Duraspark and Spark Plug Questions

[colnago]

Okay, I converted to a Duraspark II system about six months ago. It's been working fine, but I was wondering if it could work better. So, I have a few questions for the group.

- Currently, I'm using the ballast resistor to the coil. Should I bypass the resistor, and send a full 12V to the coil?

- If I send 12V to the coil, should I get a high-power coil? Will it fry the stock coil? It's the Standard Motor Products FD-476, and I can't find any info on it.

- If I send 12V to the coil, will I see anything, or will I just get bragging rights? The engine is pretty stock.

- My Chilton's guide says the spark plug gap for my 352 is 0.034, but for the 1975+ model years (electronic ignition), the 390 gap should be 0.044. Which to use, or should I use something different? If I widen it, will I notice a difference?

I most likely have more questions, but these are what come to mind tonight.

Thanks,

Joseph

[sargentrs]

Whenever I swap to Duraspark I always bypass the resistor by installing a relay and pulling source voltage directly from the battery. Never had a problem. I also choose the coil for the same application I used for the distributor and ignition box reference. As it just so happens, the SMP FD476 is the coil spec'd for a 1977 F150 with Duraspark. Rockauto details say it is a 12V coil. Since I've never run the Duraspark setup through a resistor I can't speak to a difference in the way it runs with/without, but it does run better than the points setup run through a resistor. I also always upgrade my plug wires to 8mm performance shielded wires and set my plug gap to .044. 3 different installs on 3 different vehicles and It's always worked well for me.