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High Energy Ignition (TFI) for the 4.0 ?

Posted: October 4th, 2009, 2:31 pm
by Plechtan
I remember on the Full size Jeep site, their is a post about using an adaptor and a large distributor cap on the Motorcraft Distributor. http://www.ifsja.org/tech/electrical/ig ... grade.html

I believe you could also get the parts for the 6 cylinder distributor. You would have to get the parts for a 300 CID 6cyl in an F150. the adaptor and rotor were the same, but the cap was for a 6 instead of an 8.

the Same post also talked about changing the ignition coil to the motorcraft high output coil. It was kind of square instead of the normal "can of soup" style that was used at the time.

This was a cheap upgrade that everybody said was worth the money.

I believe that the distributor used at least on the Renix vehicles were made by Motorcraft, so the cap and rotor should work. But i wonder if anybody has tried to upgrade the coil on 4.0 Motors?

Could be good bang for the buck.

Re: High Energy Ignition (TFI) for the 4.0 ?

Posted: October 4th, 2009, 8:50 pm
by Plechtan
Here are some pictures of the cap and the adapter. You can seee how much larger it is





6 Cylinder cap adapter.jpg
Distributor cap.jpg

Re: High Energy Ignition (TFI) for the 4.0 ?

Posted: October 5th, 2009, 9:23 am
by Plechtan
Here is a link to upgrade a Distributor on a CJ5,7 or 8 that was originally equipped with a 258.

http://keith.cj8.tripod.com/tfi_upgrade.htm

Another Link

http://www.jeepz.com/forum/engine/16904 ... grade.html

One of the comments in the above post reads:
t3chn1c0 asked if this would work on a 4.0L jeep. I read this & I have a 92 ford w/ 300 l-6 & I have 89 xj w/ 4.0. I pulled cap off the ford & it fit on the jeep. My 92 has a small cap like the jeep. I am going to get the larger cap & it should work. I'll keep you posted.
We don't talk much about it, but i assume that there are people running strokers without EFI.

Re: High Energy Ignition (TFI) for the 4.0 ?

Posted: October 5th, 2009, 12:48 pm
by Plechtan
I have been doing some reasearch, on the Renix engines the coil is mounted on the fender on top of a module. I am not sure if the module could drive the ford coil ( it should). but the ford coil would not mount on the module like the stock coil does. I don't have a Jeep module in front of me, and do not know if there is a good way to attach wires to the module.

An alternitive would be to replace the coil and the module, using a Bosch 0-227-100-124 single chanel driver. It does not have a tach output, but should otherwise function like the factory module.

Later ECUs drove the coil directly, and I am not sure if they would drive the TFI coil.

Re: High Energy Ignition (TFI) for the 4.0 ?

Posted: October 6th, 2009, 1:55 pm
by Plechtan
I don't have a running 4.0 right now that has a distributor in it. Anybody willing to try this ?

Re: High Energy Ignition (TFI) for the 4.0 ?

Posted: October 6th, 2009, 2:36 pm
by gmakra
Actually thats called the Team Rush upgrade. It really was meant for older CJs that had old weak points ignition system. The larger cap will allow you to use a higher output coil will out ionizing in the cap. The idea is there is more space between the plug contacts. This will minimize internally arcing and such, so its a good thing.

I dont know if the TFI coil will work with FI 4.0 engines but I know MSD has some hi output coils that will.

Re: High Energy Ignition (TFI) for the 4.0 ?

Posted: October 6th, 2009, 3:13 pm
by Plechtan
So it looks like a good upgrade if you have a MSD ignition or other High output ignition.

Re: High Energy Ignition (TFI) for the 4.0 ?

Posted: October 31st, 2009, 10:30 pm
by 1bolt
Plechtan wrote:So it looks like a good upgrade if you have a MSD ignition or other High output ignition.
I did it on my 4.0 headed YJ 258 long long ago, and it was very straight forward and worked with a MSD TFI blaster coil just fine. IMO if you're doing non-computer controlled ignition for your LSR MJ you should look for a Mallory Unilite for AMC inline 6's... the Mallory is the original "billet" dizzy and with your application over 6000 RPM's the Mallory is the only thing I would trust. MSD makes a pro billet AMC 6 dizzy too but Turbo Tom doesn't like them and he clearly knows what he's talking about and that's good enough for me. Not that I've known small block ford dizzys to have any problem with 6000 RPM's...

Only catch is... that Mallory is rare as hens teeth