Distributor Workout

[Blue89rs]

If anyone doesn't know, I have a 2.8L with electronic ignition. After paroosing around the ignition system, I noticed that the pickup coil "fingers" on the shaft are really thick. Has anyone tried to thin these up? Judging by the way it looks, there is possibly up to 5* of timing slop just in this device alone... I know if you do make them thinner, you run the possibility of loosing some of the magnetic field transfer due to the lack of metal, but how much can you get away with?

It seems like you can relate the "finger" thickness to a points systems dwell. If that is the case, how much/little dwell is bad? I know that its all electronic and has comparitors to trigger coil spark, but wouldn't it be better to have a good hard trigger? Let me know what you old school/new school V8'er think.

[89vert]

I wouldn't touch it, when you use a osiliscope to read the pulse, it creates a very specific wave form and the comp. knows whAT IT SHOULD look like, If it reads wrong your timing won't advance properly,

I had an timing advace problem with my car turned out to be the pick up on the distributor,

also that pick up does not replace dwell on points style igniton, your contol module replaces points

In case you didn't know, an osiliscope measures voltage over time in milliseconds

[Blue89rs]

Well...I knew that it couldn't effect the dwell, I was more curious about triggering. Do you know what RPM that setup dies at? I really want to be able to hit 7K on the tach with my soon-to-be-rebuilt 3.1L. I understand about the waveforms, I have my LeCroy Scopestation 140 quad channel o-scope right behind me ;D , I was more interested in what happens at high RPM.

[89vert]

Well...I knew that it couldn't effect the dwell, I was more curious about triggering. Do you know what RPM that setup dies at? I really want to be able to hit 7K on the tach with my soon-to-be-rebuilt 3.1L. I understand about the waveforms, I have my LeCroy Scopestation 140 quad channel o-scope right behind me ;D , I was more interested in what happens at high RPM.

Don't know what happens a high revs, only ever seen it cranking, you have to have the cap off to hook up the scope,
I used a snap on Vantage to read mine it shows you a wave form to compare the one your reaDING to.

If you want more top end advance your timing a couple a degrees manually, you'll also need the right cam to get there and enough flow through your intake aNd heads,

[Blue89rs]

Gotcha. I'll have to figure it out how to measure it then. Probably have to get some real thin wires to get them under the cap with the car running, then rev it up to see what happens. We've got some portable Tektronic scopes here at work that would be fun to play with.

[Blue89rs]

Heres a pic of my friends distributor as compared to a stock. His new one looks way better. How do your's look?

had to make space sorry

[89vert]

Mine looks like yours, bought it used off some guy, I think he owns this site ;), my old 1 was coverd in rust, didn't work

[Blue89rs]

You mean it looks like the one on the right? You can get the one on the left for $150. A bit steep for me right now, but looks sweet.

[89vert]

I'm gonna to go with MSD or accel, haven't decided yet

[Blue89rs]

You mean the whole assembly? Wowsers. I think the dist on the left is a V6 HEI assembly. But I dunno..

[84Z28]

uhh.. they look pretty much the same to me ???

[Blue89rs]

U kiddin? The one on the right is made from plate steel which bends and rusts. The one on the left is made from a ferrous material that is molded and will never rust. Way better design. The ultimate design is crank position with no distributor, but I'll take what I can get. I've bent my distributor shaft around a bit to give closer tolerances between the magnet fingers and the stator fingers in hopes of getting a better signal to the Ignition Control Module.