70 RR 383....looking to upgrade stock points etc to electronic ignition. Try to keep as stock looking as possible.... best options etc?

The Mopar kit if you can find one. Some people try to hide the orange box. But anyone who has driven a points car understands that they all need electronic ignition.

Petronics makes a module that plugs into the distributor for GM and Ford. it eliminates the points and easy to install. I would "think" they'd have something for a mopar also. Fastest easiest way I'm aware of.

This one...?

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pro-440-428

I like the pertronix kit that replaces the points.

I've got about 30 years on one of my Pertronix and about 20 on my other one.

Having owned a resto repair shop that does ONLY pre 1980 vehicles for well over 2 years I will offer my opinion.
The aftermarket systems (petronix, mallory, Crane (now fast), Accel, etc) are OK until they aren't. One is then stuck wherever they may be until parts become available. If you happen to be out of town it's either motel of flatbed time.
However, if one stays with the factory systems parts are available most anywhere. I learned this many year ago at 2:30 AM when I washed my engine down at a car wash. Yes 2;30 AM. I was working swing at the time . I thought I was smart and prepared with paper towels etc.
Of course it was a no start. No problem, I WAS prepared, until the rotor center contact went PING onto the floor of the wash bay. At the time there were still actual service stations open with cabinets full of factory replacement parts. Problem was I had a Mallory Dist.
SOL until the next day when the speed shops opened, (remember those?)
I just had a call yesterday from someone needing a MSD cap and rotor for a Ford application, he was hoping I might have a used one. I told him the closest I was aware of was Speedway motors in Lincoln on Monday morning.
Had it been a factory style system, any of the many parts stores would have had what was needed to get him back on the road.
At this point I'm going to assume you know my recommendation and why.
When doing a Mopar conversion kit, I usually put the control module on the radiator support as it's, 1. out of the way. 2. hardly noticeable. 3 cooler temp wise. With a BB, BONUS, distributor and all is very close by

No, dat one be Chineze

Lots of places you can hide a GM module. There are a number of good how to's all over the various Mopar forums( including Moparts)

The petronix kit is what you want. There is only one wire that it would take a sharp eye to notice on my car that would give it away. The ballast is a decoy too. I’ve used these for years without failure, but I hedged and solved the o’dark thirty parts problem with the old points distributor in the trunk. I simply marked the block and the distributor with a sharpie so the timing will be really close when I drop it in. Good enough to make it home. I’m not actually worried about it since I’ve had many of these setups for many years without a failure. The guy that sold me the whole distributor this time said the petronix 1 is the most reliable and so I went with that because my car is all stock. He did say the other models are usually bad right out of the box of they are going to give you trouble.

Your other option is the mopar kit. Most people accept that as “stock” so that’s a plus. I’ve gone that way before and really the cleanest and really best way to do it is with the year one upgraded harness. If you don’t have a new harness wait until you see how much better things are with a fresh one, with the icing on the cake being the built in electronic ignition wiring. It really makes the electronic kit look like it grew there at the factory and I’d venture a guess most people would think your car came with it new doing it this way. You probably have the later voltage reg so that would be a plug and play deal already. Certainly a nice upgrade for a 69 down car, but it throws a stock appearance out the window for sure.

You can get into hiding the ecu box, problem with that is the distributor wire is a giveaway so it’s not accomplishing a whole lot.

Anyone knowing enough to notice that will also notice that the Petronix distributor wire is wrong as well.

Google pertronix failure and prepare to reconsider using that.

Well...Petronics is not hard to install and IF I installed it I would keep a small pouch of tools (screw driver and feeler gauge) in the trunk or glove box with the original point setup just in case the 1 in 100000 chance the petronics crapped out. How many in the forum carry a spare ballast resistor. And I could care less if someone "spotted" the difference because of a wire.

Ever since I have been driving Mopars . . . have ALWAYS carried a spare ballast resistor (all my cars have been either points - carried spare points, and then factory electronic ignition) . . . just one of those things you "learn" about your car - especially when a young person that can't afford to be paying someone else to work on car. Used to be I would hit the wrecking yard, find a car with electronic ignition, then grab the distributor, ECU, ballast resistor and wiring . . . pretty sure you can't to that anymore . . .

On my Sport Satellite, when I restored it, I put new wiring harness on it. Got the one with electronic ignition wiring, but extended the wiring so I could mount the ECU under the battery . . . and carry spare ballast resistor, ECU, voltage regulator, and alternator. Oh, and spare fuel filter . . . seems I have helped others with my "parts bin" in the trunk, more than I have needed. . . .

Cheers

Mark

I have never carried a spare ballast resistor, never had one go bad either.

As for the wire, someone else used that as an excuse to not use the factory electronic ignition.

I wouldn't us a petronix if it was free and they gave me a spare to keep in the glove box. As with most things of late, the older versions seem decent, the new stuff is a crapshoot. I'll keep my point first.

Looks like for the price I could just carry a spare Petronics...lol

There are a couple of models...Ignitor...Ignitor II and Ignitor III Any inputs on the diference? Ignitor is avalable on Amazon......

mine is probably 30 years old and back then they only had the very basic one. literally a 10 minute install.

I doubt that. The petronix wire looks like a stock wire. The electronic distributor plug definitely doesn’t look like anything related to a pints distributor.

Google will tell you whatever you type in. It actually shuffles the deck based on the words you type. I’ll go with the miles and years of trouble free service I’ve had so far. Add to that Halifax Hops experience that they are bad out of the box or are generally trouble free. The OP wants a stock look so that pretty much leads to petronix.

It’s not an excuse. It’s the reason what the guy asked for requires petronix to get as close as possible to a factory look.

I guess I do more driving, as I’ve had a ballast go bad. I do tend to put in more miles than most people. Not many people have used a 68-71 mopar for a three season daily driver when they were over thirty years old like I have.

Depends on what you are trying to accomplish. The 1st one will work fine on a stock engine. I currently have a 69 440 hp running great with one and iridium plugs. I use the matching coil. The 2 version has more spark higher in the range and I’ve had good luck with those too. the 3 model has multi spark. I’ve not used that one yet.

Pertronics has 2 wires coming out of the distributor , the OP's 1970 has one .

The old pertonics , maybe 15 20 years ago were good , the new ones made in someplace not in the North American continent ... not so much.

I'd convert a spare distributor and carry the original single point as a back up.