Does the ford howell setup control spark?

[treihesse]

I bought m u current motor from a ffriend and I'm not sure if the howell tbi controls the duraspark ignition? How would I check this?

 

[DirtDonk]

I'm pretty sure that at least some versions did not control spark. But they might have different offerings like some companies do, where you can option it out to control spark.
Seems like that would be a good thing if it's available.

Is yours already set up with a Howell? If so you should be able to follow the distributor and module harnesses to see if either is connected to the Howell computer. Since they might be using Chevy computers, and most Chevy's I thought controlled the spark too, you might have that.
If no connections to the distributor or module though, I'd have to say that it does not have spark control capability.

Paul

 

[broncnaz]

There is no ford specific howell setup . But Im pretty sure the system is capible of having computer controlled spark. Its just GM TBI. You'll probably need to contact howell for exact hook up on a duraspark.

 

[Broncobowsher]

Either the ignition is of the conventional setup (mechanical and vacuum advance) and runs completely independent of the EFI, only provides a tach signal.

Or someone has modified the distributor to lock the advance mechanism and the EFI controls the timing.

Since the Howell system can be set up either way it is hard to know for sure from the outside. I would start by pulling the cap and feel if the advance mechanism feel like it is still free.

 

[treihesse]

It moves into the vacum module easily

 

[Buldozer]

The answer is OBDI does control spark though the Ignition Control Module (ICM) but that can be eliminated from the setup because OBD I defaults to the fixed control when it senses a problem. So some TBI suppliers supply with and without spark advance. You want WITH if you have a choice IMO.