted by shinyribs on Sep 22, 2013; 5:57am
URL: http://vintage-and-classic-hondas.81.s1.nabble.com/Help-me-pick-an-electronic-ignition-kit-tp4045849p4045876.html

"Electronic" ignitions won't make any bike run better unless that bike is already not properly tuned. They have no affect on the strength of the spark,it's solely what triggers the coil to light the spark plug.

The only advantage of an ''electronic'' ignition over a set of points is you never have to adjust them once they are installed. There are no moving parts,therefore no wear,so the dwell never changes. Which in effect retards your ignition timing.

What they are calling an electronic ignition has no electronics in it. What they are is a magnetic pulser. The two modules have a set of contacts inside them. Those contacts close when the pickup ,which houses the magnet, passes by them and pulls them shut. No electronics,just magnets and mechanical contacts. If the ignition on your bike now is working then you have nothing at all to gain by buying another one of these style units. It is pretty much exactly what you already own.

If you are looking to upgrade your ignition system for a stronger spark hotter coils will do that. They will actually increase the secondary voltage. These ignitions you listed only trigger the coils.

If you want a true electronic ignition that will actually improve your ignition system Dyna makes one and so does MSD.There are probably other systems out there,but these are the only two that I know of. I don't have any experience with the Dyna ignition boxes at all. I do have some experience with the MSD boxes,but not on my own bikes. But I have used several of them in auto's which are the same product,just packaged for the different applications.

What the MSD box does is actually modify the way the coils fire. MSD stands for Multiple Spark Discharge. Instead of one spark each time the bike fires it will spark the spark plug multiple time creating a longer "spark timing event'' and a more complete fuel burn. The higher in rpm's you get the less amount of multiple sparks you get (dues to laws of physics/time constraints) until you eventually are back at square one and only getting a single spark again. Basically,low rpm and mid rpm power you'll likely feel a difference,but top end is pretty much the same as stock with a single spark. Now,these boxes are CD boxes (capactive discharge) which means they will help store spark energy inside their own capacitors and disharge that energy to the coil to help coil saturation. What that mean is instead of only being supplied with 12 volts off the battery ( though in real life,with the charging system running, it's more like 13.5-14 volts) the coils are being fed with a higher voltage. What that voltage is we don't know. The different manufacturers are not going to divulge their secrets on this. Coil saturation is talking about the amount of time it takes for the ignition coil to absorb the low voltage applied to it ( battery voltage) and transform it (coils are basically nothing but a transformer) to the secondary voltage that the plug sees. Since the CD boxes provide a greater primary voltage it takes a much shorter amount of time for the coil to complete saturate and produce full secondary voltage.

For example, lets say you have a set of 50,000 v coils on your bike. That would be their rating at full saturation. But at 8,000 rpm's things are happening so quickly the coils dont have time to complete saturate so you dont get your full 50k volts. You might only be getting 35k or 40 k volts. But with a CD box you are much more likely to see full coil saturation. Of course,the capacitors in the CD box itself will eventually ''run out of time'' and you will start losing saturation once again...but...unless you are running at WOT for long periods of time this is most likely not the case. Short bursts of 5-10 seconds of WOT they will keep up with nicely. So,while the MSD boxes may not be able to keep producing multiple sparks at higher rev;s,they do still have definite real world advantages.

That said,these boxes are complete stand alone devices and they do not require an ''electronic ignition'' to operate. You can run them just as well with a set of points as you can any other type of coil triggering device.

I used to have a dual point distributor in a big block Chevy with an MSD box. I twinned two 50k volts coils and it would literally melt the electrode off of spark plugs. I over did it with the combined 100k volt secondary voltage. I went back to a single 50k volt coil and it was completely reliable. Spark plugs can only take so much. The harder you work them the quicker they wear out.

There is nothing you can do to add power that will not give up longevity somewhere along the line.

 If spark plug life is not a big concern,and you want max power from your setup,go for the big guns: A hot pair of coils,a CD box and the trigger of your choice-Pamco,Dyna-s,stock points...etc. If you want the best bang for your buck, IMO, keep the ignition you already have and add a hot set of coils. Just my $0.02.