All of the electronic ignitions that operate as an Inductor system (not as a Capacitive Discharge unit) have some common operating items:
(1) A power transistor that is used to ground the negative side of the coil (just like the points did). Just like the points, these transistors have limitations as to how many amps and volts they can handle and for how long. When a set of instructions tells you what the minimum allowable ohms of resistance may be in the coil - they are indirectly telling you what the transistor can handle. Volts equals Amps times OHMs - if you know the Volts and the OHMs - you can figure the Amps. Volts times Amps equals Watts - the power rating for the transistor (there is a missing time factor here). The real capacity of the unit is something in WATT milliseconds.
(2) An integrated circuit chip that controls timing - it sets the "dwell" time to close the power transistor and charge the coil. Some are "smart" - alter the dwell with rpm to try and extend the coil charge time for more performance (and reduce it at idle to save the transistor from heating)......and some just use a fixed amount that suits low/medium rpm and that's it. You can test your unit by simply hooking up a "dwell tachometer" to the negative post of your coil and getting an idea of the dwell your system runs at. If the Accel sytem is variable that would be a good thing -assuming the dwell increases with RPM. I've got a good idea the basic Pertronix Ignitor doesn't.
(3) A trigger to monitor engine crankshaft revolutions via some sort of "no wear" magnetic device mounted in the distributor. Most of these are pretty trouble free. The Ford Duraspark II unit is notably bulletproof. The MSD distributors use the Ford trigger system.
There is really only one performance related thing you can personally control when you buy one of these systems - how many watts can you feed the coil. If the instructions say 1.5 OHMs total resistance (like the Pertronix Ignitor) - make sure that's what you've got, no more no less. Do away with the ballast resistor and buy a coil with 1.5 OHMs resistance. The GM HEI timing system - and I think your Accel unit is using the same dwell time controller - doesn't care too much about coil OHMs - it simply adjusts the dwell ("on time") to control transistor heating. If you have too much resistance in an HEI type system you will lose performance because you can't leave the coil "on" long enough to get good performance as the rev's go up. Choose a lower resistance coil for that sort of application.
Steve Metzger Tucson, Arizona