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Tune up
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- CYO Supporter
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- Joined: January 13th, 2022, 11:56 pm
- Vessel Info: 1977 Carver Mariner 2896
- Location: Glendora, Ca
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Tune up
- km1125
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Re: Tune up
Plugs I just do an inspection every couple years, which could be a couple hundred hours. This is more to make sure they don't seize in place, which is a bigger problem. If the engine is running right (not to rich or lean) and doesn't overheat, they can last a good long time. I switched out to an electronic ignition early in my ownership, so the points and condensor thing went away, but points and timing should definitely be checked annually if you're still running them. It's easy to inspect the cap and rotor and replace when they're getting worn - I've easily had them last 10 years.
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Re: Tune up
- km1125
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Re: Tune up
Ctmangrum wrote:Source of the post That was my next question. First time dealing with points and was considering switching to electronic ignition. Complicated process?
It's been years, but on mine it was very simple. The new system came as a "kit" with the distributor, cap and new coil. Remove the old stuff, put in the new stuff and set the timing. The new system no longer used a ballast resistor, so you just capped off that line. I think the whole kit for mine was $275/engine but that was a long time ago.
Points do work fine but they are a maintenance item much more than anything else in the ignition system. At high RPMs you're using the points a lot, vs on a car where you rarely run long-term at high RPMs. Even then, on a car, you would be tending to the points annually.
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Re: Tune up
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- Vessel Info: 1998 Carver 355
Suspicious Fishes !
2022 Kawasaki 310X - Location: upper chesapeake bay
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Re: Tune up
New plugs, wires, points and distributor cap, with dwell and timing set properly, you should be good for a couple years.
If you really want to switch to electronic ignition, that engine is I believe is a 351M, the same as any ford pickup of the same model year.
- km1125
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Re: Tune up
But just some perspective...
Consider that for each time any individual spark plug fires, the points have to 'fire' too, so on an 8cyl engine the points 'fire' 8 times more than any individual plug. Every single spark plug and every cylinder depends on the points to 'fire'. At 3000 RPMs, the points need to 'fire' 720,000 times for every single hour you run the engine.
Points also determine timing and dwell (the time the coils gets to recharge before it needs to discharge for the next cycle). A little bit of wear can vary both of these items, and you typically won't notice changes unless you either try to measure them or they get so far out of spec that things aren't running right and you waste a good weekend when yo could be on the water.
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Re: Tune up
- bud37
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Re: Tune up

- km1125
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Re: Tune up
tomschauer wrote:Source of the post KM, I am a big fan of electronic ignition, I no longer own any points cars, trucks or boats. But I must say, points may degrade over time and cause a rough running or missing engine, but they keep going. When your electronic ignition module fails, it fails. You aren't going anywhere.
Yep, I would agree with that. Luckily the ignition modules have improved greatly since their introductions back in the 70's and 80's.
When I upgraded my points systems to electronic ignition distributors back in the early 90's, I still kept one of the points distributors on the boat for YEARS just in case I had a failure. I think I finally removed it after about 5 or 6 years.
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