FAST electronic ignition

[Shaun1305]

Hey out there, got this car recently and pretty much went through it mechanically. Removed all smog, put rebuild kit in the carb, set the float, took out the points and put in the fast electronic ignition. Wires, plugs, rotor, cap, blue bosch coil. Ran additional wire from ignition to hot side of coil. Ran additional engine ground to body ground. I'm getting 14.7 volts to the hot side of coil, maybe incorrectly got charging circuit from the ignition switch? I feel like the car isn't getting enough spark. It's running super rich, I can smell it out the tailpipe. It's super sluggish, any thoughts?

[baltobernie]

How did it run before you modified it?
Which FAST product(s) are you using?
What is your initial timing, max. advance and at what RPM?

[Shaun1305]

It ran, but very poorly. I'm getting a timing gun Tuesday to find that out. Did it by ear earlier but didn't help. Oil smells a little like gas, dunno what's going on there...weird thing is, I was holding the ignition module while it was running and it made a difference as to which way it was oriented, no joke. It's fast xr3000 What is going on....

[Shaun1305]

Another update, I found another loose ground...fixed that. The coil is arcing from the positive terminal to the wire output. Seems to run poor when that happens every so often. Is 14.7 volts on the incoming ok?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Oil smells a little like gas, dunno what's going on there...

If you have been running rich for any significant length of time, then you likely have gotten unburnt gas down past the piston rings into the oil. After you fix the current problem, it would be a good idea to change the oil.

14.7 volts should be OK, as that is what the charging system puts out when your battery is being charged. Perhaps a little on the high side, but not excessively so.

As for arcing on the coil, that is often due to dirt or moisture on the top of the coil. But, another reason is that something is wrong with your plug wires or spark plugs. When the coil develops the tens of kilovolts every few milliseconds, that voltage would love to see a nice plug gap that it can jump across to ground. Lacking that nice plug gap, the coil discharges its energy however it can, which in your case seems to be arcing at the top of the coil. So, a long-winded way of saying to make sure your plug wires and plugs are all connected properly, and the plug gap is correct. Some people aim for really large plug gaps on Fiats, which I don't think works very well.

-Bryan

[Shaun1305]

Thanks for getting back Bryan,

I gapped all the plugs to .025, the wires are new, from autozone I know.....and I didn't use do electric grease. So I'll get some of that and also ohm the wires....any number I should look for?

[tima01864]

I think dieelectric grease works as an insulator. I only use it over the connections not between. In my experience.
https://www.farmandfleet.com/blog/what- ... onnections.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Thanks for getting back Bryan,

I gapped all the plugs to .025, the wires are new, from autozone I know.....and I didn't use do electric grease. So I'll get some of that and also ohm the wires....any number I should look for?

That all sounds OK, and my guess for resistor spark plugs wires is in the 5 Kohms to 10 Kohms range. If all 4 wires are fairly consistent, that's a good sign as well. The spark "event" is fairly low current which is why the resistance doesn't degrade the spark that much (but is good for radios).

A common occurrence is that the metal connectors in the plug wires are not pushed completely onto the spark plugs or into the receptacles in the distributor cap.

Come to think of it, did you get your cap and rotor from AutoZone? There are subtle differences in caps and rotors over the model years, so you might need to check that the rotor (when installed on the distributor) is indeed in the right position relative to the 4 metal contacts inside the distributor cap. Hard to do with the cap installed, I know, but you can take some measurements with the cap removed and then on the inside of the cap, then do some math, and figure out if your rotor is in the right place.

-Bryan

[Shaun1305]

Thanks for all the advice. Another update, I tried to time it today, and got whacked by the distributor big-time. The plugs and distro cap was from autozone. Ordered new cap and wires from auto-ricambi

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Ordered new cap and wires from auto-ricambi

Wise decision, my friend. Perhaps this will solve the issue. As the saying goes (I just made this up), "Spark's gotta go somewhere. Whether it's the spark plugs, or the coil, or you, the spark doesn't care. All will work from a spark's perspective."

-Bryan

[jon8christine]

I've been debating which way to go with electronic ignition conversion. Did you get the Fast XR-3000 working?