Ignition coil arching....(found the culprit)

[MandarinaRacing]

I installed the Duraspark II(brand new) in my car today, it starts up real easily and revs very, very smoth. But I still have some bugs to work out.
Here is muy current set-up.(MSD 6A, Blaster 2 coil, Accel super stock 8mm)
-Initial timing 14 degrees.
-Spark plug gap 0.055"
-Anything else I'm missing????

Three things that are not the way they're suppossed to:
1- Coil arching at idle betwwen the tower (MSD Power Tower) and + side of conector.
2-Stumbles and wants to die at low idle or below 1000 RPM (could be a vacuum leak)
3-Is it best to set the timing "by ear" ??????

Thanks

Alex

 

[BIGREDRASA]

The arcing must be corrected. You might try applying dielectric grease to the tower, but that may not help. Check to make sure your plug wires don't have excessive resistance. The arcing must be corrected before anything else.

 

[MandarinaRacing]

The arcing must be corrected before anything else.

You're right, that's a good way of frying a coil
According to Accel resistance in Super Stock wires sould be 500 ohms/foot. I'll get a tester tomorrow and see what comes up.

Alex

 

[Anonymous]

There is no "Set" timing, as all cars like it different (even two cars set up exactly the same may like different timing settings).
Play with the timing a little bit, all it is is the trial and elimination method, just keep adjusting it until it works just right for you. The higher you go the more Peppy (within range), but if you go too high, it will race like a champ! But it will try to stall out turning real slow corners and idling less than about 2000. I would play with the timing between 10 - 14 to find yourself a nice median.

If you check out all the timing and your still having trouble, check the points (which if you still have points with your setup, they are fried ) or your electronic set up to make sure it is right, check your fuel pump to make sure it is working properly, and the main other thing to check other than the timing is the vaccum advance.

Hope this helps, good luck!

 

[MandarinaRacing]

Thanks man....BTW what are points ???? Anyway I think I found what was at fault for the arching..... a loose conector in the coil wire ...as far as dielectric grease all I got was....WHAT ???? what is that ????? :roll:

Later,
Alex

 

[Anonymous]

I just set my base timing with a timing light then kinda played it by ear!

Later,

Doug

 

[MandarinaRacing]

Well I found the actual culprit of my coil arching problem. I found a very minute crack on the side of the tower that was letting the spark "escape" and arch to the + side of the coil. I hope this didn't fry my MSD ignition or my DII distro . I believe what caused it was that I installed one of those "Power Towers" and overtightened it causing it to crack Hopefully I'll be able to find another one here..... :roll:

Power Tower

Crack

Alex

 

[BIGREDRASA]

Ditch the "power tower," it was at best not too harmful with a points system. If it's what I'm thinking of, all it did was add an additional gap/resistance inot the circuit.

 

[MandarinaRacing]

Yeah Tony, I sould've know better.... I kinda fixed it last night with some epoxy, then fired up the car and everything seemed to be OK, then I turned all the lights out in my garage and I could see some glow right at the base of the tower, also in the plugs where they meet the head, I've never done this test before but I'm geesing there sould be no distinctive glow at all.....right ???????

Alex