CB Performance programmable ignition timing BlackBox

Was wondering if anyone else here is running one of these?

http://www.cbperformance.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=2013


I've just installed one in my Dart to be able to finetune the ignition advance curve.
Stock Mopar distributors are a pain to change the ignition's timing curve on so I wanted to try a modern and easy to tune, digital approach.

Originally made for 4 cyl. VW bug engines, the control box also works with engines upto 8 cylinders. The BlackBox comes will a fairly simple (Windows) program where you can set some baseline limits and enter your preferred timing curve with. There's also a vacuum input on the control unit to take account for engine load.
You have to run a locked mechanical advance in your distributor and no vacuum advance hooked up to it, because this is now handled by the new ignition box.

Upto today I was using a Mopar chrome ECU with a Blaster 2 coil and a stock distributor with a modified advance curve.
As I was always wondering if some more power could be found in certain RPM-areas I decided to get one of these ignition control boxes and have a go at it.

There are a number of ways to connect the BlackBox to the current ignition system. I chose to let the BlackBox control the coil directly and bypassing the Mopar ECU, but I think I'm noticing a lack of spark-energy from the perhaps longer dwell of the Mopar Chrome box.
Will try to do a rewire tomorrow to see if I can keep the Mopar ECU in the loop.

Yeah post how it works for you. iirc MSD has one (similar) with the (3) adjustable circuits but the tech told me it wont work with vac adv so I passed (this was decades ago).

I wasn't able to connect the BlackBox and keep the Mopar ECU in the system aswell.
The BlackBox allows for plenty ways of connecting into a car's ignition system but I couldn't figure out quickly how to 'trigger' the Mopar ECU by using the BlackBox.

As this is my daily driver, I wanted to either get it running better than yesterday, or I would go back to the stock ignition system and play with the BlackBox on another car someday.
I decided to use a GM module as a simple trigger unit which seemed to work better than connecting the BlackBox directly to the coil.





All in all, after an afternoon of rewiring and driving around a bit to come up with a better tune, I can say the system seems to work nicely.
To this point I've only focussed on the most used area of the timing map (upper left / Idling and cruising) and will try to fine tune the other areas later on.

For my engine and fuel (propane LPG, 8.6:1cr, 2-bbl 318), this is the preliminary timing map I've come up with today which feels OK to drive around with. Only at the mid/higher rpm's (3000+) the engine seems to want to skip and miss at times.