Electronic Spark Control

[Chris350]

Questions on this system. It appears the knock sensor is disconnected and the vacuum "tip-in" sensor had a vacuum cap on it. Is there any part of the system still making adjustment? i know there are different opinions on the matter but what are the pros and cons of running the system? Last question, when I upgrade the motor to a 350-400 hp 355ci engine, would it still operate ok for that if I chose to keep it?

 

[SirRobyn0]

Questions on this system. It appears the knock sensor is disconnected and the vacuum "tip-in" sensor had a vacuum cap on it. Is there any part of the system still making adjustment? i know there are different opinions on the matter but what are the pros and cons of running the system? Last question, when I upgrade the motor to a 350-400 hp 355ci engine, would it still operate ok for that if I chose to keep it?

Ok, if the knock sensor is disconnected and the tip in sensor is plugged off then the ESC is non-functional. In being non-fuctional the distributor would be at full advance and you'd be having a very serious problem with pinging. So I'd suspect that the distributor has been replaced or modifid to operate in the standard fashion. There are a couple ways you can tell but the easiest way is to remove the ignition cap and look at the module. If it's a 4 pin module the ESC system has been for all intents and purposes deleted. If it's a 5 pin then the distributor is still setup for the ESC. My opinion if it's not got a pinging problem I wouldn't worry about it any further. But if it is a 5 pin module, when you switch to the larger horsepower engine I'd also get a standard (non-ESC) HEI distributor to drop in there. For two reasons, One ESC was never used on anything other than the 305, and was designed for that smaller lower output motor. The second reason is the ESC system is not functioning in it's current state, so why keep part of a non-functional system?