My truck is a '77 federal emissions (non-catylist). It came with the common blue grommet Ignition control module (brain box if you will).
I'm a big fan of the "clean survivor" look, so my goal has been and continues to be to keep the truck OE looking, even if there are a few hidden goodies that improve performance.
As has been reported here a few times, California emissions FoMoCo vehicles in 76 and 77 had red grommet modules. At first glance more "smog crap" seems like to not play with improved performance, but the red box got me thinking.
Research suggested that the idea behind the more complicated red box was to achieve a 'hotter' spark to get a more complete lean-burn and meet the CA requirements. Now, I'm aware that the brain box doesn't magically change the windings in the coil to produce more voltage, But it does control the dwell time when the coil primary is energised.
Interestingly, the pantera guys rave about the red box, claiming it more desireable than the common blue box. Why? Well, for guys old enough to remember breaker points, and setting the dwell, the common number for a V8 was 30 deg (distributor). Less and the coil may not get to saturation before the points opened, more and a) the coil eventually overheats, and b) as it approaches 45 deg (distributor), if the points never fully opened, there would be no secondary voltage to fire the plugs. So, the lore of the red box seems to be that it 'better' controls the dwell time for increased efficiency. I had to check this out for myself.
I acquired a new in box old stock red grommet module made by GP Sorenson (USA made).
Problem 1 is that I found the pinouts to be different (and the 4-pin connector keying itself clocked different) between the boxes. Part of my keep it stock looking mantra is that I DO NOT hack any factory wiring harnesses. So I got the cheapest blue module i could find just to cut off the 4-pin connector so that I could attach it to the red and not disturb the original core harness.





First time experiment with the 'solder-shrink' butt splices. Meh- for this type of job if I did it again I'd stick with my usual method of using non-insulated crimp butt slices, with shrink sleeve over each wire.




Anyway, so far it works.
with the old NAPA/China blue box I had 29-30 deg dwell at idle, with the dwell angle decreasing to 25 by 3000 rpm (not to mention that the dwell time is of course reduced as well with increasing rpm).
with the new red box I have 35 deg at idle, decreasing to 33-34 deg at 2400. That shows a design improvement imo.
Interestingly, the base timing at idle appears to be the same between the two boxes (15B in my case). For sure I noted the blue box retarded timing during cranking by 6-ish deg--not 100% sure on the new box that it is retarding during crank, but the starter isn't complaining.
I still need to check the run voltage at the coil primary with the new box.
Driving impression is that the off-idle responsiveness is slightly improved.
Not enough time yet to know if I'm killing the coil. I've got a spare horseshoe style ready just in case.
I'll probably open the plug gap up to .046 if everything still good after 100 miles or so.

 

What engine do you have? This is an interesting idea for sure. Please update us down the road on this.

If my memory is correct the best increase in throttle response I found back in the late 70's was bumping my ignition timing up a considerable amount on my 76 460. I have not tried this yet on my 77 460 I have now since it has been in the body shop for 7 months now.

 

The truck is a factory J-code (460).
I agree that getting the timing sorted out is perhaps the simplest (maybe not the easiest....) way to achieve max efficiency along with proper A/FR's
My DS2 dizzy has a sleeve to limit mech advance. I have "all-in" (20 deg mech adv) by 2600 revs. I do run the vac can with ported vac on top of that.

 

Smart thinking for sure, Yes let us know your long term outcome. And remember to help the air gap/air flow on the ign module by using some washers to "space" the module (when mounted), a bit off the inner fenderwell.

 

Thanks for the reminder, Rich. I also put some thermal grease (the white paste in the little white canister container) on the feet of the module to better conduct the heat.

 

It probably didn't plug in because Ford didn't want it to. Red box requires a different coil and resistor or no resistor. Ford is very good at making electric connectors fool proof. They did fail with the solenoid 2 wires. The explanation of the red box is in the shop manual, at least for the 79 cars. I don't have either.