At 08:16 PM 8/25/98 -0700, you wrote:
>OK, now its a fact that 92-96 daks are slower with ignition upgrades.
>Now I ask you what are your facts based on and why is it that there
>slower. Just because someone says its true doesnt mean its a fact. I
>am about one paycheck from doing this and want to know whats the pros
>and cons.
>
You're right; its generally not a good idea to just accept what someone
says on blind faith. Especially so for that Bill guy. ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)
However, this problem has been noticed by several people, with both
MSD's and Jacobs.
It would be GREAT to be able to figure out once and for all why this
is so, but for right now, all we've got is cause and effect. When the
ignition goes in, you slow down. This is a repeatable phenomenon. For
whatever reason, aftermarket ignitions slow down some vehicles. Its
sort of like the joke where a guy tells the doctor his arm hurts
"when I do this", so the doctor tells him "don't do that". So, that's
exactly what we're (not) doing, until we can find the root of the problem.
:-)
A friend of mine read an article in a magazine about this once. It
was a magazine about imports, but it might be the same thing. He had
forgotten a lot of the article, and I forgot a lot of what he told me
though. :-) I think it had something to do with plasma or some such thing;
I dunno. I'll check with him to see if he has that article; if I find it,
I'll let the list know what it says and what magazine and issue its printed
in.
Anyway, there's nothing stopping you from buying an ignition, but if
you do you might want to get some timeslips before and after (or even
a dyno run before and after). The aftermarket ignition probably WILL
make the engine start better and feel smoother, but a smoother engine
is not nescessarily a more powerful engine. Just driving it on the street
and trying to compare the power difference could be deceiving. (For
the same reason that a louder exhaust may make the truck feel more
powerful when its actually no different, or even slowed down. We human
beings are weird that way.) :-)
It might be a good idea to check with wherever you want to buy
the ignition to see if you can return it for a FULL refund if it doesn't
give you the results you want. Jacobs' advertisements say that they have a
money back guarantee, but ITS NOT TRUE! They charge a healthy restocking
fee (even if you're returning it because it didn't live up to its
claims) which can add up to some serious money. I believe one DML'er
lost well over $100 because of this.
While I'm ragging on Jacobs... ;-) I noticed something very interesting
(well, to me anyway) in their standard ad that they run in a bunch of
magazines (for the "Ultra Team", I think. Its the one where they promise
your money back if it doesn't live up to all these claims they list. (I
think it says "subject to X% restocking fee" in there somewhere too.
Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that after reading the entire ad
very carefully, it seemed to me like something was wrong, or missing. The
way it was worded seemed un-natural, almost like "politician speak". The
claims they mention sound like one thing, but could potentially be taken to
mean different things. They never actually come out and say that the Jacobs
will make more power or make you go faster than stock. Instead, they
say "improved performance" or something like that. It sure SOUNDS
like "more power" or "you'll go faster", but what is performance,
really? It means different things to different people. Could be
gas mileage. Could be engine efficiency or smoothness. The whole
ad is like that. It seemed fishy to me at the time, like they were going
out of their way to not make any specific power claims, and it could very
well be that it was purposely worded like that because there are some
vehicles where it just plain doesn't work. The Dakota appears to
be one of those vehicles.
IMHO, YMMV, etc... :-)
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ------------------------------------.
| Affiliations: DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA. RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT CC (14.85@90.72), '96 Kolb FireFly 447 |
`----------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'
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