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.

https://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]

Duraspark dizzy with TFI I module.

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.