Greetings to all: I have thus far only been able to compare the two systems by running them on the distributor tester. I'll have to wait until spring to run the Ignitor 2 and the 40,000V coil in the real world. I chose the 40KV coil due to it's higher resistance of 1.5 ohms to hopefully not build up as much heat.  Reading the last several posts tends to throw water on this logic. Nat burned-up several 1.5 ohm coils and Charlie used the lower resistance coil and never had a problem.  This suggests the 40KV coil may not be up to the task if the resistor is eliminated making the Flame Thrower 2 coil the better choice?  As for leaving the key on and engine off, I did put an ammeter in the primary circuit and when the dist. machine stopped, the current dropped to zero with 12.5V still present.  Maybe Charliemaccraney had a defective Ignitor 2.   As stated in my first post, I was able to lean the idle mixture screws over 1/4 turn and the exhaust seemed to be more pleasant.  


64F100 57FAIRLANE500

I should have said built in resistance, not resistor, sometimes something shorts out between my brain and the keyboard, my bad..

Thanks Steve. Good explanation.
A note to those guys recommending points. Remember Henry Ford started with cars that had MAGNITOS but we don`t use those anymore either. Why not? Pete

(1) Coils are made of wire wraps - depending on the gage of the wire (and its alloy) it will have a resistance based on so many OHMs per foot of wire. if you want more or less OHMs - you put more or less feet of wire in there. Or you change to a wire with different OHMs per foot. I don't believe any of them actually have a "resistor" hidden inside to adjust the OHMs. It is a designed length of wire of a fixed rating - longer / shorter/ more resistance per foot - or less. .
(2) To put energy into a coil of a given number of OHMs, you feed it a Voltage and AMPs flow according to "OHMs Law" (volts equals amps times ohms) - and on our engines, you leave the circuit closed for a given interval - the DWELL. The Volts times the Amps is WATTS - and that will be HEAT energy. So if you take a low OHM coil and feed it 13.5 Volts and leave it on for 23º dwell there is going to be a temperature rise - a larger rise than if you have a higher OHM coil at the same 23º. To hop up an engine in my youth - we would put a dual point distributor on there, therefore jack up the total dwell and get a "hotter" ignition - with the very same coil. The Ford "Duraspark II" factory electronic controllers have exactly the same dwell as a set of well adjusted single points - but it never changes - no wearing parts.  
(3) If you are going to build a "hot" coil - the insulation rating of the wire becomes important. Older model coils were oil filled - and the oil was supposed to soak the heat away to the cover shell, where it is radiated away. Keeping the wire inside well covered - made sure there wasn't a "hot spot" where the wire insulation could break down. In the present day - the oil is gone and the modern insulation coverings are a plastic or epoxy intended to take the heat directly - no more oil. The quality (or lack there of) of modern replacement coils gets discussed here a lot!
(4) It takes a maximum of 10,000 volts to fire a spark plug in most all circumstances (usually less). Have a coil of 50,000 V rating? - It is the rating of the wire and enclosure insulation - and makes great advertising - but the plugs still fire at 10,000 volts or less.




 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

I'm NO electronics expert but from what I have read elsewhere about the coil failures is a coil that doesn't use an external resistor/resistor wire has the resistor built in and that adds to the heating problem. If you had a true 12V coil it would have to be the size of a toaster or larger. Maybe Pertronix better idea was having them built off shore! This may be another case of vendors that don't give a damn about customers and are only concerned with how much money they can make.

I used the ignitor 2 and matching flamethrower 2 coil and never had a problem with the coil.  I do not recall if it was oil or epoxy filled.  I also managed to fry the unit after leaving the ignition on, so the protection that the ignitor 2 has is not a guarantee against that.
This was 8 years ago, though, and that is plenty of time for Pertronix to have had a "better idea" that causes more recent coils to fail prematurely.
I did not notice any difference vs points but this was also in a fresh distributor.  I think electronics mask wear in old, worn distributors, which produce a perceived performance increase.



Lawrenceville, GA

Hey Ford Dearborn
I would be interested in your results. I have a 57 tbird with a 312 with a Fordomatic. When I bought the car in 2006 the car came with the Ignitor 1 and stock Ford coil with external resistor. I upgraded to the Flamethrower 40,000 V oil filled coil. I noticed an improvement on performance especially when pulling away from a standing start. The car had better zip and the acceleration was crisp. The exhaust smell was also greatly reduced. However I have gone through about 4 coils since. They seem to burn out within a year to 18 months. The problem is the Flamethrowers get very hot running them without the external resistor. Running them with the external resistor, the coil runs cooler but it affects the performance. Also if you are running the coil in horizontal stock mount, it is recommended to use the epoxy filled coil other wise the oil can start to leak out. Apparently the oil will not fully cover the windings when in a horizontal position. I was thinking of upgrading to the  Ignitor II but I am not sure if there would be any performance advantage going to the Ignitor II and if it would help in preventing the coils from burning out.

I went to duraspark2,have used it for 2 years on my 57 ranchero,starts instantley even when left for weeks.widened gap on plugs, use resistor oncoil. easey to convert,several good posts,tho the 1 i used failed to show wire from start term on coil to box must be used or engine won't start till key back to run, another plus is if you wanr retarded timeing on start there is a wire to do this

Jeff: I'm not using the ballast resistor, just straight 12V from the ignition switch, actually closer to 14V at the coil. I keep the ballast resistor, original coil, points and condenser in my back up box behind the seat. Maybe not noticing any improvement in performance is my seat of the pants dyno needs calibrating LOL.

Rodger: I'm sure a factory type upgrade would be better but I'm not going to that extreme for my street car. Finding parts out on the road would be easier but thats why I carry my backup stuff. I've been driving/building Fords since 1965 and have never been on a tow truck. I still have points in my 1960 F100 Panel 223 six and it has 340,000 miles, so just imagine how many sets of points I've changed on it. Call me crazy but I enjoy doing that kind of work.

Greetings to all: 57RancheroJim, not sure if you eliminated the resistor on not. From the above experiment, not much of an improvement was noticed with just the Pertronix Ignitor 2 and Flame Thrower coil.  The big improvement was only after eliminating the ballast resistor in the primary circuit ,which in my case, doubled the current on the primary side of the coil. That being said, one has to be sure the electrical system is up to the task. 50+ year old wiring and switches may not cut it for long. The points/condenser system is fine and very reliable. We all have our reasons for up-grading things and in my case, it's for efficiency.  Next step will be to dial in the carb this spring.  Charliemccraney? If ever in my remaining years I get another poke from a spark plug wire, guess who I will quickly remember....LOL.   Hope this helps, JEFF..............


64F100 57FAIRLANE500