hey im looking for a performance distributor for may 1985 dodge w150 with a np435 tranny, i cant seem to find anything and i want to install a msd 6al in it but dont want to run the stock dizzy the truck has a holley 2280 and i want to run a vacuum advance off the carb is there any company that makes a distributor to work for this application

Chrysler made tens of thousands of distributors that would be perfect or your application. They were installed in slant six powered trucks, vans, and cars in the 70s and 80s. You want a factory distributor for a standard electronic ignition system. If you are looking for performance, you will want to fine tune the advance curve, but a stock distributor will work fine.

Rather than spend the money on MSD, why not try the HEI upgrade?

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Better (more reliable, less costly, and at least equal performance) than MSD is the HEI upgrade.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Hello I am doing tons of reading on this forum making up a list of mods . I am thinking petronix iii do I need a special year/ style distributor to use petronix 3 ? Or would you recommend the hei thank you

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1963 Plymouth Valiant Wagon

HEI has superior performance to Pertonix and is more widely available.

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Joshua

Since I do recurves for people on the board on a regular basis and have done everything from cleaning up the stocker dizzy to running the Petronix setup I have the following observations to offer:

In defense of the Pertronix setup:

1) Pertronix kind of offers the best 'mid-line' for people that either don't have the ability or dont' want to hack into their stock wiring harness. It works OK, and you can just use the stock points dizzy- but be warned that the stock points dizzy has some adjustment limitations due to the construction of the mainshaft/spring perches.

2)The costs also kind of even out if the person can't get an EI harness to hack up for the conversion the cost of the premade conversion harness from most sources is about as spendy as the pertronix anyway, not including the EI/HEI modules (for someone without the time/patience to put it together I think the conversion harness at MP is about $143, while the substandard summit version is about $50 less). Currently the meth heads are hitting all the PacNw junkyards for the copper in the wiring harnesses so I don't expect to see any real soon (I luckily stowed away a couple of F and B body harnesses for just such a conversion...when those cars were to be had 20 years ago).

3) Luckily most American slant six points dizzy's come with 13R (late) governors, or 11.5R (early governors)... which can eliminate the headache of limiting the mech advance if stuck with an early EI distributor-15L, or a random Cardone 'whoops' (seen them with big block 18L governors...that ain't right!)

4) It's a magnetic trip so it's similar to some model hall effect ignition systems and in some cases are easy to interface with most premade EFI systems on the market if needed (mostly a long shot in our group of DYI's, but you can epoxy the governor slots and lock it out to become a static timing device/cam sensor if using a crank trigger.)

5) In the defense of points without the conversion, I've been able to run a slant with a a few degrees of play in a sloppy timing chain with no ill effects, whereas the EI can fall on it's face because it might retard the cam to crank timing enough to cause the engine not to run or start.
(Could be bad if it jumps a tooth and it's just dead....points might give you a hint if looking for it but not sure what happened, EI will just not start).

On the other hand:

1) HEI does produce a very good signal and is well suited for stock to performance slants, and is happy with some pretty hot coils. Even the Mopar EI has a very tight signal and with quality parts will provide what is needed to do the job (note on the use of good, not cheap parts).

2) The EI distributor has very good flexibility in spring adjustments and if running a lot of initial advance (perfect in giving a 'leg up' on a low compression engine with a stratified air/fuel charge), you can get lucky and find one of the late governors in 11 or 9R...or if handy with the welder braze/MIG up the slot for less advance. This is mostly important to the recurve guy.

3) Given the proliferation and popularity of the "X" brand, in an emergency it wouldn't be hard to get an HEI 4 pin off the shelf in anytown USA (mopar EI modules, and new style pre-69 VR modules can be spotty sometimes). This also helps in keeping the price on these modules down.

4) Some members have recently found that new MSD boxes made in certain other countries have been failing on a regular basis so that might not be a good thing either if it can leave you high and dry on the side of the road. (I luckily squirreled one from the mid-90's away in my stash for my EFI conversion, so I'm somewhat safe in quality control on that one...won't be so lucky on it's replacement if it fails...)

Give it some thought about what you want to do, what you can do, and what is available to you. The good part is you have the support of this board and many paths to get to where you want to go!

If you need a truck curved EI distributor with vacc advance, send me a PM, I can assemble one and give you the timing curve for about the price of a reman. distributor and I will take your late static timing one in trade.

-D.Idiot

I've run 6-al's for many years triggered with a recurved stock Dodge ei distributor. I have never had an issue with any of my MSD stuff, just make sure you buy a real MSD box and not a cheap Chicon knock-off from E-bag.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I'm cheap. 74 hei distributor toed onto a gm hei system.Works for me. Cheap and easy to find parts,except for making the coil wire.

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I may be slow,but I"m ahead of you.

Dunno when you did your conversion, but thats even easy now..... Of course I am uncertain which/what coil you used.

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MRO....

Cheap, Fast, Reliable.... Pick 2...

Stock replacement 74 electronic distributor , 84 chevette /citation coil (protruding terminal lugs) 2001 cavalier starter relay for power tied in to the alternator battery feed , a coil wire from a later model dodge with the cap end modified and all mounted on a gm 3100 coil/module bracket-with hole drilled and taped for the module to be heat sink and then covered and sealed with a emptied out ford eec 2 hei control box and mounted on the passengers fender. If I remembered it was all auto zone. 2 years ago and cost me under $80.

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I may be slow,but I"m ahead of you.