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electronics
Aerohead, I hope I am not in a wrong sub section but you mentioned electronics which I have some understand of. Most do not understand how outside electronic sparks/arcs can damage computers. In the early days our 77LTD had the ignition box under the hood. That created heat problems even for a computer sealed in epoxy. So it was moved inside the interior where its life was greatly extended. I like points due to their mechanical simplicity, dependability, and ease of repair beside the highway, should a problem arise. One can't FIX a broken sealed computer but must replace it, but points, condenser, rotor, cap, and wires can be patched enough to get to a service station. Though, in my 50 years driving modified cars on long trips I never had a problem with my points ignition...probably because I check things before leaving home. Notice the thick wires used today if not a coil-on-plug design. The wires caused lots of problems with arching that is not normally seen but can damage electronics. Those wires are now usually fine-wire wound around a core to cut EMP. People talk about an atomic blast knocking out computer ignitions, but with even a modicum of common sense, a ruined ignition will be the very LEAST of one's worries in that situation. Points are controlled by the distributor cam, and a 4-cylinder has only 4 lobes, allowing a longer time to charge the coil primary. By design points make a longer spark also, and that is why MSD was invented. At standard highway RPM a points triggered spark is plenty long and with a hot coil can be made hotter than stock. Using a slightly lower ohms ignition resistor in the primary coil feed-line, using an ACCEL hot coil, running solid copper wires cut as short as possible, using BWD SELECT distributor parts because they use the best available materials, and gapping the Iridium sparkplugs a couple of thousands wider, one gets a bigger-longer spark. That is without a single piece of electronics. Spare points parts are kept in the glovebox but I have never needed them. If one goes to a turbo, increases compression considerably, or expects to run at much higher RPM...use a computer. I am building for the street below 5000 RPM 90% of the time, and even MSD shows points work fine on their graph...not mine. Just some thoughts one may consider.
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