stroker distributor questions
Any time I have heard reference to a locked out distributor it is the mechanical advance is what is locked out. Vacuum advance only works at part throttle light load when the manifold vacuum is high, it does not work at idle (when hooked as ma mopar intened) or at WOT.
Locking out all advance and having it set to 35ish is common on race motors and will more than likely make starting some what difficult with out a timing retard. It's easy enough to do by anyone of the following; weld the mechanism, epoxy the mechanism, replace the springs with wire that prevents the weights from swinging out.
If you want to stick with a stock mopar style distributor and have not purchased one yet I would go with the Mopar Perfromance one. It has an adjustable mechanical advance. Just loosen the set screws and you can slide the stops for anything from zero (locked out) to 30ish degrees. If you want to spend a few bucks more MP has a billet distributor that does not have a vacuum advance pod on it.
Here is a picture of the MP billet distributor;
And here is how you adjust it.
If it were me I would figure out what the engine wants to see for initial advance by setting the timing to obtain max manifold vacuum and then adjust the mechanism to limit the advance to 35ish degrees.
Any time I have heard reference to a locked out distributor it is the mechanical advance is what is locked out. Vacuum advance only works at part throttle light load when the manifold vacuum is high, it does not work at idle (when hooked as ma mopar intened) or at WOT.
Locking out all advance and having it set to 35ish is common on race motors and will more than likely make starting some what difficult with out a timing retard. It's easy enough to do by anyone of the following; weld the mechanism, epoxy the mechanism, replace the springs with wire that prevents the weights from swinging out.
If you want to stick with a stock mopar style distributor and have not purchased one yet I would go with the Mopar Perfromance one. It has an adjustable mechanical advance. Just loosen the set screws and you can slide the stops for anything from zero (locked out) to 30ish degrees. If you want to spend a few bucks more MP has a billet distributor that does not have a vacuum advance pod on it.
Here is a picture of the MP billet distributor;
And here is how you adjust it.
If it were me I would figure out what the engine wants to see for initial advance by setting the timing to obtain max manifold vacuum and then adjust the mechanism to limit the advance to 35ish degrees.
