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The woes of high performance...listening Brosky???

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Took my baby out for a morning run to the city. Got a few "thumbs up" and "nice car" from some old folks (my age). It hates city traffic, absolutely hates it. For anyone contemplating going the Hi Performance route, consider that you will limit the usefulness of the car. My car loves anything over 3000 rpm, hates stop and go. I will foul a plug in a heartbeat. At 70 mph in overdrive (about 2100 rpm) she hums because there is no changing of throttle, no stop and go, no fuel surge. Sometimes I wish that I hadn't done it. The stock TR6 is plenty peppy for general use.


That said, I kicked a Boxster's butt on the way home. She really didn't know how to drive.
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

Bill,

I haven't had the same experiences that you have. My car is setup roughly the same as yours, but i don't have any stop and go issues. Since I've upgraded to the Mallory dizzy, I've never fouled one spark plug.

Heck, I've even had a few people that owned stock TR6's drive mine and all of them commented that mine had more low end power then theirs.

Do you have an alloy flywheel?

I think I need to talk you into upgrading ignitions!!/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/angel.gif
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

Shannon, I think I am gonna agree with you on the ignition issue. I am running a stock dizzy that has Pertronix ignition and has been rebuilt and recurved. I think this is my Achilles Heel. I will get an occasional burp while cruising, like a mini ignition "stroke" and will also experience a wallowing upon acceleration when hot. I know that you went trough the whole setup you had some time back but would you mind doing it again? Like every detail, who sells it, who did your electric tach, etc.? I would appreciate it. I have gone though every possible potential problem, checked the cam lobes, set and re-set the valves, timing...everything is spot on. It's got to be my ignition. The Pertronix was no improvement over stock points (actually liked points better). Gotta be a better way.
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

And for a LOT less than the Electromotive. The Crane/Allison ignition. No points, can be used on a distributor that has some camlobe/bushing wear. Lifetime warranty. Doesn't matter how long you leave the igntiion key on, never burns up.

Oh, by the way, works great, easy to install.
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

Many moons ago, I posted that was doing the head for a leak issue and Bill stated that he felt that the HP route was the way to go but it had it's downside as well. I think that his issue may be related to ignition and I'm sure that he will find it.

Tom is doing his and that is the route that he took. I'm sure it will be just great for both.

I just want to fix a leak and bump up my compression a bit while I'm at it. My car runs just great and I have no desire to go any further at this time.

Key words are at this time.....so I'll stay where I'm at, add a little oil every 600 miles and decide over the next month or two, after the brake system is completely replaced.
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

Bill, This is a post that I wrote a while back when I first did the upgrade. Let me know if you need any more info.


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Here's what I did: I got the distributor at https://www.centuryperformance.com. I was referred to them by some fellows at 6-pack.org. I ordered Mallory part number 4567801 for $320.00, which is the Mallory Unilite without vacuum advance. The next day the guy from Century Perf. called me and told me that the dizzy was on nation-wide back order for weeks. However, he did have the dual-point model in stock (part number: 2367801) which is externally the exact same distributor as 4567801. He also sells the Unilite conversion kit which then makes the dual points model identical to the Unilite version. He even converted the dizzy for me. Grand total: $240.00. Not bad considering Moss sells the Unilite for $523.00.

The Mallory does not come with a dog drive, you need to take the one off your old dizzy and have the shaft drilled for it. The Mallory comes with nice instructions, so I dropped it off at a local machine shop to be precision drilled, I had them orient the dog drive (in relation to the rotor) the same exact way the old Lucas was. The charge was $40.00.

The only charge I wasn't expecting came when I read that the Mallory requires a ballast resistor. Since I wanted a new coil anyway, I ordered a Mallory coil, part number: 29450 which has an integrated resistor. I mounted it on the flat spot on the fender well right underneath the master cylinder.

After that I dropped in the new dizzy, connected the wiring, and fired it up.

Of course, the new dizzy doesn't have a tach drive, so you need to either get an after market tach or get your stock unit converted. I chose the later and sent my tach off to APT Instruments (www.gaugeguys.com). I've used them before with success. This conversion costs $225.00, but at least the tach will be dead on accurate.

All in all, since my Pertronics did turn out to be bad, I spent about a $100.00 more than I would have if I had the Lucas distributor rebuilt and the Pertronics replaced. Best of all.. I don't feel compelled to carry an extra set of points (or in my case an extra distributor) in the trunk "just in case". [/QUOTE]
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

RonMacPherson said:
Doesn't matter how long you leave the igntiion key on, never burns up.
Click to expand...
True of current manufacture Crane units; but older ones were famous for overheating and burning up the power transistor if left on.
RonMacPherson said:
Oh, by the way, works great, easy to install.
Click to expand...
I wasn't that happy with mine. First I had to modify the optical pickup mount just to get it to fit in the dizzy, and then it took me a long time to get the phasing just right. Still didn't run right until I finally realized that my aftermarket rotor was hitting the pickup. And after all that, the engine didn't run any better, or start any easier than with just points. The previous points + MSD setup worked noticeably better, IMO(less cranking to start, less choke needed when driving cold, etc.)

On the plus side, I got really good at swapping point plates on the side of the road (and in a friend's driveway on the way to VTR 2000).

On my next go-round, I plan to use a Pertronix as trigger to the MSD (and rebush the dizzy to get rid of the wobble). Crank-triggered is a definite possibility for the future, but I'd like to get a TR on the road again before I spend time developing an ECU.
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

Hello Bill,

I don't remember what engine modifications you have but the first thing I would look at with a plug fouling problem is the grade of plug you have fitted.


Alec
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

Randall,

Interesting. As my Crane, really isn't a Crane!

It's so old it was an Allison, bought and installed, before Crane purchased Allison. It's been in use since 87-88.

Only problem I had was, as you stated, aftermarket rotors. Learned to stay away from Bosch cap and rotor. Been on the same rotor for about 8 years now.

So, in essence, go with whatever works for you. I just read a lot of problems on this forum and the 6 pack of folks with Pertonix problems. Do not read that many problems with Crane ignition systems.

Mallory, I used to run on my 40 Ford Coupe Deluxe with the small block(265) and La Salle tranny, tube shocks, That ignition never let me down. But you had to do quite a few mods to get yours to work for you, from what you say.

My Crane(Allison) was just bolt on.
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

The problem is you tend to get on a slippery slope, you start out with an exhaust and free flow air filters, then you wonder about compression. That feels good so you start thinking about a cam...and so it goes on!
Been down that road, oversize valves, chromemoly pushrods, lightweight lifters, reshaped combustion chambers, it can end up expensive.

Take a drive in a stock Spitfire every now and again, your TR6 will seem pretty fast!
Simon.
 
Re: The woes of high performance...listening Brosk

Just noticed your signature.

One area, that I haven't considered until just now. Is the under cap space. Logic that a 4 cyl(TR3) should have less room than a 6... Maybe that's why mine was so easy. Just had a friend install a Crane in an MGB and he said it went in just like the directions state(course he does hot rod updates all day long).
 
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