B20A top speed

[Burdekin]

Rob at Amazon cars I'm pretty sure he says he's never had a 123 dizzy fail and they don't bother carrying a spare in any of their rallies as they are so reliable. Also if you have a tuned engine and want it to rev over 6000 is it then you don't want a mechanical dizzy. Each to their own but for me electronic ignition is very much the way to go.

[classicswede]

They are normally very reliable. A customer (also on this forum) drove all the way to Russia and back so had some very cold conditions to cope with. The amazon is his daily driver and does a lot of miles.

As with anything electronic failures can happen. I would consider the old points dizzy part of your spares with HT leads and plugs

[classicswede]

Originally Posted by Khe Sanh

Also if you have a tuned engine and want it to rev over 6000 is it then you don't want a mechanical dizzy. Each to their own but for me electronic ignition is very much the way to go.

That is news to me, the old mechanical dizzy has always been happy to rev to 8000rpm all day long. What changed in the past few years?

[Clan]

Originally Posted by amaz'in

As always, an interesting comment there by Clan, namely relating to the 123 dizzy. I'm in Norfolk, close to the Norfolk/Suffolk border in fact which of course puts me in the promised land as far as four of the Amazon specialists are concerned, just 8/9/14 and 40 miles away from each with 40 being Simon at Ipswich, to think that the Guru Nick of the original Amazon cars was just down the road when he ran the business, smashing bloke but anyway I digress.

Well last year, my car went locally for the fitting of a 123 'tune' Dizzy, and it was after a 'LOT' of procrastination, my thinking that the original still worked perfectly (as much as I could tell) after 50 years but the lure of better running, smoother idling piqued my curiosity and finally got the better of me, note here, I didn't do it to avoid changing points, I actually thoroughly enjoy that.

To be entirely honest, did it idle a smidge smoother...yes and although you noticed it was not night and day, could I tell any difference at any other road speed, not in the 100 miles use I had from it, yup you read that correctly, 100 miles.....it failed on me, and yes it was brand new, top model (123 Tune) and installed by the pro's, luckily I was on a back road and being a doubting Thomas had the original in the boot so managed to re-install it, and twist it backwards and forwards until she fired and for it to get me home.

I'm sure I was unlucky, although I have been told 'they do go wrong' (yes everything does) so I presume many of you have may them and have had no real issues, any of you racked up fairly decent mileages on one yet? Mine was sent off and returned as new but still not brave enough to trust it again at the present.

well there you go ...

The Lumenition is another one i wouldn't trust , back in the 70's i had Lumenition and it was dead reliable there were only 5 components inside , when Lumenition came back in the 90's it was much poorer quality ( cost cutting no doubt ) and were simply unreliable , My 1970's Lumenition lasted until 1983 when i went over to Bosch from a 240 .
Today get a Bosch ignition control unit and distributor sender from a B21E ( GLT ) up until about 1984 , that will work with most Bosch distributors and is Utterly reliable still going strong today on one of my cars after 300,000 miles + whatever the 240 did before i took the ignition off it !

OR ..... Just use genuine Bosch points , you will always get it going again in the unlikely situation they give trouble .

[Burdekin]

Originally Posted by classicswede

That is news to me, the old mechanical dizzy has always been happy to rev to 8000rpm all day long. What changed in the past few years?

Have you an actual engine that you are revving to 8000rpm? Want to post it up?

This is from Rob at Amazon cars, he seems quite knowledgeable, he actually rallies cars and builds and services engines. You can actually see the knowledge and quality of his work with all his YouTube videos. :-)

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Khe Sanh

Have you an actual engine that you are revving to 8000rpm? Want to post it up?

This is from Rob at Amazon cars, he seems quite knowledgeable, he actually rallies cars and builds and services engines. You can actually see the knowledge and quality of his work with all his YouTube videos. :-)

People were revving to 8000 or 9000 rpm in racing in the 60's with Points , lucas brought out special strong spring points for such cases .. ( the Austin Cooper " S" was the first car to take advantage of these .

[Burdekin]

Originally Posted by Clan

People were revving to 8000 or 9000 rpm in racing in the 60's with Points , lucas brought out special strong spring points for such cases .. ( the Austin Cooper " S" was the first car to take advantage of these .

Yeah but how was the power distribution? Electronic is more reliable and no loss at those rev ranges is the point, not that mechanical doesn't work.

[Burdekin]

https://youtu.be/JmOgyGXauMk

[amaz'in]

Also thought I would chime in regarding top speed, I consider Derek to be bang on the mark with this, maybe 92/93 for a 121/131 and a genuine 100 mph for an 'S'.

I have had a fair few, beginning with a B18 S, 123 GT, a 222 S Estate, and two more B20 S cars before my current B20 S 'Ingrid', and have Alice, my 69 B20 131.

Figures from back in the day back this up precisely, with 101 being cited (and measured) for the B18B and B20 B cars all of which were in standard trim. With Overdrive it would usually curtail top speed to around 95 on the S.

In South Africa they actually got the option of the B18 B engine in the 122S. Volvo had a rule it couldn't be used in countries where the same engine was used in the P1800 (123 Gt a different matter) and in S.A the P1800 wasn't officially available so they got the 115 engine, and I believe the car was tested at 101.7 mph, note this was using test equipment and not using Volvo's overly optimistic Speedometer.

Interestingly, they worked out, via rpm, gearing and so forth that the car should be able to achieve 107 mph but I guess the Amazon's bluff aerodynamics ruled against this

Yes of course 120/140 cars did go faster but I'm not including tuned/modified cars in my opinions here, that's another very interesting topic.

[amaz'in]

Rob supplied and fitted my 123 tune, they exchanged it and its currently sitting in my drawer whilst I'm hoping I'm the unlucky one in order to get confidence back in the product.

I'm sure I was simply incredibly unlucky but the person who told me 'its not unheard of for them to go wrong' has currently been working with Amazon's longer than anyone I know of. In truth no product is perfect, and yes it did Idle smoother, I was expecting a little more from it in all honesty, across the Rev range, considering the technology is some 60 years newer, but again admit I had a very limited time with it fitted to the car, it was in use for less than a week.

Khe Sanh (and others) how are your experiences with the 123, not just at idle but in general driving, rev range etc?

Oddly electronic isn't always the best, The Russian Mig fighter was deliberately fitted with Vales or 'tubes' as our American cousins call them because they were resistant to Emp pulses and the plane would continue to fly rather than fall out of the sky under just such an attack.

Mind you that's an extreme example lol..I'm not expecting an EMP attack in Ingrid anytime soon.