Technical Vacuum vs. mechanical advance distributors

Ford Load-A-Matic. No mechanical advance at all.
NOT a racing distributor. Trust me on this.
See photo at immediate left...

Cosmo

 

How do you put that in the small block Chevy that this thread is about?

 

Yup, been down that road before. As I said, since they sent me the wrong one, was considering keeping it, vacuum unit is better for the driving I'll be doing.
Thanks for the tune up tips too


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Manifold vacuum advance generally drives up the HC at idle. That's why they went to ported vacuum in the 70's..
If you care about such things..
I usually don't ..I do my part by using less gas at cruise rpm's.

 

With a lathe, and talent.

 

I realize it wasn't a new idea. I should have said "some".
Various techniques were used to comply with the "new" emissions regs. This being one of them.

 

I stand corrected, not all have mechanical advance, but most of them do.

 

Good explanation Vicky. ^^^^^

I run mechanical pretty much all the time and have for a long time.it is my personal preference and I have seldom if ever noticed any real advantage to either, other than you can usually get a better cured one without mods if you are performance minded.

That said Vic made a good explanation way better then the common "you'll get better mileage out of a vac advance distributer" that most of the fellas throw out there.

 

To further muddy the waters, the distributor on my Falcon 200 has neither vacuum, nor mechanical advance.

Some distributors have neither.

 

Nope, it is the entire package that makes an engine perform the way that it does.

The engine in my old pickup has been in about 5 cars, always run a Mallory full mechanical advance distributer. it has consistently run cool to the point that I have run a 195 T stat in it just to keep the windshield defrosted in the winter. it has consistently run @ 20+ MPG without an OD transmission and various rear gears, although with the 660 double pumper that is on it now it has dropped off to about 18 MPG on the highway. At one point when I was running a pretty hot coil I was having problems keeping plugs in it and finally went with ACs they stuck.

The deal on mileage and operating temps is everything from how the lower end is set up to the air cleaner, water pump to torque converter/clutch. It is a complete package not just a distributer. it all needs to operate in conjunction with each other. Someone may say that it is a synergetic existence, the sum total of the whole is greater than the sum total of the parts.