electronic ignition conversion kits

[jlawrence4220]

I was looking at tune up kits for my omc 350 in my 72 formula. the engine is running poorly at low rpms. I have to tune up the ignition system before I can adress if any carb problems. I know electronic ignitions fire hotter and are more realiable, But is there anything I need to look out for? are the conversion kits any good. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Restore is the way

 

[jlawrence4220]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

Im hoping that new plugs,ignition, plugwires, and coil will enable me to adjust any remaining sputter out of the carb. right now it takes about 3/4 throttle and a long ignition to start and runs hard and dies at low rpms and trolling speed. it dies far to often.
-am I on the right path, any siggestions.
-Im going to keep the points as backup parts

thanks-

 

[Don S]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

Best thing I could tell you is to get it running right with the points, then change it over to electronic.
Do a full tuneup, points, condenser, cap, rotor. even do the wires if over 10 or 15 years old, new spark plugs and in the process do a proper compression check, set the point dwell (Not just the gap) reset the timing to specs at the proper rpms and check the advance timing. Adjust the idle mixture and speed. If it's not running right after that, putting in electronic ign. conversion is a waste of time till you find the problem. Could be a vacuum leak, or any number of things.
It's just not a good idea to convert to cure a problem. It could make things worse.

 

[jlawrence4220]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

thanks Don. thats the perfect responce. I will do the full tune up and convert to electronic ignition later.

 

[jlawrence4220]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

should I replace the coil? Is the coil an important onboard spare part?

 

[imported_TheMan]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

Check your spark strength (blue=good, yellow=bad). If yellow, replace it.

My ignition coil quit working when it got hot and stranded me. A new one fixed it right up, and it was pretty cheap.

 

[KaGee]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

Don't throw a coil at it until you are reasonably sure the one you have is defective. Based upon your description, sounds like you are in need of a basic tune up first. (Like Don said above)

Once you are up and running, Pertronix is the system most of us have switched to and are happy with.

 

[ron7000]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

if it runs poorly at low rpms but ok at higher rpm's then the ignition probably isn't the biggest culprit. A points ignition & coil will show it's weakness at higher rpms when it can't produce a hot enough spark to give good combustion. However, if you're not bypassing the ballast resistor and giving the coil 12v on startup then that could be one of the reasons it's hard to start. Big thing to look out for is converting to electronic on an old distributor that's sloppy or rusted where the mechanical advance doesn't work properly. In that case a conversion would not fix the real problem and you should opt for a whole new distributor with electronic ignition built into it.

 

[jlawrence4220]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

out of the ignition system the spark plug wires were the only parts that showed wear. The plugs had a dry black sut build up. after I do my tune up, is there anyway of testing the carb?

 

[KaGee]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

It's all a matter of troubleshooting. Like Don said above ^^... proper ignition, proper compression, no obvious vacuum leaks, if after all that the engine won't idle then it's time to look at the carb.

The black soot means the engine is running rich. I would investigate the choke pull off to make sure the it was opening the butterfly after the engine starts. And I would further check the choke adjustment and linkage to make sure the butterfly was opened properly. Too much or too little will cause the rich problem and your idle condition.

It's important to get the problem cured so your engine will idle down properly. Don't just increase the idle screw so the engine won't die. Check your engine specs... it should idle around 650-700 RPM. Any higher and you risk tearing up your drive.

 

[jlawrence4220]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

ill be honest. Where is my choke, I haven't needed to use it to start the engine

 

[jlawrence4220]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

ill be honest. Where is my choke, I haven't needed to use it to start the engine

 

[Don S]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

I'll be honest with you. IF you don't know where your choke is, then you don't have the abilities to fix it or anything else.
IF you don't have the oem manuals for your engine, then get them, study them and maybe you might be able to work on it.
Just because a boat is a toy, doesn't mean that everyone in the world can work on them

 

[jlawrence4220]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

everybody has to do it a first time.

 

[180shabah]

Re: electronic ignition conversion kits

everybody has to do it a first time.

That is why you need the manual.