351 Electronic ignition, lost!

[89cruisers]

Hey there everyone, yesterday I attempted to start a 351w (Merc 233) engine I picked up over the winter. Compression is good, and turns over nicely. Well the previous owner of it converted it to electronic ignition with a motorcraft module attached to the engine, which has 6 wires coming from it, and wires all over the place on the engine. I tried just attaching the battery, and got no spark, I connected a coil directly to the battery feeding power to the distributor, and still received no spark, any suggestions? I know the coil is good. I would prefer just to convert back to mechanical, but a new distributor runs in the $250 range. I also took the cap off and the connection points inside the cap showed some burning/arcing, so sanded it clean, along with the rotor, but still no dice.

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: 351 Electronic ignition, lost!

6 Wires? I'm not sure what ignition module you've got on there, but I'd remove it and get a normal set-up. I went with a Pertonix billet distributor on my recent 233 rebuild. No need to overcomplicate things. The two-wire setup works well, and has for decades. One ground, one 12V switched-positive to the coil. I don't have a problem with points/condensor setup, but I was just going to upgrade when I was at it.

On a side note, if you want a perfectly operating used 351w dizzy, I have one available.

 

[89cruisers]

Re: 351 Electronic ignition, lost!

Well according to the guy I bought it off of, it was rebuilt (once again so he says) and he added all sorts of performance equipment to the boat so I'm assuming he felt adding a computerized ignition would be helpfull...maybe helpfull to him that knows how to set it up...not helpfull for me lol. I'll send you a message about the distributor.

Thanks!

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: 351 Electronic ignition, lost!

No problem. Just don't try and reinvent the wheel. The engine isn't really making enough horsepower/turning the rpms in a boat that having high-powered fancy ignition systems can help with. The 351w is a solid engine, but it doesn't need modern gadgets in order to make 300HP, 'cause it does that easily enough by itself!

 

[89cruisers]

Re: 351 Electronic ignition, lost!

Hah yeah...hopefully it will move my wellcraft nicely when I am finally finished with it...hopefully the Credit Union will be nice and loan me a little bit so I can get it done in time for this season... Message sent to your inbox

 

[proshadetree]

Re: 351 Electronic ignition, lost!

Sounds like he used an automotive setup. ! side of the module should have 4 wires and the other two. The two wire side are hot in run and hot in start. Most just wire them together. The other is 3 for distributor i to neg side of coil. Other side of coil can be run fro the same connection as the power for the box. Great upgrade for a car but no way I would run that on a boat. Unless the engine was uncovered.