I did a lot of research today and found out a few interesting things, but am awaiting a tech support answer for others.
1) The NICE thing about the Hall Effect offerings; Hotspark, Pertronix, Mallory, Accel, Crane modules, etc. They are available in 6 AND 12 volts, so nobody from the 1930's to the late 50's is left out.
2) They also are good because there are no moving parts and if you purchase their proprietary 40,000 volt coil, they provide a much hotter spark, allowing you to put your spark plug gap to as much as .040.
3) Another advantage of them is they use the vacuum advance, have no external parts and they just drop right into the stock distributor. Other than conjecture concerning reliability issues, they really are the cats meow. This is not to say I agree its the cats meow. Follow here..
So, that would SEEM to be the way to go. It IS the way to go if you have 6 volt system. But if we have 12 volts, there is another, I think better system. I will call it TRUE HEI. The reason I call it that is because Mopar (uuuugh) put it in ALL vehicles in 1973. GM followed up in 1974. I don't care about Ford. So, Its real, car company technology. Of course the same car companies that gave us the lamo ignition switch that got a bunch of people killed, but I digress..
They use a reluctor, which takes the place of the lobes on the distributor shaft, and the pickup assembly which takes the place of the points and condenser. Then, since they are not Hall Effect modules, they need an external 'mini computer' to sync everything. This gives the user more power over certain functions. In this era, 1980 or so, its pretty embarrassing, but it gets the job done. It controls the dwell. That seems to be it.
This is where my research falls apart. I have a few emails in to MSD so far asking them for help in this. I want to know if we can use a more capable Ignition Control Module to give us features like pinpoint timing adjustment, rev limiting, etc. I do not know what they are going to say.
If I get the answer I want, we would want to go with True HEI because then it gives us real control over our ignition and would eliminate the vac advance. I personally would leave it there due to looks, but I can see a major advantage to an electronically controlled advance system.
If I get the answer I don't want, it makes no sense to have an Ignition control Module that you have to place somewhere near your engine that does a lot of nothing so I would say for most everyday vintage truck enthusiasts to go with Hall effect and get two of them so you have a spare. More later.
THIS is why we keep hammering these issues. So we LEARN the nuances of them. It may be annoying, but that's the beauty of the way John and Peggy have this set up. You don't have to open your yapper unless you have something constructive to say. I think the moderators are doing a great job in seeing where this goes, because there IS MUCH more to this. More to come next week.
Once we actually have the facts.. pros and cons, we can write a document that explains this all in detail so the subject doesn't come up every 30-60 days ad infinitum! In the long run THIS CUTS DOWN on posts! IF MSD tells me there is more to this, WE have a job to do for our fellow bolters in designing a truly superior True HEI system.
Bill, I advocate choices, but I am also adamant on keeping things stock. Altho this sounds contrary, it means that we can remove the modifications and reinstall the points/condenser with a single screwdriver. No part of the truck actual is modified. That is true with everything I design or advocate.
