Chinese slant/6 HEI / Ready to Run / sold on ebay Distributor

A friend in Oz asked me to collect and store a load of Jensen Interceptor wheels for him so that he could arrange shipment from UK to Oz once, rather than per wheel. As payment/thanks, and at my request, he sent me a Ready to Run distributor from an Australian supplier of car based Chinese ingenuity.
mine is a 7005-b for a hemi 6
for a slant you would have the slightly shorter 7005-C

it arrived well packed in a in triple thickness sealed plain box
its a six cylinder distributor but they (the seller or manufacturer) appear to have accidentally put a V8 cap on it.... first failure
to try it out i needed a Cap but no way was i going to pay £36 shipping and import of a $19 cap for a distributor that could be scrap out of the box.... so a solution needed to be found


Research followed

first impressions
Nice well machined casting with good fit into the bore of my spare engine block
the black nylon gear engages well.
shaft is same size as slant.
the shaft appears to ride on bearings in the head and standard bushes in the base
the pickup and reluctor are robust
there is nothing new or innovative about the advance armature apart from instead of a snap ring it is held on with a cross head threaded bolt and lock washer under the rotor.
the vacuum advance pod arm was at an angle which meant you could unlatch it from the advance mechanism by twisting the advance plate. it worked to advance the plate but could be disconnected by twisting it back, but i want it to stay engaged. ham fisted assembly by the look of things
The wires from the pickup are solidly mounted and flexible in soft insulation, wire follows a sensible route.
the advance mechanism follows the bosch style. swing out weights driving the rotor armature round with a standard spring and a long loop spring
the weight stops are pressed metal poles that can be bent in or out to adjust max mechanical advance
the weights have plastic bushes and a plastic foot.
the module is a generic copy of an australian bosch module
on the whole not bad apart from the 2 failures noted previously.
to fix the engagement of the vacuum advance i made a very slight bend in the arm and now it stays engaged all the time
the vacuum can is fully activated at 12 "Hg

I did google & google image search etc to find a Cap but, really got into it and ended up with this lot

Chinese Ready to run
in the 70s Holden and Chrysler In Australia both used the Australia/Asia Pacific Bosch company for their distributors for some of their cars , Lucas or parent OEM for the rest dependent on motor and year.
"Euro" Bosch below the advance plate and manufacturer specific coil switching above.
The hemi 6 slant 6 and Holden Red and black 6 Cyl motors all have the same sized bore for the distributor...
the only difference is the depth. meaning you can make a distributor and cut shaft and housing to length to fit all 3 which means the advance curve is probably not very good for any of them.

The "Ready to Run" chinese HEI seems to be based on a mid 80s Australian Bosch designed HEI system created for GM Holden "black Engine" a 6 cylinder.

DSM in sydney seem to be the Australian importer of an Engineworks product line which includes 3 versions of this distributor
DSM Motorsport Their advertising doesn't necessarily inspire confidence in their knowledge of ignition systems.
Hemiperformance in Australia also seem to have their own unique contract with a factory in china for the same/similar distributor line branded HPI X and S Search results for: 'HPI' | Hemi Performance
Goss Performance Australia also brand this stuff as an "RAE drop in" distributor

However regardless of who you order from, the Distributor may come in an Engineworks branded box. presume the factory had an excessive number of them printed.

About Us | Engine Works
engineworks appears to be a product line of nickels-performance.com a USA based comnpany from Piney flats TN USA who are unlikely to care or know about hemi 6 and holden 6....
Nickels Performance, Piney Flats, TN | Home

These are also sold as 7000 series and 8000 series speedmaster distributors by ProComp through JEGS
https://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchResultsPageCmd?q=Speedmaster+7000+SERIES

Even the guys I have trusted in the past, with my standard distributor are in on the ac,t but seems to be charging $350 on the standard price for their expertise... it may well be worth it.....
BLUEPRINT HEI DISTRIBUTOR TO SUIT SLANT 6 VALIANT CHRYSLER 225

A curious case.... 1 design numerous applications, i guess you pay for someone to set it up so it works for you

presume an Australian company went to china to get a copy of the orginal bosch manufactured, and after the contract ended the chinese carried on.

chinese/ Australian parts numbers 7000 series distributors

7005-A female cap Holden "Red motor" 6 cylinder distributor with a red blue or black cap
7005-A male cap Holden "Black motor" 1980s
7005-B female cap Australian Chrysler hemi 6
7005-C female cap Any Slant 6
You can also buy a version for australian ford 6 cylinders used in falcon and cortina which is the same from the engine block up but not below
they all use the same cap and Rotor but more machining done to the bottom to fit, these do not share the same nylon drive gear.
makes me wonder if we got ford cap and rotor on a distributor rockin a GM pickup and module using a chinese version of Bosch mechanical advance

The Cap is a copy of an australian Bosch GB834 cap (female connection). 2 versions seem to be available one male one female, presume the male version has a different number. this cap is a slightly bigger diameter version of what is found on standard slant 6 distributor just a bit bigger in all dimensions except the connectors. but obviously won't fit a standard dizzy its the same diameter as the small HEI from the US i think, a UK made copy is the INTERMOTOR 46860. Why the hell a company in Nottingham UK felt they needed to make these in the 80s i do not know. i can confirm they fit and they are very cheap because nobody here owns what they are for.
listed as fitting Australian ford engines in
FORD FAIRLANE 6-cyl. 4.1ltr. ALLOY HEAD (ZJ & ZK MODELS) 1980 - 1984
FORD FALCON 6-cyl. 3.3ltr. & 4.1ltr. ALLOY HEAD (XD & XE MODELS) 1980 - 1984
FORD CORTINA 6-cyl. (TE & TF MODEL) 1980 - 1981
FORD LTD 6-cyl. 4.1ltr. & 4.9ltr. 1982 - 1983
FORD F100A / F2350A / F350A - 6-cyl. ENGINES 1981 - ON

it looks like you can get a male cap as well but have not tracked down the genuine bosch part number
no idea if this works with the standard rotor, use of the word tall and a fish eye lense photo doesn't help raise my confidence, but it most likley does based on picture of the distibutor it is used on
HOLDEN 6 CYLINDER ELECTRONIC BOSCH DISTRIBUTOR CAP TALL WITH MALE ENDS - Hume Performance

The rotor appears to be a GB786, Australian/Asia Pacific Bosch again

the magnetic pickup is
PC1004 (presume PC means ProComp)
Rare Spares | More than just a part in your project
also known as a ProComp speedmaster 7000 series pickup
jegs do em. the word ProComp probably causes worry in many, can't remember if was procomp or proform that had the poor reputation back in the 2010s

https://www.jegs.com/i/Speedmaster/746/PCE374.1012/10002/

spares for 6 and 8 cylinder versions here
Speedmaster 7000 SERIES - JEGS High Performance

The ignition module is an Australian Bosch BIM024 or a chinese copy which does the same job as a Delco 4 pin HEI module. its just a different shaped case, apply the same common sense, if there is no name on the box and no name or part number on the module i'd pay more and get one where the manufacturer is not embarrassed by their product.

So if you were willing to put in the time and effort you could probably make one of these work well, you can replace generic chinese stuff with branded parts or even original bosch parts if lucky enough to find them at sensible prices
spare parts that i presume to be of generic chinese origin can be had from australian suppliers and Jegs and possibly Nickels performance in the US
there is potentially still Australian/AP genuine Bosch production of caps and rotors that fit and if not a number of local suppliers produce equivalents FuelMiser etc.
If push comes to shove, as in my case, there has been UK manufacture support in the past

You could use a GM 4 pin HEI module where the bosch BIM024 sits if you don't use the metal cover

You can find these distributors intermittently on Aliexpress for appx $120 just get the correct C version for a slant or run a hemi 6 one with a 5 mm collar to site it up a bit

I'd strip and rebuild it before use
hopefully you get the correct cap :)

When i fit mine and try it, i'll report back, it will need work because it is replacing a standard Australian distributor with lighter springs and only 6 degrees of distributor advance, it was welded up and recurved by performanceignition.com.au (link above) years ago for my not quite standard motor.
Out of the box the curve in these new ones could be anything.

dunno if this is of use...... but there we go....

Dave