Progression Ignition Distributor
 

Looking into buying one for my GTO, I like the blu tooth programmable ability of it.....anyone using it or any thoughts? Thanks!



GTO George

I bought one but haven't got the engine done yet.

I'm also interested in any first hand info on this and close to pulling the trigger myself.

There are videos on YouTube!
Price is around $520 for the small cap distributor.

GTO George

I've watched a couple videos which is why I'm so interested. I always look to the py forums for trusted reviews on new products used on Pontiacs.

Pretty sure I'm buying one for next year, my car hits so violently off the starting line I need to find a way to calm it down a bit.


GTO George

I installed mine recently. I had a hard time figuring out exactly where I wanted to set all of the timing, but ended up using a Sniper Street/Strip example as a template to base mine on. I love it so far. One tank of gas primarily around town got 13.5mpg (rather than 12 for a city/highway mix before,) and I just made a 320 mile drive today up over a 4,500' windy mountain incline and back. I got 17.5 mpg on the run and it was smooth the whole way.

I thought a car like yours would have a MSD Grid on it. Grid and a crank trigger.
You can put sensors on your driveline and wheels and do anything you need. But not cheap after you are done.

This thing looks like it is more for hot street cars.
Pretty cool though, nice features for the money.

Thats all I have is a HOT street car! :)


GTO George

Bumping this up because I just pulled the trigger and ordered one HEI style.

Anyone else have any updates?

A friend of mine ordered one and is just now installing it in his car. I am quite interested to see how well it performs. Once we have some real world data, I will report back as well.

I haven't gotten around to installing mine yet.........maybe for the Pontiac race at Norwalk.



GTO George

I just installed one. The piece is well made and we timed it up with the light at 10 degrees. Curves then can be programmed on the fly. IPAD in the cockpit. The vacuum advance feature is pretty cool. you can set how many degrees and the upper and lower vacuum limits where it kicks in and out. you also get real time vacuum readings on its gauge readings.

one word of caution: if you get connectivity problems and not running right, you need to find a better 12V power source. we used a power line that was running something else and it did not like it. Ran a better one straight from the fuse panel and boom connection perfect.

Having a pump gas and race gas tune easily accessible will be pretty cool. Right now my timing is locked at 18 deg which works great with pump gas and 10 psi boost. My race gas tune is to not touch the timing and bump the boost up to 18lbs. Lol
It works but what's left on the table I don't know.

Received my Progressive HEI today and thought I'd post a few notes.

The cap is high quality with brass terminals.

Shaft play is .020

I know the billet word is used a lot but the housing is actually a fully machined casting. Quite obvious under the cap and still looks very nice.

The housing has provision for a vacuum advance which is blocked off with metal and plastic cover so I would assume this housing is just a re-purposed one from another standard offshore unit.

Won't be installing for a few days since we are breaking heat records here and my garage is 45C right now.

Will update once installed...

I installed my HEI version late last fall but just recently got it on the road. The versatility of this distributor and it’s features are way beyond what I can do with a stock unit.

For example I have a “Cold Start” map set up with 35 degrees at idle so now I don’t have to baby sit the throttle on cold starts. Once I get going and the engine warms up I simply switch maps on the fly.

Another bonus is that you can set idle timing (in P or N) where your engine likes it and when you shift into D the timing can be set a few degrees higher for a super smooth transition with minimal rpm drop.

I don’t have slicks so wheel spin has been a huge challenge that I try to control by feathering the throttle but I’m hoping with the right timing settings at lower rpm it will get the car moving forward instead of lighting up the the tires.

Progression recently updated they’re app so now we could share maps with each other.

I just watched their videos. That is pretty slick. What an improvement over other tech.

Installed and working.

This does everything as advertised and after tinkering with it for just a morning, I have a nice 10psi tune set up. Even cured a minor part throttle miss that I couldn't get rid of on the old set up. Having a a/f ratio and egt data logger combined with this is about as good as it gets when using carburetors.

I just ordered one for my 455 w iron heads to make it easier to tune for Dragweek. Anyone have setups / files that can be shared that I can use as a starting point? ~Lowell


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I’ve been testing and tweaking a fuel map for my stroked 461. It’s working great for all conditions from idle to. cruise to WOT but like most of us there is no end game when it comes to tuning.
Just provide me your Progression account email address and I’ll forward it