vacum advance or mechanical advance????
- Thread starter emnestor
- Start date
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Longgone
John/68 Barracuda & Dart
I recommend using the vacuum advance in addition to your mechanical advance if the car is to be primarily driven on the street. The vacuum advance responds to the many differences in throttle positions that are experienced in every day driving. This results in a generally smoother operation and for what it`s worth, your gas mileage will be better too. 
SoulSurvivor
Well-Known Member
For a daily driver I would go with the MSD billet ready to run distributor with a matching MSD coil. The distributor has provisions for both vacuum and mechanical advance.
dgc333
Well-Known Member
When talking about mechanical advance and vacuum advance its not an either or decision, it's mechanical advance or mechanical advance plus vacuum advance. Mechanical advance is rpm dependent while vacuum advance is load dependant. For a street car you want both unless you have a big cam that does not produce enough manifold vacuum to operate the vacuum advance at cruising speeds then its just baggage along for the ride.
One of the Mopar Performance electronic distributors will have adjustable mechanical and vacuum advances that will allow you to dial in your distributor. Or, as mentioned above MSD plus Mallory, Accel, Pertronix, etc all make fully adjustable distributors that also include the control module inside the distributor housing, these are typically referred to as ready to run.
Just remember, if you have modified your engine (more compression, bigger cam, different heads, etc.) the factory recomendations for timing are null andd void. You will need to dial in the initial timing, the total mechanical timing, the rate the timing comes in and the vacuum advance to get the maximum performance from your engine.
One of the Mopar Performance electronic distributors will have adjustable mechanical and vacuum advances that will allow you to dial in your distributor. Or, as mentioned above MSD plus Mallory, Accel, Pertronix, etc all make fully adjustable distributors that also include the control module inside the distributor housing, these are typically referred to as ready to run.
Just remember, if you have modified your engine (more compression, bigger cam, different heads, etc.) the factory recomendations for timing are null andd void. You will need to dial in the initial timing, the total mechanical timing, the rate the timing comes in and the vacuum advance to get the maximum performance from your engine.
Thanks for the info. Question for you??? Have you had any feed back about the new E curves from Msd. No need for a box and easy mechanical adjustment.
dgc333
Well-Known Member
I have never heard anything about the E curve but it's appealing because the mechanical and vacuum advances can be adjusted by trim pots, no messing with stops, springs or vacuum pods.
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