anyone had any experience with one of these? http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Chevy-V8-Mag-Look-Electronic-Distributors,1695.html
I've never had any personal expierience with them but I've never heard anything good said about them.
If it's put out by "Joe Hunt Co." that says something - they've been kings of the industry since right after WWII. There was a "new" Hunt magneto in the car that won Indy in 1950.
Joe Hunt HEI look like mag. 241 Dodge, did not work out of the box. they replaced module N/C. made 166 miles crapped out. They replaced module N/C. Made 4 miles crapped out. Hot Heads gave me my money back. Before I found out they were bad I had purchased another for a Y-block. Did not work out of the box. They wanted to charge me $200. for repairs, settled on $100. I sold it for $300. Thats over a $500. loss. buyer was going to send it to Bubba to fix. A friend with a DeSoto, same grief. A rod builder friend put one on a SBC boat. Stoped in the middle of Lake Michigan. Customer was pissed! I put Mallory on both my engines. Run great.
There is a new one out on the market sold thru Hilborn fuel injection. Not cheap but is twice the dist the Hunt unit is. Primary design is to be compatable with EFI and works equally well as a standard ignition. Advertised as "SCINTILLA USA"
NEVER EVER BUY ONE!!! I live 10 miles from them and its a headache to deal with them. the thing has melted wires, caught on fire 2 times, ate 3 resistors and as many coils. Great idea but a very bad product.
you would think, the only "custom" part of that would be the housing. the rest should be off the shelf ignition stuff. they must have bought from the lowest bidder. any one seen the internals? could good stuff be swopped out?
A guy drove up to this 'fifties nite' thing they have every month here, and was relating the woes of his Joe Hunt magneto. I glanced at it, looked like a Vertex...but it was one of the 'Mag lookalikes' we've heard so much about. Well, this guy told me he called Joe Hunt HIMSELF, (in Rancho Cordova) and was getting some action. I excused myself, it was the best laugh I had around here since the local 'drag race hero' told me about the phone conversation he just had with CLAY SMITH! (that was in 2005) These guys must have 'mediums'... Lotsa laughs around here. Must be the distance from the ocean.
I understand that Bubba's fix works and it involves moving the coil out of the dist and mounting it externally behind the firewall with a high tension lead back to dist. Maybe Bubba will see this thread and chime in.
The problem with these Mag Look distributors, is that the coil is crammed down inside them next to fairly sensitive electronics. The coils have a tendency to leak white noise and RFI which kills the electronic module. That's why the solution to move the coil remotely solves the problem.
Wow- pardon my ignorance! This is an eye opener for sure. I've never had first hand experience with a "mag" ($$$), but thought this manufacturer was tops in the field; apparently "was" is the key word.Too bad things went South.
Strongly recommend contacting GMC Bubba about the conversion. Personally I considered buying one when they first came out and we were still unaware of the problems they were having. I decided against it because in today's world, even a street driven hot rod needs to get at least decent fuel economy and the lack of vacuum advance is a significant barrier to fuel economy.
Yes wasn't thinking about the vacuum advance portion of this equation. I have an msd pro billet in my camaro with mechanical advance. She is a thirsty car. Now the 500hp and the 750 double pumper has a little something to do with that as well.....
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