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Right track to installing electronic ignition

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wet_wonder

Contributing Member
"Hi, I'd be grateful for

"Hi, I'd be grateful for help with electronic ignitions. I have a Trojan, with a mercruiser 233hp 351 with carb and distributor. Can anyone point me to a good match, with manufacturer and model. It looks pretty easy to install, but I'm new to this type of sytem and just don't know what model to get exactly for my engine.
Thanks."
 
"Yes, I looked at the pertroni

"Yes, I looked at the pertronix site but didn't know which electronic ignition would be right for my setup. The Mercruiser is a '77 351 233hp."
 
"well, if this is your engine,

"well, if this is your engine, you then need to know if your cap has screws holding it on or clips.

233 FORD 351 V-8 1975-1977
4173000 THRU 4902304

you have a prestolite distributor

All 8 233 From Serial 4173000 footnotes: 28, 58 Prestolite Ignitor# 1581 Ignitor II#91581

All 8 233 From Serial 4173000 footnotes: 27, 58 Prestolite Ignitor#1582 Ignitor II#91582

Footnote Info:
27 Screw down cap
28 Clip down cap

58 OMC; Stringer, Cobra and King Cobra applications with
Electronic Shift Assist may require slight wiring modification."
 
"Thanks very much Brian. Can&

"Thanks very much Brian. Can't learn w/o folks to learn from.
Yup, that's the motor. Serial number is 4337728. It's a screw down cap, so it's the Ignitor #1583 then? I'll have to call them to see what the wiring modification are."
 
"I looked up pertronix based o

"I looked up pertronix based on your info, and did find those part numbers. Is the Ignitor model or Ignitor II preferred?"
 
"Ignitor II is newer, Ignitor

"Ignitor II is newer, Ignitor III is newest, the wiring mod info comes with the package. and is available on their website, it has to do with the shift interupt circuit on OMC's.

you mean #1582 or #91582 right? I'd go with the Ignitor II and a Ignitor II Coil"
 
"Yes, 91582, and I emailed the

"Yes, 91582, and I emailed them about the coil and I should use the Flame Thrower 45111 coil. So it's about $125 for both at carshopinc.com, which seems to be a very good price b/c other places have just the Ignitor II for much more than that. Thanks very much for your help.

I also read that the plugs can be gapped more after this installation, so I emailed them about the suggested gapping for the mr43t plugs. I think the standard gap for my motor is .03, so hopefully they know what the wider gap would be w/ the Ignitor II and coil."
 
"yea, .030 is your current gap

"yea, .030 is your current gap, they say you can goto .050, i'm sure .040-.045 is safe, just try and see if you get any misses."
 
Does having an electronic igni

Does having an electronic ignition and the ignitor coil make any difference in how you measure and set the timing with a timing light?
 
After the instalation of a ele

After the instalation of a electronic conversion from points it is absolutley imperitive to re-adjust the timing!!!!!!!

The new electronic set up changes the dwell of the points/magnetic pic up and thus changes the timing.
 
"Dave i set my timing to facto

"Dave i set my timing to factory spec's before i did the change over and havent had any problems . also i must and have said that the pertronics ign that i installed has to be the best thing ive done sofar to my motor . and yes that is a steal for ign and coil both i have a mcm470 and my new plugs were set at 045 verses 035 and she runs like a rabbit
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Dave i know this may sound cra

Dave i know this may sound crazy but with the old points wires etc. i could run plane with 4 ppl at about 52/53. now and ive only had it out once this year and on choppy water at that it was just me and my son and the best it would do was 48 but like i said choppy water. but changeing over i went from my motor constanly haveing the shakes to a real smooth run i went from 6or7 cranks on the motor bfore she would fire to a half crank and she fires. now the speed loss may be from me tinkering with the adjustment screws or just the choppy water but my normal day out would cost me a 20 gallon tank of fuel where now the same run only takes about a 1/4 tank i'll be able to tell you more about the speed after this weekend and i might add throtle response is 100% better
 
"Yeah, please let me know. I

"Yeah, please let me know. I plan on installing the Petronics next week. The mpg improvement is encouraging. When you say 20gallons before, and 1/4 tank now, how do they relate in gallons?"
 
"Dave i wanted to get back to

"Dave i wanted to get back to you as i had the boat out today . must say it was buetiful day but anyways since the changeover and running it in the same conditions 1. quicker out of the hole 2, run plane at 53/54 with 6 ppl and 3. only used about a half tank and we tubed for about 5hours so im impressed with the pertronics just wish i could have gotten mine for the price you got yours anyways hope this info helps and happy boating"
 
"While getting ready to instal

"While getting ready to install the Ignitor II, I found the distributor was damaged. So I'm thinking about getting a Pertronix distributor.

Pertronix has a "plug and play" Flame thrower marine distributor package, with ignitor 2 installed and rotor and cap. I was thinking of using that, but am not sure which model for our engine. Our boat has the Mercruiser 351 233hp (1976 I think), somewhere in the serial # 4173000 series. I did a little research, and it seems to be that the Pertronix model# D231800 distributor is for Windsor 351s. But I don't know if that includes this older 233hp model. Any thoughts?"
 
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