Technical Six cylinder performance ignition.....Bubbas

There is NO ignition better than the old six cylinder cast iron Delco unit. They clean up very well , the metal never wears out and when set up they will run all the rpm ever needed for this engine. We clean and blast all parts including polishing the advance weights. Assembly is done with lube , springs are changed as we remove the old sloppy vacuum advance ( welded solid now). This gets a pertronixs on customer order but a good set of NAPA Echlin heavy duty points would run just as well. The complete unit is lubed , ran on a tester for some time and ready to make some spark........

 

OK; I'll bite... .

I'm not bagging on you here, but am really curious about this. It's possible that I have "learned" everything all wrong... .

Unless this is for a drag-only mill , or set-up for computer-control, why would you remove, disable, & destroy the vacuum advance? They do nothing to hurt WOT, & seriously help @ part-throttle situations, including 'tip-in' & esp fuel economy. Which is probably 99% of the time. I noticed you said "old sloppy", but everything else got the fix-it treatment. ??? I have seen a Stude Champ6 dist w/both vac advance n retard set-up on it. A really cool quick slick trick, worked well. Went on a turbo'd mill, w/lots of homemade bits. Although, would work for any boost-type of situation.

BTW, nice lookin' work.

Seriously, & TIA.
Marcus...

 

^^^^^ Customer know's best. Money is money so long as all the detail's are out in the open.

 

''Unless this is for a drag-only mill , or set-up for computer-control, why would you remove, disable, & destroy the vacuum advance?''
Using lighter springs & heavier weights, changing limits of centrifugal advance has long been a standard procedure. Personally, I use GMC 270 - 302 factory full mechanical cores with Dyna-Flyte or similar dual point plates, and Niehoff or Delco points with bakelite rubbing blocks set up & run in on an Allen machine, a big external condenser, & copper everything else. Timing set by cranking advance in 'til spark knock is heard, then backing off to just a trace at full throttle.

 

Drag racers doesn't use vacuum advance because they only run at full throttle, so there's no point to include it. Any engine that is run on the street benefits from vacuum advance.

 

Yeh; I know that. Vac advance is in addition to the centrifugal advance. & *should* be tailored to each mills' need.
Guess I made the "ass-umption" that this was for a street mill, not a race mill. At least that's the reading I got (maybe I need to go back to 'Reading Comprehension 101', or I'm reading too much into stuff. Not the 1st time.) from the article, was wondering if this is SOP on the 6 banger dist, & mostly: Why? Maybe a one-off? IDK. No slam or insult intended, seriously curious.
Marcus...

 

With all due respect for your very nice looking work - I question the statement that there is "NO ignition better than the old six cylinder cast iron Delco unit". After adjusting points for umpteen years I bought a Langdon's mini-HEI and installed it on my truck that runs a '54 235 out of a Powerglide car. This is a modified S-10 distributor that Tom re-curves for the 235 engine. Absolutely trouble free performance with this unit, I haven't touched it in years! I bought a replacement module and stuck it in the glove box, just in case, but have never needed it.

 

Nice as always!

 

I agree and have used tons of Langdons stuff. Its his fault that my Model A has a 322 GMC , four speed and quickchange. :>)

 

My GMC powered Model A is in a post on this thread....

The vacuum unit even when brand new was a sloppy arrangement, Allowing the distributor to loosely fit and flop around. Then you add the fact that many six guys rebuild the engine and change the camshaft plus add a aftermarket intake with different carb or (gasp) extra carbs and the vacuum unit becomes a very hard to tune item. By removing the heavy springs and cleaning up the advance weights, the advance is pretty simple to tune with a couple new springs. The advance is now very linear with timing advance smoothly moving upward with throttle opening. Removes some flat spots etc. We have done a ton of these and they run really really well.
AND the vac could be added if wanted.........

 

OK, thanks. Didn't know they had that many problems, stock. Makes sense. I was assuming a modd'ed mill anyways. Thanks for the response.
Marcus...

 

Just saying.....nice work.....and a Delco HEI looks crummy compared to OEM in an early car....just my two cents....and I just don't have a problem changing points out after a few years of running them in any car !