for the 5.3, I am going total luddite build on this one. basically 100+ year old technology that is still with us today vs the electronic-du-jour that will not be around next year. controlling the suck-squish-bang-blow in a manor that will remain relevant next year as well as 2050
Induction will be a Victor Jr clone intake and a holley HP830 carb. simply because bernoulli's principle still applies and I can get parts for a 40 year old carb where I can not get parts for a 40 year old EFI setup
the coils and their placement have already been determined and they will go in the cowl to hide them. they will not be sitting on the engine as that just looks wrong
that leaves spark management. going down a rabbit hole of thoughts and parts research for the Fiat build
on one hand, the MSD 60143 ignition controller.
The MSD 6014 LS Ignition controller works with 24x/1x and 58x/4x crank/cam configurations. It auto-detects the correct configuration based on the reluctor wheel pattern, so there is no need to select one. It provides six pre-programmed (non-editable) timing tables for stock engines, three...
www.holley.com
this is designed for the LS, it requires both the cam sensor and crank sensor (both which often fail) to deliver a spark. I can customize the maps, and there is a 2-bar MAP sensor should I need one. while the 6014 is a giant leap beyond the 6010 or 6012....... they still have about a 3% failure rate
or I can go billet flathead V8 mechanical advance dizzy and simply modify the timing cover and make a cam drive for the dizzy tang
Its billet, based on a simple magnetic pickup and has mechanical advance. it has two components that potentially can fail, the pickup and the cap
the cool factor would be the dizzy if I have room. however that remains to be seen as the radiator is only a few inches forward of the block
the easy factor would be the FUGLY MSD box.
the low cost factor is the dizzy
the expensive option is the MSD
the only thing holding me back on the dizzy is space and the fact that the dizzy uses a crab cap...... those that know the internal design flaw of these cross-talking beauties