Aftermarket ignition ...do you really need one?

[1] Phil Jacobs, founder of Jacobs ign systems says in his book: you do not want to trade current for voltage. That is because it is the heat in the current that ignites the mixture; the voltage is merely the enabler for the current to flow.

[2] CD [ capacitor discharge ] ign. The various 'box' igns. They work on a different principle to inductive igns, such as points, Chrys Elec, HEI etc.

[3] A CD spark has a very high energy output, about 150 mA. A Bosch 4 pin HEI module [ similar to GM HEI ] has a 60 mA spark. A single point dist starts off with 30mA at 1000 rpm....& drops to 5mA at 5000 rpm [ V8 engine ].

[4] A CD spark has much less duration than an inductive spark. That is why CD ign is often used with 2 stroke engines because the duration is so short that the spark does not have time to bleed off.

[5] My understanding is that when Autronics developed the MSD 6 ign, they were getting misfires at low rpms; this is because a long duration spark is needed at low rpm. So a bright spark [ pun intended ] said, 'We will make it multi spark'. Marketing trumps engineering failure!

[6] It is absurd to say as a blanket statement that an after market ign system won't help.