Pros/Cons of HEI vs IPU ignition

TwinTurboIroc

New Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2002
i'm getting ready to order my FAST system and this is what i wanted in it:

-wb control
-iac
-fuel
-fan
-1 stage of nitrous

so i was thinking of the b2b l98 hei with wb02.....but unles my merchant is confused (he is calling to doublecheck) to have all of those items i'd need to go to a IPU setup because i'm limited on the amount of outputs on the box itself

one day in the future also (next 2 years) i may want to upgrade to sequential.....he was recommending me to go with the Accel EFI sync distributor and go IPU now so it wont be a big hassle later to go to sequential

any thoughts?
thanks
 
The bank to bank HEI systems don't have nitrous control. Because there is an additional output required for the bypass control on HEI (and Buick DIS) systems, we had to give up one thing to accomodate that, and it was the nitrous. We would always recommend an IPU-type system over factory ignitions. Factory ignitions aren't the most accurate and certainly not the highest energy ignitions around (even though it's called High Energy Ignition) so an aftermarket distributor opens up a lot of doors for you.

In all fairness to the sponsors of this forum, the factory Buick ignitions rock. Lots of spark energy, accurate, and dependable. DIS really is a cooler way to go than a mechanical distributor. So I would say that the Buick stuff (and probably any factory distributorless setup) is the "exception to the rule."
 
Forgive my ignorance, but what is an Inductive pickup setup?

I purchased my speed pro over a year ago and purchased the L98 number with WB02. At the time I was using a seperate coil factory HEI distributor. It had issues so I went wiht the MSD replacement for L98 cars with seperate coil. Everything was plug and play but the pickup looks different in the MSD distributor than it did with the factory. It works just fine with my speed pro.

Is my MSD distributor, an IPU type of setup?

As I said, forgive my ignorance. Just trying to learn a bit more here.

Thanks.
 
Originally posted by Craig Smith

In all fairness to the sponsors of this forum, the factory Buick ignitions rock. Lots of spark energy, accurate, and dependable. DIS really is a cooler way to go than a mechanical distributor. So I would say that the Buick stuff (and probably any factory distributorless setup) is the "exception to the rule."

You've lost me here.
The eDIST is the only ignition system that really delivers. In the past few decades, I've tried or installed on friends cars every ignition system there is. And the Hands Down Winner is the eDIST.

I finally found the limits.
At 25 PSI running a spark plug with a .105" gap, YES, .105" gap the car stumbled. 105 is just over 3x what the DIS will support in my car. As soon as I find a safe limit, I'll let ya know, but the eDIST has really worked for me. BTW, at .1" gaps the cruise and idle were better. At 21 PSI of boost it was working just fine.

Your results will vary.
Bruce
 
instead of actually using the modue in the HEI.....can i just get one of those MSD wiring adapters and bypass the module on my distributor and use my MSD box as the module?

thanks
 
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