Ballast, Blaster II, ohms, current, friggin volts!

Awesome. The three people I wanted to hear from. Thanks very much!

I can grasp the generalities of the behaviour but havent had any education in theory or applied theory so it quickly gets beyond me. I did think the ballast would behave differently as it go hotter so the testing of resistance would be difficult and yield varying numbers (maybe there is more than that reason). This project is a complete waste of time in order to test a radiator I bought used. I thought I would try some citric acid in mild solution to clean the radiator by running it on an engine.

The icu is hei 4 pin, mid grade Napa. Was going to power it with a relay activated by a run switch.

Saturday I decided to just get my 360 running that was sitting in the back 40 for 2 years as the flywheel I had for the /6 did not fit (center hole too small in flywheel) maybe not even a /6 flywheel. Built about half the mobile test stand so far. Going to transfer the electrical panel over to the new stand.

Ignitions are very interesting to me and so are electromagnetic fields, so thanks much for the responses. I need to re-read them and look up some stuff and hopefully learn something.

I wasn't sure if 4 pin hei had dwell control and or limiting. I reckon it would since the mopar unit used the ballast as a current / voltage limiter. Still not fully clear on current limiting, seems that would be voltage limiting. I think dwell control is duration for coil saturation but seems it would be at full voltage. Maybe there are derivations which combine both.

What control behaviors do 4 pin hei and 8 pin hei have regarding dwell and current limiting features? Is current limiting implemented by voltage limiting from ecu to coil?

I guess I am doing away with the ballast if 4 pin hei can handle the dwell and current to the coil.