Electronic ignition questions

[Whitehatspecial]

I recently upgraded my 318 to a 340 and added a Mopar Electronic ignition (orange box). I have also added a Mopar high performance coil. The distributor has been recurved and I am not running the vacuum advance.

There have been some issues with the new engine, running rich has been the most frustrating.

I'm wondering if the spark is strong enough which may lead to the incomplete burn problem. So here's the questions:
 
I still have the original style voltage regulator, should I change it to a electronic?

What type plugs should I use and what should the gap be? Currently have Autolite 66 with .035" gap.


How can you check to see the ignition box is functioning properly and what could I replace the orange box with that would be compatible? I've read about a lot of orange boxes with problems.

 
 

[MEK-Dangerfield]

People have had trouble with the Mopar orange box recently, as they are now made in China. Their silver box is supposidly still good. I don't think that's the problem here though. I'm just curious about the changes you did to your wiring to make this conversion. Is the orange box mounted on the firewall? Long running wires can cause a voltage drop that can dim your spark. I had this issue as some genious put my ignition box on the inner fender on the passenger's side. I'm sorry I can't recommend a spark plug for you here, but the .035 gap sounds good. Do you have a new carb? Maybe it just needs leaned out a bit? As for the voltage regulator, that wouldn't cause your problem either.


  Mike

EDIT- If you have a volt meter, I would like to know what you measure between the "+" side of the coil, and ground with the engine running. This is critical, as just one volt can mess you up(ask me how I know). It won't be near 12 volts, but I'll compare it to what I have. This will tell us if your problem is in the plugs/fuel mixture, or the wiring.

[Chryco Psycho]

What are the cam specs rich could just be from overlap in the cam
generally the electronoc VR will not help
I use Champ RJ12YC plugs gapped at .035 with stock coil or .045 with high ouput coils

[Whitehatspecial]

Cam specs are; 268 intake 280 exhaust, duration @ .050= 224 intake and 230 exhaust, valve lift .477 and .480. Lobe sep. 110.0.
Thanks.

[Chryco Psycho]

that cam will have some overlap although not huge , I bet at 2000 rpm it runs perfectly clean , it will just smell rich at idle & most higher performance than stock cams will

[PlumCraZRT]

What makes you think it's running rich?  The smell at idle?  Don't worry about that.  Worry about how it is performing when you drive it.  If it bogs and stumbles it's running rich (and/or your plugs will be black with sut) and if it pops and back fires (or the plugs are white and chalky) its running lean.  Voltage regulator shouldn't help, but it also couldnt hurt to put a new one in (theyre $20).  Also make sure your Electronic ignition is wired properly.  There is a 4-wire and a 5-wire version (i think those are the wire counts)... anyway two different versions with different numbers of wires/contacts in em and they wire up differently.  I had my car rewired improperly for the other kind of ignition when i brought it in one time and it barely ran after they messed it up.  I had to put it back to the way it was supposed to be.  At least I learned something along the way.  Anywho, double check your wiring... couldnt hurt.  Like MEK said, there are other versions of the box and the silver one should work just fine for you if you decide you don't want the orange one anymore.  Theoretically they are supposed to have different RPM capabilities... I know nothing about em.  Again, like MEK said check the voltage drop across your coil.  It should be in the range of 7 volts (while running) I believe, and at 12 volts while starting.  If it is significantly higher than 7 volts while running you could have a fried coil and that will make your car run like total crap and itll act up interemittendly (spelling?), I know first hand.  Good luck.

[Jacksboys]

Whitehatspecial,
I am running that same CompCam in my 360, with 10:1 compression, Edelbrock intake/heads, MP ignition, and Edelbrock 600cfm carb,
The biggest item which helped me tune my engine to the specs I wanted was an O2 sensor.  It allowed me to set the idle, cruise, and WOT to a specific range without guessing.

I have also noticed recently that my Tach goes a little funny and the engine loses power at around 5000rpm, so I guess I may have a problem with the MP ignition also, oh well, if it is not one thing, it is another.

Good luck with your engine.