Info on FBO ecu unit

Dave999 said
quite amusing BUT

that top picture is of the guts of a jaguar I6 or V12 lucas igntion unit not an FBO . presume accidental attachment due to big HEI bit in middle of small icon of picture

Its a lucas AB14 unit with a radio interferance supressor (capacitor) and a zener diode in the top right to clamp back emf to 350 volts the white bit is just an insulated connection for all the wires held down with a plastic rivet. there aint nowt special in there

these used genuine GM and delco HEI modules which could only put up with 350V back emf off the primary hence the zener diode protection.

the lower picture is of an FBO unit.

there is no relationship between the two items. the FBO unit i dug all of the potting compound out off i think used descrete compontents and the usual big chunk of power transistor.
but never bothered to own one so don't know the full history, using HEI is a bit of a swizz if its true.

one is made from late 90s onwards by FBO

one made/assembled by lucas in the UK from the mid 70s to to mid 80s.

FBO uses magnetic pickup for timing only. the one i pulled apart in the 2000s was a robust version of the mopar set up designed for 12 volt use and no ballast with a low ohm primary coil other versions may exist.

AB14 and all HEI uses magnetic pickup for timing and magnetic pickup signal amplitude for dwell control. and a laminated iron core coil, 12 volt no ballast 0.5 or 0.6 ohm primary

a replacement AB14 is about $400 thats one expensive aluminium case.
i'm happy to repair burnt out AB14s for $250 :) just send em to me... i'll pay the postage back

Dave

Hi Dave , good post . Do you know amplitude of GM pickup at some rpm and mopar stock pickup at some rpm ?
then we know dwell control rate from V/ rpm .
No need to reduce dwell until under ~ 3 k rpm to avoid coil overheat is why , and how they can eliminate ballast R So may do nothing till that area down ?
I thought chip in HEI looked at time between pulses not amplitude but either can work . But if amplitude , you might be screwed up with wring mopar vs GM pickup volts .
By the way HEI is a lot better conceptually than mopar , so those saying “ just a hei “ are leaving 1 k rpm on the table . Nothing wrong with early dual point either from old dodge v8 to 57 . more dwell , i think 55 back fits A block ( shaft length) .
Saw a dyno test where msd died on dyno 56 hemi , guy put dual point and ballast R he had on it exact same HP right to 6000. Nothing electronic to punt , 400 still in pocket too