What distributor y'all lovin these days?

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I posted something similar on Moparts recently. I asked how I could get a quality non chinese built distributor equivalent to an American made unit like what Mopar performance offered in their electronic conversion kits during the 1980s (Or what came factory on mopars when they went electronic.) I bought a remanufactured electronic distributor made in Canada by Autoline from Rock Auto. Autoline has (had) a Stellar rep. However, being an OCD person, I sent this $150 distributor to Joes Distributors for an eval and performance curve installed. Turns out my Autoline unit was a hacked cobbled assembled mess. I had it too long for a refund from Rock Auto. I had Joe use what was usable from it and he built me solid distributor. I will use an ignition box from Rick Ehrenberg. My desire is an equivalent system to what came on a new Mopar say in 1973. Quality built distributor with an orange control box. I have nothing against MSD and the others but I'm concerned over the "Modern" build quality. An MSD 6AL made in 2025 is not the same quality as the 6AL made in say 1991.
 
I agree that the MSD quality is not what it used to be. The person who built my engine bought a MSD distributor to use on the dyno so I guess that's what I'm going with. I am going to use their 6AL-2 to control it and are going to mount it inside on the passenger's footwell to try to protect it.
 
BrianT said:
I agree that the MSD quality is not what it used to be. The person who built my engine bought a MSD distributor to use on the dyno so I guess that's what I'm going with. I am going to use their 6AL-2 to control it and are going to mount it inside on the passenger's footwell to try to protect it.
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450 clams for an ignition box. Will you adopt me? lol
 
I ran both a factory with pertronix module and later a msd 8388. Both were quite good
 
RustyRatRod said:
450 clams for an ignition box. Will you adopt me? lol
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I’ve already got two children (adults really) who think it’s not fair that they should have to work. LOL

I’m not happy about the price but there’s not much I can do about it. What would you suggest that I hook up to my brand new MSD distributor?
 
BrianT said:
I’ve already got two children (adults really) who think it’s not fair that they should have to work. LOL

I’m not happy about the price but there’s not much I can do about it. What would you suggest that I hook up to my brand new MSD distributor?
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Is it a race car?
 
I fitted a MSD E core coil to drag car, 15 yrs ago. Still going strong today.....
Had a 'Made in China' sticker on the bottom. I don't think it meant ' Made in Chinatown, USA'......
 
My needs and intended usage requires much less- options wise than others in this thread. IIRC the Mopar performance conversion kit I bought back in 1988 was made by Mallory and was high quality. The same type of kit now offered by Proform looks identical to the old MP kit but from what I have read the quality is terrible. I went the way I did because with my luck one of the common new available units would fail on me and just induce lots of grief.
 
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I took an old Mallory unilite that I got for $40 and put a pertronix unit in it. Probably the best bang for my buck so far in how the engine starts and runs.
 
I bought this setup and was a huge improvement over my low performance stock distributor and ECU: ForMOPAR 273 340 360 318 HiPo Electronic Ignition Kit Plymouth Dodge NOS Tan Cap | eBay a lot of people are going to flame this as a cheap Chinese distributor, but I’ve had no problems with this unit and my experience with MSD is their product is no more reliable than anything else you buy now nowadays. As much as they charge, I shouldn’t have reliability issues. This is why I gave up on MSD.
 
I don't think anyone is going to flame you on that kit. Rick Ehrenberg put it together and he has been building and writing about Mopars for years. If I was going for a relatively cheap ignition that appears stock, I'd be all over it.
 
middleagecrisis said:
I bought this setup and was a huge improvement over my low performance stock distributor and ECU: ForMOPAR 273 340 360 318 HiPo Electronic Ignition Kit Plymouth Dodge NOS Tan Cap | eBay a lot of people are going to flame this as a cheap Chinese distributor, but I’ve had no problems with this unit and my experience with MSD is their product is no more reliable than anything else you buy now nowadays. As much as they charge, I shouldn’t have reliability issues. This is why I gave up on MSD.
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I agree. He sells a great kit. I have two of them. The distributor is china but a nice copy of the factory distributor. Rick would not sell them if they were any less.
 
I run the MP kit. But have rebuilt stock 1972 and 1973 340 stock ones and added the performance springs. Tested and found one stock light and one heavy worked best on street. If you do tacke the rebuild yourself get new old stock parts not new. Ebay may be good option for magnetic pickups and old stock caps rotor
If you have a core get Halifax Hops rebuild and curve it to your needs. Rays good guy.
I still have a few sets of these but keeping them for now.
Old parts are best.
I daily drove my old Challenger and Duster I always traveled with spares but never needed them.
Better to have them as insurance and not need them though

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