i recently installed petronix one in my 302 and am wondering a couple things about this.... first, what is a good timing degree to set it at to get best performace out of it. second, how about a coil upgrade too, will it handle it or help? third, how well does it handle high rpms compared to my old points? jw cuz in my point set up i could easly take 5600 and havent tried to take it that high yet since im curious and uneducated on this petronix set up..... pls and thanks everyone
Go with their flamethrower coil for best results. As for rpm capability, how's about 7500 ? Points don't hold a candle to it.
sweet i like those rpms alot better, my motor loves high rpms haha. alright ill have to try that flame thrower and open up my gap and see what happens. thanks for the input guys.
Just don't go revving your car up to 7500 unless your motor is built for it, He was just referring that his pertronix is capable of handling that much rpm but his engine is built to do it. The Flamethrower coil or a MSD blaster coil will both be a good upgrade. But don't open up the plugs until you do the coil upgrade. the Pertronix alone dosn't improve the spark, the coil does. Without knowing much about your motor a good timing would be just a guess. But most mild 302s like 10-12 degrees initial timing at idle with vacuum advance disconnected.
ha yeah i wouldnt go do that in the first place cuz i know my motor isnt built for that ha. thanks for the timing info, i didnt kno if that would change with the pertronix and doing a diff coil and thanks for adding in on changing the gap till i get a diff coil.
If you get a Blaster coil measure the primary resistance, mine required a ballast resistor until I put a Mallory box between the Pertronix and the coil. IIRC the Pertronix requires a coil with a minimum 1.5 ohms (V8 model).
If the coil's primary resistance is too low the Pertronix will be overloaded and overheat. The Pertronix instructions tell you how to measure the coil primary resistance and what is the minimum required. The ballast resistor adds resistance to the coil primary circuit to lower the current flowing through the Pertronix. In mine, now, I just use the Pertronix to switch a Mallory HyFire VI box, very low current draw. The Mallory box now drives the coil.
ok thank you. so in a stock wiring harness of a maverick, shouldnt this resistor already be in place? so i shouldnt have to worry about switching to a better coil right?
Not sure which aspect you're talking about, but the rev limit on most motors depends on the valvetrain components and when the motor floats the valves. As for the bottom end, all it takes to do 7500 rpms is a set of stock C8OE rods and ARP bolts.
the ballast resistor or how ever thats spelled haha, isnt that already in a mavericks stock wiring harness. in one of the previous posts it said resistor adds resistance to the coil to limit current to the petronix right? so if thats already there to limit whats going to a coil do i even have to worry about upgrading coils, and if it limits whats the point of upgrading then?
I was just wanting to make sure he understood that just because you can do 7500 rpms with a pertronix dosnt mean he can. Unless his motor, valvetrain, rods, whatever, are built for that. It was a simple warning without an in depth explanation.
Even aftermarket coils have built in resistors or say to use external resistor. But if you aren't using points then it really dosn't need the resistor. Go ahead and upgrade the coil, plug wires, and regap the plugs.
He still needs to verify that whatever coil he uses has enough primary resistance to keep from overheating the Pertronix module. The only coil that is a sure thing is the Pertronix Flamethrower.
