What You Need To Upgrade An Ignition System

If you’re looking to improve the performance of your project vehicle, upgrading the ignition system can be a relatively easy, and low-budget way to do that. Stock systems aren’t meant to be used for performance use and bad systems can create issues like hard starting, hesitation during acceleration, poor fuel mileage, and more.

A high-quality ignition system can eliminate all those issues. Engine Power co-hosts, Mike and Pat, provide an example of a kit you can buy that will be exactly what you need. Pertronix Performance Products’ Digital HP Bundle. It comes with a Flame-Thrower Billet distributor with a magnetic trigger, an HP Flame-Thrower coil with 50,000 volts, and a Digital HP CDI Ignition Box.

The distributor is easy to change but there ARE a couple of things you need to be aware of. The rotor has to be in the right position when it goes back in. An easy way to do that is to rotate the engine to TDC on number 1 cylinder on a compression stroke. It’s also important to have a fresh gasket between the distributor base and the intake manifold. This will stop oil leaks and help set the depth of the gear in the camshaft. Finally, make sure the distributor gear is well lubricated.

Pertronix Flame-Thrower Distributors have a polished billet aluminum housing that can be ordered with either a red or black distributor cap. When you remove the cap you can see the high-quality rotor and the precision magnetic pick-up coil. There’s no special wiring needed for hook-up since it’s compatible with a standard CDI connector.

The Flame-Thrower coil speaks for itself. The HP stands for high-power which is exactly what the coil has. It also meets the demands of high-RPM CD ignitions with a larger epoxy-encapsulated coil body, a more substantial steel E-core, and a 6063 T5 aluminum heat sink.

And although the ignition box is small, it packs a big punch with 187 millijoules of spark output (which is 30% more than the competition). It has an RPM-activated trigger, 3-step digital rev-limiter, and multiple spark all the way to redline.

This bundle is a great value with a retail price of $371.99 which saves you over $100 if you were to buy the components individually. To find these products and more head to Pertronix.com.