Packard Forum Index » General

Just my opinion, but with the lumbering old in-line engines it probably offers little or nothing in the way of economy and as long as quality components (points, condenser, cap, rotor) are available, probably nothing in the way of reliability either.

But as the manufacture/supply of conventional ignition components moves to 3rd and 4th tier sources, quality of them may become an issue.

G'day Ben Jr,
to PackardInfo. And I invite you to include your Packard/s in the Packard Owner's Registry.

ANY engine,Packard or otherwise with compression ratio of less than 8:1 will not gain any performance nor economy with ANY e-ignition.

ANY e-ignition system is designed to operate on NO LESS than 5.2 volts. Hence any 6v system has a very tiny margin of reserve capcity.

Cost and availability of e-ignition replacement parts not to mention carrying spare parts becomes difficult.

Diagnosis of e-ignition problems is more difficult.

Just buy a spare coil, condenser and pointss and a points file all for about $50 and carry them in the trunk.

Or let me put it another way:
What are u going to do if the car breaks down 50+ miles from home on the side of the road somewhere?????? Start testing so many diodes and transisters that are sealed in epoxy with a $2500 test equipment that often gives false readings???

E-ignition = AVOID.

BTW. My guess is that the only reason anyone asks about e-ignition is because they've tried EVERYTHING and still have problems.

The problem is either worn distributor bushings or a bad wire internal of the distributor. A wire that connects points to side of distributor. Yes, E-ignition will fix those problems. But the worn bushings will later cause a MUCH BIGGER problem!!

The reason I was looking into HEI ignition was to improve winter starting, it had great results on my last car. Thanks for all the info, and I will join the registry soon.

I have used the Crane hi-6 ignition systems on three of my cars including a Hyundai Pony and a Volvo 240 with point ignition. All three cars were used in winter months with temps as low as -40F. I think that the Crane offered improved winter starting over the conventional point/ coil systems. I thought about adapting the Crane Hi-6 to my 47 Packard but since it was a 6 volt system it would not have worked and I certainly wasn't going to convert the car to 12 volt and besides never used the car in winter months anyway. I think if your Packard is 12 volt system and you drive the car in winter months a HEI or capacitive discharge system like the Crane HI -6 might not be a bad idea . I have never had a problem with the Crane system in more than 10 years of constant service. The HEI in my GMC Motorhome which is 29 years old has also never let me down.

Ben,
for including your '55 Clipper Super Touring Sedan in the Registry.

Ben Jr. What was the "last car" u speak of and what type of e-ignition did u use on it???

It was a 1974 ford with a 360, it wasn't HEI but an older ignition booster, it made a big improvement with starting in the winter. It was mainly a test for a friend to see if the booster actually worked, cant name the boster off the top of my head but it seemed older. I later gave the truck back to my grandpa to sell......

Electronic works pretty good on the Packard 12 and other dual ignition systems. It changes the distributor into a cam position sensor. Everything hides under the dash and requires an oscillator to step up voltage.

However, both original and electronic conversions require the unit be tested and set up on one of the old Sun Distributor machines. Otherwise it's just garbage in, garbage out.