Ford 2.3L distributors

[jimbbski]

Why I know that the TFI dist. is the better dist. to run the owner of the car that I'm building the engine for insists on running a Duraspartk. What I want to know is can you run this dist. without the module or do you have to have one to run this dist? And if you can how to I wire it up? I have a MSD 6A box available if that helps

[84Dave]

With the MSD-6A ignition box, why not run a MSD 2.3L billet distributor? -Dave-

[jimbbski]

Not in the budget.
Have to run stock parts.

[Milford Motorsports]

To run the duraspark box you will need an older distributor with the vacume advance.Wether you lock the advance or not is up to you.In production mode the TFI uses the module and the cars computer to to control ignition advance.Racers hot wire the TFI module providing a non advanceable set timing distributor.The MSD will hook up to the older distributor easily.

[dannyracer6]

Throw away the duraspark, forget the msd, put in the tfi. It is a three wire set up and it is good to 10 grand. I have run one for years as has many racers. They are fine for what your rules state. The tfi is so easy. Use the bottom three wires on the elect plug, cut the others off. the black wire goes to a body ground, the red wire goes to hot ign source and the green to the tack neg side of coil. Use any coil.

[jimbbski]

Why do you talk about the TFI dist. I already said that the owner of the engine wants to run a Duraspark! I know the TFI is better but the customer gets what they want!

I have read internet talk about using the Duraspark dist. without the module box but no wiring diagrams to show how to wire it up! I'm not an electronic kind of guy. I build engines and do metal fabrication but I can follow a wiring diagram if I could find one!

[jatchis]

Try this ...


http://www.junkyardgenius.com/ignition/jeep/HEI01.html

[dannyracer6]

Sorry man, I did not know the guy was that imphatic about using the duraspark, however after looking at the alturnitive, I fail to see the logic of going to all that trouble just to use the old duraspark dist. By the time you do that for him, unless you do it for free, you will have more cost into that in labor and not have as much reliabliity and performance of the TFI. But then if that is what he wants, so be it. Good luck.

[car62]

if he doesnt want to use the TFI then he isnt very serious about winning.

[dannyracer6]

Hey Eric,
I need a cyl head. Solid or hyd, as long as it is a good one. Talk to me on e mail when you get a chance. Used is fine .

[return to dirt]

i thought old rob(power by ace) had said he used a duraspark with a tfi module.
www.powerbyace.com
you might contact him about it.

olin

[jimbbski]

Wired up the Duraspark ing. and got only some backfires then no spark. Checked everything out and decided that the "New" module (Made in China) was bad. Replaced with a new one (Same part) and it started right up and ran fine.

I plan on preping a TFI dist. as a back up and maybe I can get him to run that instead down the road.

BTY this engine is goiing into a 24 Hours of Lemons race car.

[1195]

We ran a TFI in our CHUMP car in a 24hr race with no problems. We used the junk yard Motocraft module. Using the Duraspark dist. does give you mechanical advance. We ran the timing locked at 35

[jimbbski]

Just an update on this build.

We tested the car last weekend getting it ready for the Lemons race on April 21-22nd. The ignition is the Ford Dura Spark with a chinese module. At first we kept killing these modules until I realized that they were to close to the exhaust. The exhaust runs through the firewall on the passenger side and exits the car just behind the front wheel. It then runs along the rocker kind of like the Shelby Cobra did. Once we built a bulkhead to seal off the exhaust to the pass. compartment we were OK. I did source 4 used modules from my local pick-n-pull yards as back ups. We do have to check if they all work before race day however.

We also found a Holley 350 carb to run instead of the 500. With a stock 2.3L engine we really don't need the 500. We plan on keeping the engine under 6000 rpm anyway. The heads been mildly ported and milled .060 but that's it.

The only issue and it's small is a slight hesitation on throttle tip in which then clears out and the engine will pull to 6000. We suspect we need to change the accel. pump cam to something else. We have a air/fuel meter on it and the reading goes way lean and then recovers. The main jets are 57's and we are running a power valve but have restricted the ports behink it in the metering block by pluging them with a bit of lead and then redrilling them with a very small drill bit. I learned this trick many years ago. I was able to run a Holley 500 on a 2.0L powered Capri that my friends and I built for autocrossing and then later the same set up was used in a road race Pinto.

[Old Rob]

We had to do this when our track outlawed the GM module in a Ford. We set the dist so that we had approx 10* at cranking, 16* at idle and 32 - 36* at 2400 rpm all in. This dist will start to retard as the acceleration rate of the shaft slows down approx 2-4 degrees. The same as the plug in chips that are used with the msd boxes. Helps with top end power. The TFI I module was used for just a couple of years, actually seem to work better than the HEI did. Used an E coil, no resister. There are some ignition wiring diagrams in the technical section at www.powerbyace.com
One very important thing to do with all dist is be sure that the housing is grounded. Don't rely on the block.

[jimbbski]

Further update. We ran out first Lemons race and the basic engine & T5 trans worked OK. The trans still leaks from the speedo and we used a quart of oil after about 10+ hours of running so I would call that successful.

Now the bad. About 5 hours in to the race our 3rd driver was about 30 minutes into his stint when he called in on the radio that something in the front suspenion/steering broke. He was able to drive it in with the LF wheel leaned way in and over. The upper ball joint had came out of the spindle. The bolt either was not tighened enough or the cotter pin wasn't thick enough but the bolt worked itself off. The first two drivers both mentioned of a noise in the corner of the car but didn't push the issue enough to cause us to check what it was during our pit stops. We fixed that but lost about an hour. A bit later the same driver callls in and tells us the car had now died!

After the car is towed in we lifted the hood off and find the alternator in 3 pieces with 2 of them laying on top of the dist. But that's not what caused the engine to die! After replaceing the alt. we tried to fire the car and got nothing! It sounded like the engine was out of time. Brought the engine to TDC and popped the dist. cap and found that it was off. But how? Further checking found much play in the dist. shaft, in fact as I worked it I found that the upper dist. shaft was broken from the lower dist. shaft. The break was somewhere inside the dist housing.

We sent someone to check part store for a re-man Duraspart dist. As we waited we changed the metering plate on the Holley 350 carb to one with pluged Accel. pump ports. We upped the jets a bit to compensate. When we got the update on no replacement dist. I went to work solidering the three wire to a spare TFI dist we just happen to have. I wired it in and with one minor mistake we got the car running again.

I then took the car out for my stint which at this point was about 30 minutes as it was now 7:30 PM and the race is stopped for the day at 8 PM. The car ran better, mostly due to the carb tuning change.

We made some additional changes to the car Sunday morning and i took the green flat at 12 Noon.
The engine was now pretty good, not perfect but the best it's been. But now the other parts of the car were starting to fail. The rear suspension which is a 3 link with panhard bar was really banging around. We found that the drive shaft was rubbing on the top of the tunnel and on one stop we had to tighten one of the panhard bar bolts.

As the race entered the last hour at 4 PM on Sunday we got the word from our driver that something broke in the drivetrain. He limped it in and we found that the back U joint had failed. The clips holding the cups in must have worked themselves out, perhaps due to the rubbing. With further checking we found that the rubbing was caused by the upper 3rd link adjustment screw backing out and making the link longer. This was enough to allow the axel to rotate the pinion upward enough for the drive shaft to hit.

We found a large hose clamp and some duct tape, yes duct tape and got it together so that we could go out for the last lap and be listed as running at the finish which we did.

Over all the car despite all the suspension problems DID handle. With all the issues fixed it should be even better for the next race. We need to add an oil cooler as oil temps of 250 were seen before we backed off for a lap or two.

Now on to Autobahn in Joliet, IL on June 8 & 9, but I won't be there.