Pertronix Ignitor/Coil Setup

Thanks again KENO. I noticed that mounting surface was pretty thin when I was cleaning it up (it's a used intake) and was wondering how well it would seal. That plate looks like a great idea

No, I wasn't planning on switching to roller rockers. Mostly because I'm assuming there would be some pretty significant cost involved and I'm not sure if the boat is really worth that kind of an investment in it's current form.

Thank you for the tip on drilling them to 17/32". If they need to be opened up anyway and that's what a 351 head is from the factory, I don't see any reason not to.

FWIW I blocked the passage at the head when I installed the Performer RPM unit in the ‘94.  No issues. 

I've posted a few on here, but man it's tough to make them work on my phone. This site in general is pretty bad on mobile, but it's worth it for the information.

I'm pretty much over loud cars/boats by now, but I built it after reading what the CO can do to people who ride behind the boat or in the back seat. Anyway, I can probably take a few inches off it like you guys suggested and still send the exhaust well past the tub.... I mean slalom skiers.

Hey, is that your first CCF picture? Congrats  

I agree with you, and not knowing the answer is going to bother me until I run the boat with it off again. I went back after installing the 540 and looked at a .gpx file from when I ran the boat in it's original form last year, and it shows a top speed of 40mph. I can't imagine it's slower with the new prop, and the only variable that comes to mind is the FAE. I backyard engineered it of course, and ended up with a lot of spray coming through my swim platform that I had to address afterwards. I'm sure it's adding a lot of drag and screwing things up under the water.

Like you suggested, the solution is pretty simple. I know I need to run it without the FAE, it's just hard to bring myself to take it off because it's so nice having it on there.

It's a brand new Acme 540 and that reading is from GPS. On that note, if anyone knows where to get replacement gauge faces for the airguides, I would love to replace them. They are the off white style, which I think it a really classy look.

Boat ran well on the lake with no drama today. I adjusted the accelerator pump linkage and it's running the best it ever has with no hesitation or misfires. Still only getting about 37mph @4200rpm out of it, but I that may be due in part to my exhaust.

I checked the timing in the driveway before I left and it looked to be advancing another 20deg or so when I revved it up. The pertronix unit is back in the distributor now, it must have been a coincidence that the failing cap got a second wind when I reinstalled the points.

I'm pretty happy with how it's running right now so I'll probably leave it alone and start fixing the little things until I'm done with it for the season. Appreciate all the suggestions and troubleshooting help from you guys by the way, there's a lot of knowledge on these boats floating around this site

Isnt it awesome to fix things!  Good work.

Installed the new timing set, but that wasn't the problem. Changing it out did advance my valve timing a ton though, so I'm interested to see how it does next time I'm on the water.

After the timing set didn't fix it, I went back to the ignition system, knowing that I had compression and being pretty confident that I had fuel. I knew I had spark from using the timing light and an inline spark tester, but I didn't know how strong it was. So, I bought an adjustable spark gap tester and sure enough, it was bad. Must have been just enough to trigger the timing light and inline test light. I checked the spark again right off the coil and it was jumping 1/2" gap with no issues, so I took a really close look at the distributor cap and found some carbon tracking between posts.

When I installed the new cap this evening, it drastically changed the spark timing. I'm not entirely sure what was happening, but I'm guessing that the spark crossing over between posts in the cap was throwing my timing light way off and causing all the weirdness before. After putting it back at 10deg initial timing again, it fired right up and ran great in the driveway.

I'll see how it looks when I get the new timing set in there. Whatever the case may be, I appreciate all your help and the info you provide on here

It doesn't really matter how much you turn the distributor in relation to the camshaft because you don't reference any timing marks on the cam though. In your example, the timing changes by 20 degrees at the crank no matter how advanced or retarded your cam timing is. It's no different than people who run adjustable cam gears aside from the fact that the timing might walk back and forth a little due to the play in the chain.

Yes, it had the nylon coated cam sprocket, looked like everything was still intact though. The ignition timing references the crank so I wouldn't think the chain slop would require ignition advance. I do think (hope anyway) that the late valve timing was causing the poor vacuum, which is why I started investigating it in the first place. If I can get it to run and idle after this is fixed I'll take another look at the ignition timing to see how it behaves.

The low vacuum thing has been bothering me so I checked the timing chain tonight by rotating the crank while watching the distributor rotor. It showed about 15 degrees of crank rotation before the rotor moved, so I went ahead and pulled the timing cover off and confirmed that the timing set is shot. Ordered parts and am hoping to have it back together this weekend. Can't really say this explains the weird ignition timing behavior, but it should be a step in the right direction.

I think that right about now a quick review of the status of the timing and carburetor might be a good thing.