they are easy to do yourself. you'll never learn if you don't try. heck mopar enthusiast magazine told you how to do it step by step. you don't need any special machine to do it. just your running car. what good is 8000 rpm if you'll never go past 5500 rpm? but hey its not my money. spend $70 to have someone put $10 springs in the thing.
never said don wasn't a good guy. just said i'm sure he would take your money for something that you can do at home for dirt cheap and some of your time.
I know you didn't say Don wasn't a good. Just answering John's question about who I thought was a good dizzy shop IMO. Looks like he's looking at something different if he wants to keep the dual points.
No doubt I remember the article. There have been a few in years past as well. I like doing many things myself to save money and to learn. Just putting it out there for those that might not want to tackle it, which was the posted question of the thread. I know I'll never see 7000-8000 rpm.
"what good is 8000 rpm if you'll never go past 5500 rpm?"
I guess it's just a rigorous failure test that may not be necessary, but I imagine it makes custom setting the timing events much easier on a dizzy machine than hanging your head through the windshield with no hood and turning the dizzy cap of your "running car". I'm being totally facetious here Joe. Just trying to say there is some VALUE in the work Don does. And I totally agree with you about the VALUE of doing things yourself.
It's not just a quick $10 little spring kit as you suggested. That is pretty basic agreed. More is included in what Don does. Or any other dizzy guy charging a few bucks for their own R&D and tech service.
I'm sure John will make an informed decision himself. Better to see all sides :cheers:
FBO quote of service provided
"Mopar distributors have some inherent design problems that although are challenging can be overcome with the right equipment and knowledge.
The biggest problem is in the advance plate itself, if you disassemble the distributor you'll see how it just sort of floats in a slot. As the vacuum advance unit moves the plate is doesn't stay flat and true, it lifts up and down causing fluctuations in the timing and an engine that just doesn't run consistent.
We have found the best way to cure the inherent problems with these units is:
1. Weld the advance plate solid. Not just $10 springs
2. We weld in our adjuster tubes and using the set screws limit the total mechanical timing to the appropriate number of degrees to keep your total advance to what ever the correct number is from our experience for your application.
3. Once this done we can then take the distributor to the Sun Machine and start to adjust the timing events to suit the application by carb type, vehicle weight, cam and gearing from the convertor to the tire diameter. At the same time for a nominal charge we can run your box, coil, wires, cap and rotor and let you know all the numbers on your box and coil output up to 8800 RPM or to their fail point. We also test each plug wire for acceptable resistance levels and give you a complete report on your system.
Because we like to use only mechanical advance (Stage 2) for performance applications we can set the timing events by engine RPM and bring each event in at a specific RPM for launch, shift points and reduce the chance of detonation by limiting the total advance and at what RPM this occurs.
These numbers come from about 40 years of tuning on dirt tracks, drag strips and on heated up street cars, these numbers are not pulled out of thin air they come off a spread sheet that records the success's AND failures of all testing done over the past 12 years and probably over 5000 distributors including Ford and Chevrolet.
One other thing we have found in all this R&D that unless your running a dome piston (Greater distance for the flame front to travel) or your motor has been stroked, 34 degrees in a Mopar is about all they need. The plug position in a Mopar Iron head is probably the best of the big 3, it's very close to center (as in Hemi) this characteristic gives the flame front a shorter distance to travel by allowing it to travel nearly 360* from ignition point thereby achieving the maximum expansion point quicker. Timing numbers much higher than 34 are not necessary to achieve complete combustion at the correct piston position 12-15 ATDC and therefore the most power. Remember the optimum pressure on the crank needs to occur at about 70* ATDC
If your running 14:1, aluminum heads, C17 fuel, dome pistons and whizzing the thing to 8,000 RPM you may need more total advance, we can also calculate timing events on these engines.
The bottom line is, if we do our performance curve, phase and rebuild on your distributor they perform flawlessly up to 8000 RPM"
Stage 1 gets your dizzy tested to 7200 rpm. stage 2 8800.
