The inbuilt ignition modules fitted to distributors ( not coil pack or electronically controlled timing ) on many small Japanese engines aren't very wonderful, they are better than points ( hell anythings better than points ) but their pretty marginal with around 25-30 millijoules of energy supplied to the spark plug. So what can be done easily and cheaply ?
If you have reluctor style dissy ( has a "star' shaped thingy which generates the timing pulses usually mounted right under the rotor button )the answer is surprisingly cheap.
After a search of data it turns out that the old straight six cylinder Holden has about the highest output module and coil fitted to readily available production cars. Go to a self serve wrecker, on the distributor base will be a flange with a sheet metal cover, under which will be a Bosch module - the last three digits should be 021. It will have four terminals. Unscrew it and put it in your pocket.
Try NOT to wipe the white heatsink grease off the module base - it helps with heat conduction to the heatsink.You will also need the ignition coil. Unlike low energy ones, its got an extended male top. get the mounting bracket and HT lead just to be safe. Its an oil filled unit ( the cylinder type ) but if you want a more modern looking, transformer coil then you need a Bosch HEC715. Use either - they both perform the same and the HEC715 wont be on wrecks
Before you remove your distributor from you car - note the position of the rotor to make it easy to put back and very importantly mark the position of the distributor body relative to the engine. Scribe a line, texta mark - but this is important - you will need it later.
Now for the "difficult" stuff - there will be a fixed mounted pickup in the dissy body - that is on the same plane as the reluctor ( the star thingy ) - there will be two wires from this to the ignition module. You need to cut these two wires and extend them with shielded cable ( like audio cable - 2 cores and a woven metal screen around them ) to reach to wherever your going to mount the new module. The screen needs to be grounded at one end only.
Thats the distributor mods done. Put the distributor back using the alignment marks.
Mount the coil and module - a small heatsink is required for the module - so make a 3mm thick aluminum bracket about 50x50mm for the module and that will do. Mounting the module with the coil usually is easiest and in the same position the stock coil was mounted as that gives you easy access to the loom.
The connections on the module are :
7 - Negative input from reluctor ( the bit in the dissy )
8 - Positive input from reluctor
15 - 12V for module
16 - coil negative.
So ignition power goes to the coil positive terminal and to module terminal 15, a ballast resistor is not required. You can pick up power from the old coil positive connection on the loom ( not the old coil - just its loom connection )
Coil negative goes to module terminal 16, connect the new coils negative to the old coils negative terminal on the loom so the ECU / tacho gets ignition pulses.
The shielded cable that you have just installed goes to terminals 7 & 8 - don't make them permanent just yet. Make sure the screen is grounded as described above.
That's it... start the darling.
Get a timing light - if you have to move the dissy body lots to get the timing right then reverse the connections to terminals 7 & 8. This matters - reverse connection will run but the dwell control in the module will operate incorrectly.
You now have around 100+ millijoules of ignition energy, more than enough for a high boost turbo instalation let alone a stock zook. Total cost - depends on wreckers but $20 is about it.
If your going to do this - do it properly, nothings worse than poor wiring leading to breakdowns. If your mystified by all this then DON'T DO IT, its not that hard but some basic electrical and mechanical knowledge is required.
