Installed distributor - Now it makes a bad noise

yeah, it basically looks the same. I'm pretty sure the pickup in the old distributor is what was wrong with that one so i don't think swapping it over would help. its dark now so I really don't want to change the distributor again anyway. I've already done it a few times today.

I'm wondering where the noise is coming from. If combustion happened too early in the up stroke of the piston would that be enough to stop the engine rotation and make a gnarly sound?