Electronic Distributor in 1965 Valiant ?

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chuckcanuk

chuckcanuk

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I would like to change my /6 to an HEI set up. The current points dist has a R11.5 mechanical advance and a vacuum advance with no markings on it. The electronic dist has a L13 mechanical advance with a 8.5R stamped on it that I got off a /6 motor at a salvage yard and have no idea what the motor came out of. My question is would this distributor work for my 65 Valiant Signet, auto trans, or will I have to modify it?
 
Sorry I cannot help you with what the markings mean. But you could take some advance readings on the current distributor and duplicate them on the new distributor once it is installed if you so desired. You would plug the vacuum advance and then rev the engine higher and higher 500 RPM at a time and take timing readings at each step to characterize the mechanical advance versus RPM's. Then use a hand operated vacuum source to activate the vacuum advance at idle and take a set of readings of advance versus vacuum levels. With those 2 sets of data, you have what you need to reproduce it.

The newer advance settings may work just fine so I would take the data as above, to have, just in case, but I'd just try the new distributor as is and see how it worked. The difference in earlier and later engines is not so great as to make either setup a disaster; a later one may be modified for emissions, and may or may not provide the same off-idle advance and engine response.
 
The 11.5 means the distributor has 23 degrees, the 13 means 26 degrees. The \6 likes around 30 degrees total. So with your old distributor you can set the initial timing at 7 degres. The new distributor would be set at 4 degrees.This is all crank shaft degrees.

The best stock distributor is from a f-body, which usually has a 9R governor. Which means you can set the initial at 12 degrees. The \6 likes a lot of initial advance.
 
The L cam usually means reverse rotation, as in CCw; while the R cam is CW rotation. IIRC,slantys are CCws. LAs are CW. So I am confused, that you could have two slanty dizzys; one with L and one with R.
I would compare the reluctor phasing to the point-cam phasing very closely.
And I would shorten those slots up,on the L13 cam, a couple of mm,to at least the equal the R11.5 cam; so I could run a little more initial,idle-timing.Slantys love initial.
 
The /6 distributor turns CW also. I would not be inclined to worry too awfully much if the total advance (initial + mechanical) went a bit beyond 30 degrees. 3x on the additional initial advance being good; makes the throttle response better.
 
You can tune advance curves to get the curve and total advance anywhere you want it, so don't feel that you are locked into THAT mechanical and vacuum advance curve.

How do you plan to control this electronic distributor? You either need to use a Mopar box and ballast resistor, which I don't recommend because they are unreliable, or build an HEI controller from a GM coil and ignition module.
 
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