Hei or petronix

[brewcrew]

Hey all, I am looking for suggestions and/or recommendations for my 69 lemans.
I plan on keeping the car mostly stock right now, I have to dig a little deeper, but the #'s are matching up to be worth keeping it original. Anyways I'm looking to get rid of the points and get a more reliable ignition system. My original plan was to get the petronix slip on vs replacing the distributor completely with a hei one. Do any of you have some input on the two? One over the other or something else? Thanks in advance

 

[melsg5]

Definitiely the Petronix, it's not obvious, it's reliable. You can also get a high output ignition coil to go with it.

 

[brewcrew]

Petronix is what I figured. I've heard nothing but good things about them. As far as the coil is concerned I know it has an accel in it already, not sure on the output. Car is still in storage unit, it has been raining every other day it seems like and may snow later this week. What brand would you recommend? petronix as well? Lastly what would be a sufficient voltage output 50k?

 

[melsg5]

I would go with the matching Petronix unit going with the highest output they have in the canister style that would just fit in the stock location.

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[brewcrew]

Thanks again mel for taking the time, appreciate it

 

[cammerjeff]

If original look is critical I would go with the Petronix, but I would keep a spare modual in the car. I have had 2 fail when driving my old 66 Lemans Sprint. I used that unit as the car had A/C and on the OHC-6 the A/C compressor is located directly above the Distributor making it impossible to install the larger HEI unit. (I have a couple of Custom OHC-6 HEI units) After the 1st failure the car was laid up for days awaiting the arrival of parts. The 2nd time I was able to repair it on the road in a few minutes.

 

[brewcrew]

That makes sense, and I would be able to fit a hei unit without a problem. I think it must be a good idea to keep a spare of whatever you happen to go with, points, hei or pertronix. My bro-in-law keeps a spare hei unit in his camaro after he had one fail. Only reason I thought about leaving it with the stock look is because thats how it looks, nothing jumps out as a big upgrade. Anyways I pulled the numbers off the distributor 1112070 cross referenced with wallace racing, it says it's from a '71 400 4bl which I imagine was common practice back in the day, if something fails just pop in one that a buddy has, so I can rule that out as being original, not that it should effect the resale value someday. I can install either the ignitor 2 or 3, does anyone have any experience as to one or the other. advantages or disadvantages between the two?

 

[melsg5]

I think for your purposes the Ignitor 2 is fine. I dont believe you intend to race your car.

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[brewcrew]

No I don't plan on racing it, would be fun, but I'd be doing a lot more upgrading. I just plan on cruising around in summer. Thanks for the feedback