ProTec Ignition Swap

Is that really the correct timing in that picture? That's quite a few degrees different from the norm.

Distributor cap position, wire position... There is no such thing as "normal position". Order, yes- position, no. It all depends on the orientation of the distributor when it was installed. There is no right or wrong (other than cosmetics).

Never really thought about it as everyone seemed to wind up with the dizzy in a similar position. Makes perfect sense to have it look different depending on the installation though.

Glad the write up helped.

Hmmm... I guess this is true now that I think about it.. I guess it was just dumb luck that the first two installations were at the same orientation.

backfoot100 wrote: My MSD cap script is facing straight fore/aft ]

Eddie,
You're as OCD with your distributor caps as you are with the rest of the boat! I love it!

During the winter storage, I've swapped my ProTec for a DUI.
I bought the distributor and cables in the US from a guy who had it installed on his S.N. but sold the boat with the old set.




I followed the instructions in this post, but can't get the engine (PCM 5.8 HO)
to start this week (the first week that the boat is in the water).

Made the new connections, disconnected the EMS and Trigger plug
I found out the TDC in cilinder 1, using my finger (feeling the compression) and a small wooden stick and a wrench turning the cranck. Marked the distributor where the rotor was pointing at and made this cil 1. Checked the firing order and connected all plug cables.

After a couple of cranks, the voltage on the DUI dropped under 10,5 V, so I made a direct connection to the battery having 11,5 V on the cable connected to the DUI. When I remove a spark plug and crank, I see a clear spark. Gap is 0,05, plugs are new Motorcrafts from Skidim. Tried several distributor positions around the marked cil 1 position.

Any thoughts from you guys?
Many thanks in advance from Holland

Hi Malcolm, I don't have an inductive timing light. My plan was to get the engine started and ask a local shop to set it on time. The spark on cil 1 was by just taking it off and crancking it.

I already did some checks regarding fuel, since I replaced the fuel filter this winter. And the spark plugs looked quited dry, despite the cranking i did. So I passed the filter, connecting the tube direct from tank to pump. However, no result.
I will look further in this direction. Thanks!

Verify timing order. The rotor rotates counter clockwise.

Last weekend, I set the timing with a lamp and made a test drive.
The result is amazing. It starts on the button and accelerates better than ever. Especially above 4000 rpm. It feels it gains an extra 40 hp at high rpm. I should have done this much earlier. JP, again many thanks for your instructions. This made the swap real easy.

90s on both ends

Thank you JPASS - My DUI is installed and the boat runs!   I have a 94 that came with the Protec Injection as well,   This set of installation instructions works for TBI boats as well, as long as you are replacing the TBI with a carb.    The TBI wiring harness is essentially separate with the exception of the interconnected tach wire and one other yellow wire.   there are some extra sensors to input to the TBI module that will be abandoned in place.   The wiring can all come out though.    You will need to remove the 15A circuit breaker on the back of the engine ( leave the 60 and the 12.5) and you can reinstall the 2 remaining breakers on the bracket that the was originally mounted too.   the FI module bracket is no longer needed and should be removed for accessibility. While you are working through the wiring harness, the original (Non TBI) wiring harness already includes wiring for the electric choke on the Holley Carb, all you need to do is un-tape the wires from the harness (they're covered up) and plug them in.

Lesson learned:   Nicely routed plug wires are great, but err on the side of making the wires too long...   they looked fantastic until I timed the engine, and I wound up with a couple of wires that were tight...

Nice, clean installation. I like the dedicated relay for the DUI dizzy.

Well Ken, while you’re clutching your chest dying just pop open the dog box and jump the relay! Did I miss where it shuts off at 200? That’s a lil low, I’d step it up to at least 230.

I did give that some thought. What I considered is that during 1600 hours of operation my boat has never overheated or gone into limp mode (except when the old wiring had too much IR drop - long time ago). Although the scenarios you mention and others are possible I believe the risk is extremely low. It would be nice to have the limp mode feature still but without it I would rather save the motor.

My boat doesn't have the dash alarm/lights but for those that do it would be easy to replace relay #2 with a timer relay. You could set it to a few minutes so your alarm went off before it killed the engine.

I was also curious what the DUI does when the input voltage drops but I didn't experiment with that yet. It may start running crappy at some point which would give the driver a heads up. So all you would need is a voltage divider on the output of relay #2 that connects to the DUI wire.

According to skidim the switch closes at 210. For some reason I thought I had read somewhere it was higher than that. If it turns out to be a problem it's easy to disconnect unless of course I had a heart attack and crashed then it would be harder.

desertskier wrote: I did give that some thought. What I considered is that during 1600 hours of operation my boat has never overheated or gone into limp mode (except when the old wiring had too much IR drop - long time ago). Although the scenarios you mention and others are possible I believe the risk is extremely low. It would be nice to have the limp mode feature still but without it I would rather save the motor. My boat doesn't have the dash alarm/lights but for those that do it would be easy to replace relay #2 with a timer relay. You could set it to a few minutes so your alarm went off before it killed the engine. I was also curious what the DUI does when the input voltage drops but I didn't experiment with that yet. It may start running crappy at some point which would give the driver a heads up. So all you would need is a voltage divider on the output of relay #2 that connects to the DUI wire. According to skidim the switch closes at 210. For some reason I thought I had read somewhere it was higher than that. If it turns out to be a problem it's easy to disconnect unless of course I had a heart attack and crashed then it would be harder.

Good to know you gave it some thought

I've seen the switch listed in PCM literature as both 210 degrees and 200 degrees depending on where you look. It's the same part number for a ProTec engine and a GT40 engine.

If I wanted some kind of protection/warning from the oil pressure and/or water temperature switches, I'd probably wire both to relays that fed a loud, obnoxious horn to let the driver know there's a problem and he/she could turn the engine off or keep running it depending on the situation.

That way O-76 or whoever's driving wouldn't have to find the right relay and yank it and Pete wouldn't have to pull out his wire cutters and snip the right wire in the middle of a "not so good" situation.

I suppose in the end, it's whatever you're comfortable with