Hi guys! New member, first post! A couple of 318 in an M-body questions :)

[Monkeyed]

this is why I'll most likely go the pertonix route,

 

[Monkeyed]

from what I've read, the ballast resistors can be tricky

 

[8v-of-fury]

Checked as in voltmeter checked. Lol all things that need power at the right times are getting it. Just seems the coil aint giving powah.

I see you say not to check the dizzy, but if the is not firing.. one very likely suspect is the dizzy because it is ultimately what tells everything when to fire. No dizzy signal, no fire ever.

I pulled the dizzy and spun it with the voltmeter in ac volts to its two wires. 1-1.5VAC. Sweet. So its fine and the reluctor gap is clearly set right..

I will go over everything again and see where the issue is.

 

[kkritsilas]

With a Pertronix Ignitor (original, II or III) you don't need a ballast resistor or ignition box? That must mean you need to use a third party coil. How does the Pertronix Ignitor compare to the Mopar orange box? I like the idea of simplified wiring and the lack of a ballast resistor.

Kostas

 

[8v-of-fury]

Ok restested everything.. I have in run, 12.5 volts to one side of the ballast, however I also have 12.5 volts to the other side of the ballast. As in its not resisting down to 9v..

I have 12.5 volts at the blue-yellow wire of the ignition box as well.

I have on start 12.5 volts coming from the starter relay, correct wire because the starter does not run on either.

I have 12.5 volts to both sides of the coil in the run position.

I tested the dizzy resistance through the its wires annd only got 270ohms.

Hmm. So my ballast may be bad but it shouldnt be hindering spark.. it should still spark in start position with battery voltage. I am going to pick up a cheap new coil and ballast and see if that changes anything.

 

[Monkeyed]

With a Pertronix Ignitor (original, II or III) you don't need a ballast resistor or ignition box? That must mean you need to use a third party coil. How does the Pertronix Ignitor compare to the Mopar orange box? I like the idea of simplified wiring and the lack of a ballast resistor.

Kostas

I haven't researched it in a while, but I was under the impression it worked with a stock coil.

 

[8v-of-fury]

So now the ballast is resisting, and gives the coil only 6-7v.. everything is by the book here fellas, dunno what the hell is going on.

I replaced the coil and now I have spark at the coil wire to the cap to a good ground albeit not a huge spark.. so there is still issue?? Gah.

 

[8v-of-fury]

Well the planets aligned.. I hot wired the coil + and literally as soon as the starter bumped it fired off. Ran exceptionally well too! I must have had the timing and idle settings SPOT-ON. lol So as it would seem I do not have adequate "start" voltage going to the coil, ok.. no problem. Jumping the power to the coil got it to fire off no problem, and it stayed running properly afterwards when i removed power from the coil.

Filled the coolant and got the engine up to temp, no leaks or anything weird.. It idles pretty damn good, but it has a bog off idle. I do not have my timing light here as I lent it to a friend who hasn't given it back yet, so I cannot verify the timing. I am trying to track down a vacuum gauge and timing light tomorrow..

What I need after that is the knowledge to fine tune this ThermoQuad ! Who's got the know-how ?

 

[Monkeyed]

Well the planets aligned.. I hot wired the coil + and literally as soon as the starter bumped it fired off. Ran exceptionally well too! I must have had the timing and idle settings SPOT-ON. lol So as it would seem I do not have adequate "start" voltage going to the coil, ok.. no problem. Jumping the power to the coil got it to fire off no problem, and it stayed running properly afterwards when i removed power from the coil.

Filled the coolant and got the engine up to temp, no leaks or anything weird.. It idles pretty damn good, but it has a bog off idle. I do not have my timing light here as I lent it to a friend who hasn't given it back yet, so I cannot verify the timing. I am trying to track down a vacuum gauge and timing light tomorrow..

What I need after that is the knowledge to fine tune this ThermoQuad ! Who's got the know-how ?

WOOHOO!! :icon_super:

fine tuning is going to have to be someone else's dept. I'm a bit fuzzy on that.

 

[72Dodge]

There's a guy on YouTube that has a series of amazing TQ videos, starting from basics to rebuilding, to tuning. You could skip to the tuning one of course. If you can't find it, I can look when I get home, I have it favorited, but it should be very easy to find.

 

[8v-of-fury]

Thank you sir, I will look on YT.

I swear I must have had the idle settings and timing near perfect. As soon as I gave the coil 12v, it fired as soon as the starter kicked!

 

[8v-of-fury]

Got a timing light, as it would turn out.. I had the engine set to like easily 20-25* adv. It seemed to idle best there. So i brought it down to 10 and went for a little test drive. 10 was too much, had knock. Tried 5, was too much had less knock.. but still knock. 0* was perfect. Weird right? This dizzy must have some super fast acting advance springs lol.

If it starts and idles at 0* ok, and I do not get any heavy load WOT knocks.. that is a good setting yes?

Also these tests are being done with the vacuum advance disconnected so I could figure out the mechanical advance first. It would seem to be doing just fine. As I got the timing better, and fiddled with the idle screws and the primary metering rod piston screw.. I got it to accept throttle input much better. It actually wants to spin the tires when doing a brake stand. Not getting it frying or anything.. but it is soo much better. Fine tuning commencing now..

 

[8v-of-fury]

Drove it for about an hour and a bit last night. Drove better and better with each lot I pulled in to tweak at.

At the end tho it ran like utter crap and then stalled and would not restart until it sat for some time. But I had to limp it home because any throttle and it would die out. Literally ran grear minutes beforehand. Got home called it quits till this morn. Would start. Proper voltage going to the right places, spark and fuel in te carb. I tried a small shot of ether to verify I had fuel.. it fired and idled. Wouldnt accept throttle without bogging and dieing. Tuned it again. So now its fine again?? Wtf haha

 

[Monkeyed]

Got a timing light, as it would turn out.. I had the engine set to like easily 20-25* adv. It seemed to idle best there. So i brought it down to 10 and went for a little test drive. 10 was too much, had knock. Tried 5, was too much had less knock.. but still knock. 0* was perfect. Weird right? This dizzy must have some super fast acting advance springs lol.

That is entirely possible, if you look around I think it's recommended to switch ONE of the springs on the advance to ONE size heavier. I haven't gotten that far into mine yet to be able to tell you which one, but maybe someone will chime in.

Mine wasn't as bad as yours sounded, I rebuilt and cleaned the 2v and replaced the cap, rotor, plugs, wires, and O2 sensor. It runs fairly well, hasn't ever backfired, just stumbles a bit off the line, especially when it's cold ((or warm) depending lol) but otherwise it's pretty smooth, a teeny tiny bit of rough holding speeds, but BARELY noticeable. The mileage is pretty consistently 10mpg, which is a big reason I'm looking at the conversion. I got to where I could replace the computer for 90 bucks and see if that's the last problem, orrr drive it like it is for now, and have a (weak) excuse to swap to the 4v.. :icon_thumright:

 

[8v-of-fury]

I have read plenty of threads where people said this was the wrong way to go about building power.. Now obviously both I was not going for power with this 4v setup.. I was going for a better running car lolol. I disagree with those people, this has added a TON of horsepower to the car.. The 850cfm TQ and the Edelbrock performer have added a lot. This is infinitely better than the 2v ever was even on its best day. (this is actually my grandmothers car, and I have been driving it on and off for the last 8 or 9 years.) Grandma's gonna love the power. But secretly I am just getting it set up for the sad sad day when I inherit it from her.

Mine was getting about 8-9mpg with the 2v running as best as I could get it.. and that is disgusting.. lol

Yes this distributor is an aftermarket one, and it was stated as having faster advance springs in it.. I didn't figure it would be THAT fast lolol. Thinking in to it, shouldn't the vacuum advance advance idle and low throttle timing? Static could be set low so total advance doesn't just SLAM on.. but so that the vacuum will advance it enough to run well at idle eh? Interesting.

 

[72Dodge]

Who has ever said that adding a bigger carb/intake is the "wrong way" to make power? More air & fuel in = more power out (limited by how much it can breathe in the exhaust department of course). Adding power is always simply about different ways to get more air and fuel through the engine, to the point where the engine can take it of course (that's the durability factor). Or maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying, but swapping on a bigger intake/carb is one of the very first and most common basic performance mods.

 

[8v-of-fury]

They said that the 3 cat 1 7/8" exhaust system, the cam, and then the carb intake should be the way to go on the smogger 318's.

I understand how power is made lolol. I know most do. Air and fuel in is power out. But the power has to leave and apparently the stock exhaust is crap for power.. but i definitely saw gains at ALL RPM's

 

[72Dodge]

I wasn't explaining because I thought you didn't know, I was just saying how stupid it is to say that it's not a way to make power. If what they were saying is that the exhaust is limiting, so should be done at the same time for best results, of course that's true, but it's not so limiting that the bigger carb/intake won't make any difference at all. A cam and freer exhaust would definitely wake it up even more.

 

[8v-of-fury]

Naw its cool.. I get it lolol. I read on a few forums that said it wasn't the best first step, and that you'd see a better gain from like headers and exhaust first. Which can be understandable.. except I have seen Nocar340 say that he has seen huge power gains with the full stock exhaust still installed.

I do love a quiet exhaust sometimes.. the loud raspy ones do get kind of old lol.

 

[72Dodge]

Doing only one or the other, in this case (and in most cases), getting more air in is going to do more for performance than the exhaust side will. Not that it matters, that wasn't even your goal, but... this was the best quick way to gain power if it had been