Progression Ignition distributer users
 

I know a few members are using them. How long have you had it, and have you had any issues with it?

Curious too. Making your own timing table seems like a hoot. I run timing control on my Lemans through the FiTech injection, so I've played in this ballpark when I set that up. Following this.

I have a bad combo that needs more bandaids put on it. At the moment I'm locked out at 36* but surprisingly,...the starter isn't liking that, so being able to retard timing at start up would be nice.

3 years no issues. I wish they came out years ago.

Good to hear ta man!

Some folks in the "Race Section" with locked mech advance uses a breaker switch on the feed wire to the coil and flips it when the starter got the engine spinning.

Money saved may buy you new tires or a better exhaust system.

I thought about that, be a good anti theft device also, but I really like the features PI built into these distributers. Besides, the only thing I need is a whole new engine, and I can still use the distributer with it.

2 year in a my GTO no issues.

Curtis and I installed the PI distributor in our cars several years ago and we love it. Easy to set up any number of advance curves to try out at the track and for street driving as well. This includes vacuum advance which doesn't actually need vacuum but the dist. will sense a vacuum signal if you have the hose connected to a port and then whatever curve you have stored in the dist. will be activated. A great feature for street driving verses the track.

Thanks for the reviews fastekibeast and prostreet64

Question, How does this distributor learn where TDC. is or any other relationship between spark and piston location on compression stroke

According to instructions, the first step is to set reference timing at 10 degrees BTDC. After that all other settings are done via the app. The Hyperspark distributor for Holley Sniper has similar instructions.

Thanks i figured it was something like that, put the engine at a known spot communicate to the dist that value and everything builds from there,

Almost the only way it could be done i suppose just wanted verification, Thanks again

Did you see this thread?

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=857548

If you decide to buy Progression Ignition you won't have any kind of regrets, you will thank yourself later.

Aside from the size of the HEI style cap with integrated coil not fitting some applications due to firewall or intake clearance, is there an operational advantage using the small body vs HEI large cap? Is one better than the other?

The instructions for the small body warn about large plug gaps causing crossfire in the distributor. Perhaps the HEI style is less vulnerable to that and can run larger gaps? I also assume some owners like the integrated nature of the HEI and want to retain the original appearance? IDGAF, I'll keep the blaster 2 mounted on the firewall. I'd rather have the space around a smaller distributor. I really like that there is a female cap option, so I can retain my existing Taylor wires I'm using with my MSD RTR.

I'm looking hard at the small body with the datalogging and nitrous timing retard. Could you use this distributor with a window switch watching the tach signal? I like having the extra safety of turning the nitrous off before the rev limiter kicks in.

I don't have anything but break-in and dyno time on mine. Actually getting ready to put the engine in and decided to pull distributor. Noticed some wear on the Watermelon-ized gear which I don't like. I don't know much about that type of gear, but I think it's just a coating. Looks like the coating is gone on the drive side of the gear teeth. Maybe it's insignificant, but I've never had an issue with the BOP composite gear. Another 1/8" of engagement would be nice.

I'm playing with mine today. My factory tach is off -500 RPM.

Got one and installed it this weekend. Haven't driven it yet, but the manifold vacuum and idle quality seems to be better than the MSD RTR it replaced. I did block the exhaust crossover at the same time, so that may have impacted the behavior.

The unit comes programmed with the timing locked at 10*. You install it, and set the timing at 10* BTDC at 1200 with a light. After that, you shut the engine down and load a timing table you've created. Then it runs that table. Installation was super simple. The wiring and connector is exactly the same as the MSD RTR. I unplugged the MSD and plugged in the PI and it fired right up.

I built a table to mimic the curve produced by the MSD RTR. I'll run that for a baseline and report back.

One thing that I noticed is that the vacuum advance diaphragm of the MSD has some hysteresis. It starts to move at 7" of vacuum but doesn't release until 5" of vacuum. The vacuum timing for the PI seems to act the opposite. If you set the vac advance to start at 9" of vacuum, it doesn't add any vac timing until 9.5" of vacuum on the table. So be aware there a subtle differences in how the dizzy operates because it has no mechanical latency.

This is important because my engine shows a tendency to detonate at about 7" of vacuum around 3000 RPM at heavy throttle. I thought I was only mechanical timing, but a closer look shows that I was still getting 1-2 degrees of vacuum advance with the MSD. I can program that out with the PI.

Do you have a roller cam? Assume that has massaged the cam gear enough?

BTW - mine arrived today!

They don’t have a fix for using a factory tach? 500 rpm is a lot.

So I did a Google search on melonized gears vs billet steel camshafts. AI indicated that melonized hardened gears are compatible with some steel core cam gears, but not 5160 steel. So then searched to see what steel comp cams uses, and it says they use 5160 among others. Guess I’ll have to send Comp Cams my cam card and ask what steel was used.

I have a roller cam.

The whole thing about “smoothing out the cam gear” by running a bronze or steel gear came about roughly 20 years ago. Crane Cams had an issue where the final machining of the cam gear was missed and A LOT of cams were sold with an extremely rough cam gear. It was recommended to run a bronze gear for a couple hundred miles to knock off this roughness and then switch to a composite gear.

“Massaging” the cam gear hasn’t been a “thing” for a long time.

Go for it if you like doing research. If not, put on a BOP gear and forget about it.

+1 on the BOP gear. I removed the melonized gear and installed the BOP I had been running with the stock distributor. Seemed like more of a known quantity.

It took a little bit to dial in a timing setup, but I'm loving my Progression distributor. The car starts better and feels more responsive. I'm not sure what could cause a discrepancy in tach. Originally, I had my hood tach wired to the coil, but swapped it over to the tach lead from the distributor. Works as expected, but my hood tach is a repro so maybe the electronics are different.

I replaced my old tach board electronics on mine. It was off 500 rpm low. Much better now. Old electronics values change.

I have the BOP gear in the shelf

Cliff has stated in the past smoothing the edges of the cam gear with a diamond file. Just tiny swipes off the machined edge from what I recall.