I have been looking at pertronix ignitor ignition systems is it worth the money ? how reliable are they ? my engine is stock with points distributor, should i leave it points distribution? would it be worth installing or is their a better brand (setup).

Going to electronic is always good, and more reliable(never needs service) Pertronix is a good brand. Depends on what you do with the car. Occasional cruise night, daily driver, race car?

I know alot of guys still run points and have no problems.

Pertronix may be a little drastic for your application, a stock HEI unit would do fine, just make sure you have the room for the larger dist. cap, some have clearance issues with the firewall.

http://davessmallbodyheis.com/ I went with this style. It looks original and is curved for your application.

I've used the Ignitor and the Ignitor II. I'm a fan of their products. I'm not sure how anyone could consider this more drastic than an HEI. You just remove the cap and put the Ignitor in place of the points. It's simple.

I thought he meant a whole distributor swap out...

This is simply my opinion:

I've told this before but for what it's worth here it goes again. When I bought my bird it had an HEI dist from a mid 70s Pontiac. I absolutely hated the look of the HEI unit. Purchased and installed a stock dist and installed a Pertronix Ignitor II. My car developed a breaking up issue (later found it to be the hood tach beleive it or not due to a major wiring screw up). I thought it may have been the Pertronix unit so we removed it and installed stock points.

After having all three systems in my car I can honestly say I did not notice one ounce of performance gain with any of the three. I just recently replaced that set of points after 15 months and 15k miles. The car ran absolutely perfect with the points and the only reason I replaced them at 15k was due to a non start issue that later turned out to be the ignition switch.

So all in all I personally would not bother "upgrading" to a Pertronix type unit as I found there to be no benefit. Now I will concede that once the points are elliminated your ignition system is basically now problem free, but then again I have yet to have any issues with points. Not too mention points are $5 and you could buy a lifetime supply of them for the cost of a Pertronix unit.

A few years ago, on previous engine, I "upgraded" from points to the Petronic. I really didn't notice any difference.

to get the full performance gain, you need the Pertronix AND an MSD 6AL.
....if only there were someone on the board selling something like that.........
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The nice thing about the Pertronix, is that you retain the stock cap and look, and don't have to diddle with points any longer. Mine has performed flawlessly and I wouldn't change it for anything else.

I agree, much cleaner look opposed to a big ole red brick screwed to the firewall with drywall screws (seen it many times) with a bright red dist cap etc.

There is. The Pertronix Ignitor III is exactly what you described in one product with no big MSD box.

Wow, I have not been around in a bit, log in today and see a thread on this. I recently installed the Pertronix III in my car. It works very well with one exception that I need to work out. At very low idle, it seems to want to stall. I think I need to reprogram it to be a few hundred RPM's higher.

Installation was a breeze and the only other thing I replaced besides the points system was the coil. The new one looks almost identical to stock with the exception of a sticker.