Has anyone used the Progression Ignition HEI Distributor on their SBC? If so what are your thoughts about it?

It seems to be the answer to all the spring and weight mystery and voodoo needed to time the ignition curve...

JT

 

It is a phenomenal distributor, could not recommend it more highly.
there was a thread on here a few months ago where it was beyond helpful in setting a perfect timing table for a fella with a large cam.

I love mine, I have several different tables, street driving, 100 octane, 110 octane, 125 shot NOS, all the way to 300 shot. Super easy to get a perfect tune.

 

Thanks for the reply, can you change the tables easy?

JT

 

Very easy. You can change it sitting on your couch or even at a stop light.
You can edit box by box, or select a large swath and change all at once.
It pulls timing during startups for easy starting too.

The ONLY thing I could complain about is the rev limiter cuts in a little aggressively. If set to 6500 it’ll start breaking up at 6300. Easily solved by just setting the limiter a little above your actual redline.

 

PI certainly seems to offer some very attractive benefits, But
What Ignition spares, if any, should the PI driver have on board during a weekend-long getaway ?
In the same manner as an HEI driver might stow a module, should a PI driver pack a spare distributor ?

 

These advantages are what pushed me to look at and purchase an aces TBI setup since you can program your own timing tables easily in the software and change your timing without mechanical adjustments. As Ive found though these things are not for everyone and not everyone will appreciate these changes... (same is 100% true of EFI as well)

 

There's a glaring difference between aftermarket parts and OEM parts; especially those emission-related parts.
The systems that an OEM designs, perfects and markets are exhaustively tested before approval for production. I KNOW this. Those that assist or control emission systems have Very long, Federally-mandated reliability warrantees. A prime example of a very successful OEM design is the venerable 4-pin, coil-in-cap Delco-Remy HEI distributor; which appeared as serial production in 1975.
Virtually none of that applies in the aftermarket (because they don't Have to do it).

 

I helped a guy tune his distributor, for his horrible running engine with a Thumper cam, over the phone. We even e-mailed timing tables back n forth.
Super easy!
I did it from my recliner LOL.

It is all programmed from your smart phone.
It has all the capability of an EFI timing table, for a carb setup.
And much easier install than EFI.
Getting your timing just right, is easily as important as dialing in your carb. Maybe even more.

You can store multiple tunes on your phone, and load one at the push of a button, even while driving.
Or just tune one rpm/vacuum cell, for light pinging, surging, etc.
I plan on a long tuning drive, with many changes along the drive.
With that and an AFR gauge, you could super-tune a carb setup very easily.
Tuning a traditional distributor is not easy, and altering it on the road is near impossible.
30 years ago, I spent days tuning the vacuum advance system on my distributor on my LT-1 for both optimum performance and optimum driveability.
Changing vacuum cans or their settings, pulling the distrib, altering the slots, etc.
This would make that tuning 100x easier.

If you have a big motor, you may want to opt for the retard timing on demand model, aka traction control.
They say they have sold many over ~6-7 years, and have never even had one failure.
The electronics are all inside the distrib, and subject to underhood heat, but they say they are built to car manufacurers durability standards, epoxy hardened, etc.
I was so impressed I bought one for myself.

But, if it dies, and it is electronic, and hot...there is no simple fix.
I am planning a coast to coast trip, and may carry a back-up normal distributor, just in case.
I feel the "caught with low octane gas" and a second timing table, or at high altitude, is worth it.


Gauge display screen on your phone for real-time viewing/tuning. MPH, RPM, current timing, Vac reading and Launch or boost retard (not shown). It uses the GPS sensor on your phone for GPS MPH. It has a vacuum/MAP sensor in the distrib unit for vacuum and load reading.

The biggest downside I could find was it is 1.0" taller than a stock distrib. And therefore the factory shielding may not fit, or the mounting of it would need a little alteration.

They have a small cap version, with tach drive.
And a hidden security ignition kill switch, on your phone.

 

randallsteel

Do you have the Launch/NOS retard switch version?

Or do you just load a diff timing table for NOS?

 

I didn’t look too much into it, it may be worth it, but I liked the idea of having full control with just different tables. I change the total timing pretty frequently depending on what octane I’m running.
I’ll usually pull 2 degrees per 50 shot with high 90s/100 octane. I’ll drop it down to 1.5 degrees per 50 shot if it’s over 100. I don’t have a fuel cell so it’s usually half tank 93 mix with 5 gal 110, or 50/50

I've also noticed I have to run more idle timing when I’m running higher octane gas, I think that’s because my CR really isn’t high enough for that kind of gas, it’s only 10.3:1
Super easy with this distributor

 

The feature the distributor offers seem like they are similar to the ones we choose for our EFI system in the Holley EFI software. I have an MSD Distributor connected to a MSD 6AL box along with a MSD Digital Retard Box.

In the past before going with EFI I had the MSD controlling the spark but the Digital Retard Box lets me retard my ignition in 4* increments up to 16*. I had it set to pull 4 degrees of timing per switch, this allowed me to switch from the pre-set 38* of total timing to 34* and down to 30* if the fuel is not up to the job. This was determined by any activity with my MSD knock sensor and I would pull the first four degrees and this solved the issue in most cases. I tried dropping the timing in 2 degree increments and it was not enough so I went with four degrees per switch, allowing me to retard the actual ignition by up to 16 degrees if needed....
The digital retard box was were I was first introduced to pulling timing while cranking. When you have compression you NEED this feature to keep your starter from working too hard. Fortunately Holley built this feature into the new EFI software and I have it on my 427.

The ability to change tunes and change parameters while driving is great and yes, my Holley EFI system does that. I bought my Holley System because I wanted a known brand that has worked on fuel system equipment for decades. I also wanted to get the system up and running easily so I bought my system from a company who offered 2 years of Post-sale support to ensure that you will have a running car when finished. The Holley equipment is great but their software is awesome.... The software is set up so I can use it to run Nitrous Dry or wet on my new EFI system. There are so many features that I am still learning every day.

I wish they invested air/fuel gauges back about fifty years ago. They sure save time for the new mechanics. I have one that I can put in either of my Corvettes if there is any question.

My 427 runs 12.25-1 compression and I run the engine 95% of the time on pure 93 octane Sunoco gasoline. I have a Water/Methanol injection system for the days when the heat becomes an issue. The water cools down the inside of the intake and the Methanol makes the fuel equal to 116 octane which helps my engine cool off even better than normal. This system comes on when the engine is heated up and the load conditions require it (vacuum wise). This engine runs fine and makes a lot of HP on good gasoline, when running with the injection system running it makes even more horsepower.

Closed Chamber Cylinder heads helped with my resistance to detonation in this engine. It was when they went chasing emissions that they lost their horsepower by dramatically changing the heads to a less detonation resistant design. A 1970 LT1 had 11-1 compression and they required fuel additives to keep it from pinging. Just the design they used that brought this on.

 

I would have agreed with you 10-15 years ago. But now not so much. MSD and Holley are all made in china to save a buck. There quality control is not what it used to be.

Progression ignition is all American made, which is probably also why it’s near $600. But worth it.

 

Holley has been buying up every performance auto brand it can get its hands one and sadly in some cases its closed those american factories down and now pedal the same white box chinese parts you can find on ebay under those popular brand names at a decent markup to take advantage of the folks who shop by brand name out there. While I would think Holley would have better support than most in the game It seems with things like releasing the sniper 2 to address the high failures of the sniper 1 and not taking care of all those sniper 1 customers go against that.

I got a deal on a new accel HEI which is a holley product and compared it side by side to my generic chinese $50 HEI.... Its clear they are BOTH chinese distributors and there is nothing to justify the 3X markup of the accel unit in my mind. That said my quick fuel 680 carb (which is a company Holley also bought out) has treated me well and I bought that refurbished from Holley.

This might sound like a sales pitch and the system is only half installed right now on my new 406 but I believe the Aces killshot 2 system I bought has a 3 year warranty. do I expect the service to be as good as Holley? Not really, Mainly due to volume. But I couldnt justify the cost of a holley equivalent whereas I paid about $900 with tax and shipping for the whole TBI fuel injection setup including the compatible tach drive distributor I bought to have the aces ecm control the timing. This was everything but the fuel line, fuel pump, and the EFI style retrofit fuel tank I decided to get from tanks.com.

 

That is one of the main things I like about this distributor, a 10 minute install. Done.
And then you have all the timing table power of a full-on EFI system. With way less installation labor.

And then there is the tuning.
We all know, how much time some people have to spend, trying to dial in their EFI, to get it to run correctly.
There is None of that with this distributor.
Easy-peazy!

 

Thanks for all the replies, I'm putting one of the Progression Ignition HEI Distributors on my 82 and calling it a done deal. I just loaded the app on my phone and it seems really simple to use.

JT

 

Why would one select the HEI vs the small cap Distributor?

JT

 

I went with HEI, as I like HEI over points/coil.

but if you had a supercharger you would want the smaller diameter distributor. Or maybe trying to use some original ignition shielding that the earlier c3s came with. Or maybe you were dead set on keeping a points/coil system.

HEI is 5 3/8” diameter
small cap is 4 1/8” diameter, but you also got to mount a coil somewhere.

 

Thanks, I have a HEI now so I'll stick with that.

JT

 

The larger diameter of the HEI helped to prevent crossfire or arcing inside the cap.
It ran larger plug gaps, and higher voltages, and this is one of the things they did to lower misfires for emissions.
With the small caps, and running a high voltage system on a race car, you had to correctly set the phasing in the distributor.
I got a small cap diameter one so hopefully I can just raise my OEM chrome shield an inch and make it still fit.