2.3L ('83-'97) Duraspark II conversion problem

[TheAbstracted]

Hello all, recently I did a carburetor and Duraspark II conversion on my 1988 2.3. I saw this was a fairly popular thing to do on the 2.8, and I had had some kind of demon I never could figure out causing misfires in the stock fuel injection setup, so I decided to go ahead and attempt these conversions on my 4 banger. The carburetor conversion went pretty smoothly, but the ignition system conversion hasn't been as painless. So what happens is it will generally start up fine, run well for maybe 30 seconds to a minute, then suddenly just shuts off as if power were disconnected. It will start right up again if I try, and then exhibit the same behavior. I had thought perhaps where I wired the ignition module into power may have been cutting out after a certain length of time, but it behaves exactly the same way when I have it wired directly to the battery as well. Then I was thinking maybe I need to move the power source for the ignition coil away from the original wiring, because I still have the original ECU hooked up but it doesn't connect to much anymore, I thought perhaps it is looking for a signal from the old TFI-IV module that is no longer there and is cutting the power when it doesn't recieve one? But then I started to wonder if maybe I just got a bad ignition module? I kinda wanted to get some more experienced opinions before I go slicing and dicing again or ordering another ignition module. Thoughts, anyone?

Thanks!

 

[franklin2]

Your ignition box or the coil may be overheating and cutting it off. The DSII system you are using requires a resistor. Ford incorporated the resistor into the harness. By 1988 I do not know if it's still in there or not. But you could buy one of those large white resistors for a Chrysler and wire it in series with the coil + wire. The module gets a full 12v from the battery, but the coil gets somewhere around 9v running, but gets 12v starting.

If you want to skip this mess, you could get yourself a GM HEI module and wire it to your distributor. It can handle the full 12v to the coil.

 

[TheAbstracted]

Your ignition box or the coil may be overheating and cutting it off. The DSII system you are using requires a resistor. Ford incorporated the resistor into the harness. By 1988 I do not know if it's still in there or not. But you could buy one of those large white resistors for a Chrysler and wire it in series with the coil + wire. The module gets a full 12v from the battery, but the coil gets somewhere around 9v running, but gets 12v starting.

If you want to skip this mess, you could get yourself a GM HEI module and wire it to your distributor. It can handle the full 12v to the coil.

Thanks, I went and started it again and felt the coil getting warm just before the engine shuts off, not hot, but definitely warming up. I had read that not including a ballast resistor would potentially burn out the coil faster, but I read comments from a bunch of people saying they run DSII systems just fine without any ballast resistor at all, so I had figured I would get around to adding one once I got all the timing dialed in. But I'm certainly willing to try it, would you happen to know what ohm resistance I should be looking for?

I initially looked into those HEI systems, and they're a bit pricier than I was hoping to have to spend, but if push comes to shove that's the way I will go. Would love to have this setup workout if possible though.