With regard to rebuilt Bosch CDIs, rumor has it that in 1973 an engineer, at the now Systems Consulting, rebuilt a 3-pin Bosch CDI for Circle Porsche in Long Beach, CA.

Why? What was wrong with it?

I believe that comment is Mysocal(Dave) blowing his own horn.

You want a reliable, affordable, long lasting CDI go with Bob Ashlock - AshlockTech. He doesn't boast himself like other people and knows his way around a CDI. He gives you a report on exactly what failed in your original one. I run them in all my cars.

+1

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Please explain the hyperbole. Or don't you really understand what you're buying, like some?

You must have better things to do. I know I do so I have no desire to engage with you.

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Another satisfied Ashlock Tech customer here.

What was wrong with it?

Maybe you know, what does this mean?

high-performance upgrade

Surely you know what you're buying, right?

Dave - WE DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE BUYING. I think we made that clear.

My hope was to have an honest conversation regarding CDI function, failure modes, upgrades, etc. so we could be educated by folks with a strong understanding of the device.

You may be one of the preeminent sources of knowledge for ignition components, but as it sits you sound like a crazy old man yelling at clouds. For the benefit of pelicans everywhere, take us to school with facts and objective evidence or walk away so others feel comfortable to join the conversation.

Read post #6 & #17. It explained in there about one component that typically fails as the CDI ages, i.e. for the 6 pin Bosch, and needs replacing.
The 3-pin Bosch CDI rarely fails and many their waste money being told to have them rebuilt, a ripoff!

The original Bosch design is simple, provides the necessary spark energy, and once the key component is replaced is very reliable.
Like some Porsche products, e.g. "performance chips", many get taken "down the path" like lemmings and buy the hyperbole (BS).

If you have questions, present them on the Pelican Forum, and don't waste your money!

Have any questions?

One here too. He’s the real deal and a pleasure to work with.

I don't know why I bother, but here goes: My original Bosch 6-pin CDI failed. Fortunately, I have a spare. Unfortunately, it was at home and I was 15 miles away. Fortunately, my wife was home and brought it to me. I plugged in my spare box and restored ignition.

I sent my old unit to Bob Ashlock to rebuild including his upgraded internals, which he advertises as maintaining spark energy up to 8000 RPM, whereas the original design loses spark energy at high RPM. When I got it back, I plugged it into my car and put the other box in my frunk as a spare. I can't tell that it runs any better on his improved box, but I rarely go beyond 6000 RPM.

More than that, you would have to ask him.

You, like most, have no idea what's really been done differently, what the actual effects are, and what's the long term reliability!

Ok, I'll chime in with one poor feature of the original Bosch 3 and 6 pin designs - lack of internal voltage regulation.

The Bosch 3 and 6 pin CDI relies on the car's voltage regulator and the spark output is ratio metric to that voltage. In other words, a low regulator voltage produces a reduced spark output. Worse, if the regulator fails and the voltage increases beyond 16 volts then then output goes too high and CDI box destroys itself.

The Bosch 8 pin CDI (used on early Turbo, RSR and in racing) addresses this and has internal voltage regulation so it always has a constant primary coli voltage ( 300V ). Indeed, this improvement (and other improvements) in the 8 pin CDI make it a more reliable unit than a 3 or 6 pin box. We have had hundreds of failed 3 and 6 pin units through our workshop but I have only ever seen one failed 8 pin box.

So here we have a case where, yes, there are MORE components, it is more complex, but the 8 pin box is MORE reliable.

It does not necessarily follow that more complexity / components has to mean less reliability.