Distributor timing
Turbo Mini Forums

How do you set or modify a std dizzy that (non electronic) now has to cope with boost. (OK, low boost of 0.5 to 0.7) I'M worried about detonation at high load. Current budget dont allow fancy bits yet.

I beleive you lock the dizzy centrifugal advance weights so it is fixed

Metro turbo weekend driver,Mini turbo in the making again!

The ignition advance is controlled by springs and bob weights inside the dizzy. Altering these alters the igntion curve, this is the same for both points and electronic ign.
You could lock the dizzy like Dangerous said, and set it to something like 25 deg. A few people do this and it seems to work ok, though the car probably won't drive quite as well as a properly setup dizzy with the correct advance curve.

Phil.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

That's all very well, but you'll also then lose a lot of economy as you're running a fixed 25 degrees under light cruise. At the least, you need to be pulling 3 degrees off the total timing as that boost comes in. If you're running a T3 then we know it won't be making significant boost till it's on the second spring. So, you can add a slightyly stiffer spring here, or take the easier (but slightly amateaurish) option of drilling the second bob-weight to not advance so rapidly with rpm. Ultimately, you need to limit total advance however, so you need to 'build up' the end-stop on the base plate with a few drops of weld.
I can't give you a figure for how-much to build up unfortunatelly, but set your total advance to 27ish degrees and all should be well. Ish.

All this advise sounds like its not exactly what you would do!
I there an ideal dizzy or device (electronic) that i should use?
I've been reading 1980's turbo books. (old tech) Some tuners used to change the vacuum-adv to retard under boost! I gather around 3-degs is whats needed. (for info: std 1275, T2, TOYOTA Intercooler 1 3/4 SU , +-0.6 BOOST)

Question: Any one know of electronic dizzy from othes brands of cars that can be made to fit MINI without re-inventing the wheel?

There is an ideal device, it is known as mapped igntion.

The cheap and effective way of achieving this is to use a MegaJolt ECU to control commonly available Ford igntion modules and coilpacks.

Have a search on this site for a guide written by Nic on how to go about doing this.