has anyone done this? i see lots of posts where people have used the guide on gofastforless.com to update the Duraspark to GM HEI, but none regarding points to TFI.

the reason i ask- it seems like a dirt-cheap upgrade. i can continue to use a points distributor. there's a junkyard full of TFI cars nearby, this seems like a $20 investment.

my normal thought would have been MSD + Pertronix, but that's easily $250.

thoughts?

 

TFI is failure prone at 70,000+, and failure prone due to heat. It usually fails without warning, and hardly ever in a spot you want to be in.

 

I'm aware of some heat-related failures and Ford's subsequent moving of that module from the distributor to the fender I think in 1987.

Just wanna say that my 1986 DD Tempo with the 2.3L engine has got 193,000 miles on the distributor-mounted TFI and it's still working fine.

 

Ditto.
My '84's TFI-IV had nearly 200K when I changed it out for DSII due to the cost of a remanned carb with nary a hiccup other than normal maintenance.
It's still sitting in my garage waiting for a NOS carb to show up, and it'll get reinstalled.

 

I suppose most made it, but many did not. Mine died without warning. Vehicles with distributor mounted TFI had a 9% higher fatality rate....hhhmmmm:

Ford TFI Module National Class Settlement | The Center for Autosafety

You can search "...ignition module failure" with any brand name in front and get lots of hits. (My wife's '88 Accord spit one out without warning for example). Ford just happened to win the reverse lotto on the above deal.