ok 2 questions on the same post:

ok i noticed that my ballast resistor was hot, i know they do get hot but how hot should it get? cause this one is hot enough to sear my fingerprints off. ..... hmm that might be a good thing!

another thing is i am running very rich, i went a bit to far with my carb jetting. i check my build sheet and i am running dual 62 jets, what the hell was i thinking! anyways i'm gonna stick 2 60 jets in and see if i run a little bit leaner, cause man you can smell the fuel in my exhaust! but on the other hand it moves like a scalded cat ... is running way to rich a price i am gonna have to pay for performance? should i jet down even more?

thanks much

MiDi

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

Yes, ballast resisters get damn hot...they are resisters! Resistance=Heat. For the carb, I would go down one step at a time (ie, 61's, 60's, 59's, etc) until you find one that gives good performance and fuel efficiency. Sounds strange, but an engine running just right will give your best performance and fuel economy (a lean engine will get bad mpg's too).

thanks eric, i feel better about it now. i'm pretty paranoid about everything on this car since its no nice. i miss my 73 dart, cause i wan't so worried about it all the time!

mine had water under it so i was hearing a sizzle noise and it freaked me the f out! i should prolly lay off the red bull.

i do know they get hot. i have made ceramic resistors glow in audio applactions. hmm maybe i should take a few of my old computer heatsinks and make a cool one for my BR.

i think the #60 jets will help, a few board members reccomended those for me. also after the car warms up it seems to be running slightly less rich, but its still way too much.

i wonder what the other 2bbl 2300 guys are running in there carbs.

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

your spark plugs will give you the best indication of where your fuel jetting needs to be. rejet, go for a run, come back and pull the plugs. you want golden brown, not black or white. not even clean. just light brown.

you cant just put a single jet size in a car and expect it to work, every engine flows slightly differently so see what your engine tells you it needs, and then give it the jet it wants.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

thanks eric and step, i just think fuel in the exhaust is a bad thing, but again it happens mostly when cold. i'll try the #60 jets and take a road trip then check my plugs .. good advice.

now i have been busy about the BR heat issue, as most of ya know i run a computer biz and i have a massive graveyard of kewl partz, so i took a aluminum heatsink and made a prototype rezistor kewler, big diff in temps already... i'll post them after more research. my next plan is to use my super awesome collection of copper heatsinks and make a better version. i also have a few heatsink pipe coolers i could use and run cooler pipes out of the engine bay (grill area)
to a massive heat spreader. this is gonna be fun!

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

The heat gain of the ballast resistor is a design feature.

As it heats up, the resistance goes up, and there is less current flow.

With less current flow, less heat is generated, then there's more current flow....

Self-regulating loop.

If you add heat-sinks, you're changing the current flow (more) than the system was designed for.

So you may be preserving the life of the ballast, but decreasing the life of the coil and the points or Electronic Ignition because the coil and the points or EI are getting more current than designed for.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

ah damn it! i knew there had to be a downside to my mod!

thanks for pointing that out emsvitil. so far under idle after 20 mins the cheap heatsink droped the temp about 15 deg F. i'm using a cpu test probe for my readings. wonder what it would do under air flow @ highway speeds. anyways i thought i was a good idea ... guess not. but it looked hella cool! well crap! and thank u for all the quick replys on my questions.

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

One thing I noticed in your last picture. Your MSD coil is mounted side ways....I believe they will last longer if mounted verticaly. Look here:https://www.msdignition.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4921. A high vibration unit may be a better choice.

thanks eric for the heads up. but that msd was from noels shop so i can exchange it anytime @ any CSK under the proshop agreement. so i have a lifetime of replacement coils.

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

I've had a MSD coil mounted horizontally in my truck for over 15 years........

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

and so do a ton of other board members, who do u think i copyed the mounting from.

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

just FYI - I've looked in detail at Mopar ballast resistors and checked the old manuals (I think the '65 FSM gives specs for ignition current draw w/ and w/o running), then actually tested a couple over 0 to ~8A and found they were close to spec.

Roughly, the resistance of the point-type ballast is
R(ohms)=0.5 + 0.633*I(A)
while the electronic is close to
R(ohms)=1.0
and doesn't change with current as far as I could measure. The resistances of the primaries of the coils I measured also didn't change with current.

It was clever to choose wire thin enough to get red hot and limit the current (protecting the points at low RPM), but then cool and allow higher currents at high RPM (to compensate for the RL charging time of the ballast + coil). A red-hot wire tends to deteriorate faster than just a warm one, so I suspect that with electronics they didn't worry about the peak current so much and went to the fixed resistance scheme to avoid ballast failures.

I looked into making a ballast with even a steeper dependence on current, but decided running the wire much hotter would probably be unreliable - and modern ignitions can avoid the problem by playing with the dwell (Pertronix II?) or other means (CD, etc.). My stock-replacement Mopar ign modules don't seem to do any fancy tricks to control the dwell, but nevertheless seem adequate.

I found that the weakest part of my 1971 stock-type ignition was the power feed via the bulkhead. Converting from points to factory elec. made the problem somewhat worse; generally, I still see ~1V drop just getting to the ballast (no doubt due to age), despite having cleaned all the bulkhead connections.

I've considered putting in relays to draw current directly from the alternator for the ballast and headlights to avoid the strain on the underdash systems and get the maximum out of my ignition and lighting, but haven't changed anything yet.

I have a stuck type coil in my Volare, and it is mounted horizontally on top of the inner fender.
It was one of four coils that I had on a shelf in my garage, just a few of the parts I've accumulated over the years. It works just fine.
On the issue with your jets, I would follow Eric's advice.

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"Ja, Ich fahre ein altes auto."
'78 Volare 225
'67 Charger 318