re-usable distributor after swap?

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You are going to have to piece it together for a \6.

You can get a rebuilt distributor for a \6 at most any parts store.

The same for the ecu they are readily available and there is no difference between 6 and 8 cylinder modules. Also, there is no real reason to by a performance module for a \6 since the only real advantage to the performance ones is the higher rpm and a 6 only fires 3/4 as often as an 8.

You will need the harness which can be had by cutting it out of any 6 or 8 cylinder car/truck in the junk yard or purcahsing this one http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DCC-3690152/
 
The MP electronic ignition kit isn't a good choice. It contains a distributor with a single lightweight mechanical advance spring so all the mechanical advance gets dumped in just off idle. This is too much on the street; you wind up retarding the base timing so much to avoid ping that starting, driveability, and fuel economy all suffer badly. Also, the orange box (ECU) in the kit is a poor-quality Chinese item any more. See HEI upgrade instead. You can keep all your wiring and components except the distributor itself if you swap to an engine that has two excess cylinders.
 
You can convert your distributor to electronic with a kit from Pertronix, or like someone else said, you can convert it with pieces from a parts store. I'd pice it together, myself. It's pretty cheap.
 
slantsixdan said:
The MP electronic ignition kit isn't a good choice. It contains a distributor with a single lightweight mechanical advance spring so all the mechanical advance gets dumped in just off idle.
Click to expand...

I have no idea what the MP \6 kits had in them, in anycase they don't make them any more and its not likely you will find one. But I found when I was running a \6 in the Cuda that a stock light spring and one of the springs from the MP two spring kit would have all the timing in on a stock \6 distributor around 2500 rpm.

The v8 MP distributors (like the one in the kit the OP posted a link too) since about 01 have been made by Mallory using a factory style housing (unless you get the billet one) with a Mallory adjustable mechanical advance mechanism inside. I have purchased one billet unit and one with the factroy housing and vacuum advance in the past few years. The billet one had two pink springs which with the 24 degrees of advance the distributor was setup with had all the timing in at 2000 rpm. The Vacuum advance unit had an orange and a brown spring that combined with the same 24 degree setup had the timing all in at 2800 rpm.

The nice thing about these MP distributors is the adjustable mechanical advance which comes in handy when you start using bigger cams with a lot of overlap and need to limit the mechanical advance so you can run more initial timing. Mallory sells a nice tuning kit #29014 (also available under a MP number) that comes with an assortment of springs and spacers that makes setting one of this up a snap. The instructions also include a bunch of timing curves so you can select the proper color springs for the rate you want and I have found they are pretty accurate, within 100rpm. The other nice thing is they use a stock cap. rotor and pickup so repair parts are as close as the local parts store.
 
dgc333 said:
I have no idea what the MP \6 kits had in them
Click to expand...

See my post just above in this thread? Now you do! :toothy10:

The nice thing about these MP distributors is the adjustable mechanical advance
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The mechanical advance mechanism is no different on the MP distributor than on the production/stock '72-up distributor the mechanical advance springs are anchored to the shaft by eccentric posts which can be grabbed with a pliers and turned to adjust the preload tension on each of the two springs.

The vacuum advance is likewise adjustable on both the stock '72+ and MP distributors, by means of a 3/32" hex key inserted into the vacuum nipple.

Mallory sells a nice tuning kit #29014
Click to expand...

Applicable to stock and MP distributors
 
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