Ignition upgrades - Are they worth it?

[L92 OLDS]

Has anyone here seen gains for benefit from upgrading their HEI components on motor that doesn't spin over 6K? My brother insists he has seen horserpower gains by adding "super coils", dist modults ect to his SBO set up but I have my doubts. I want to keep my car appearing stock and don't want a separate coil set up. I see MSD and others sell a bunch of aftermarket "improvements"....opinions?

 

[DRIVEN]

Only way to prove it is with a dyno. If your stock components are in bad shape or poorly adjusted/tuned, anything will be an improvement. Kind of the same as replacing a completely worn out and dirty Q-jet with a brand new Holley -- of course it will run better. But is it really better than a clean, tight, well tuned stock Q-jet? Probably not. A factory HEI is actually a pretty decent unit. The factory coils are more than sufficient for stock engines. Somewhere in the 40-50,000 volt neighborhood. As long as the vacuum advance is working and the weights aren't stuck they work very well. You can fine tune them with a re-curve kit if you want. Aftermarket modules can't give you a hotter spark; all they can do is control dwell time. If you have a more serious engine or power adders I can see the benefit of something like a DUI distributor.

 

[othtim]

I agree with Driven.

If you are looking to replace worn stock parts, check out the Streetfire distributors from MSD. They are very inexpensive. I've run one for two years now, well worth the $150 I paid for the complete unit.

 

[Burnhard]

Are they worth it?

If you are just street driving Quality OEM?/ brand name parts will do fine. We picked up et and mph at the track with multi spark discharge unit and after market coil and wire set. Is it worth the money only if you race or have a high horse power engine. For stock engines factory ignition is fine as long as the components are in good shape like others have posted.

 

[gbondo57]

Something worth gas money. Those stupid little centrifugal/mechanical advance pieces under the rotor. Buy a simple new kit on the MR Gasket wall at your fav parts store. There is a red dust corrosion that builds up, and bushings and pins wear. My sons elco got a replacement coil (HEI) and we did the advance redo. His next trip was noticeably cheaper on gas. Said the engine was more responsive. Sometimes 20 nickels adds up to 2 bucks 8) P.S if your running a tunnel ram, get a Mallory sprintmag. That thing demanded more fuel.