Distributor Curve
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From: NE Ga
Distributor Curve
<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="100%">Has anyone at all on this forum ever had their distributor re-curved professionally? Or does anyone on this forum themselves own a Distributor tester/curver?? I need my dizzy recurved but as I'm sure most of you know, this is quite the dead art as dizzy'less forms of ignition have taken over. There is a guy on this forum by the name of PerfDistibutor or something of that who sells recurved dizzy's but his company cannot recurve other distributors other than their product. To me I would think it would be an easy 50-75 dollars side cash for the company to make but anyways I need my dizzy curved and can't find a soul on earth to do it. Does anyone here have a dizzy curve machine they would like to part with? I would also be interested in one of those as I know some others who could benefit. Thank you!!
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From: Virginia
Re-curving a distributor is not like changing the sparkplugs. Even someone who knows what they are doing may have to do it two or three times to get it right. This guy on here(PerfDistributor) who says he custom curves the dist before he ships is just making and educated guess from all the parameters you give him. He will probably get it in the ballpark, and the dist will be "recurved", but it will still be a guess.
That's why you can't find anyone to do it anymore. It's too time consuming and labor intensive to get it right. You are the only one that really has the time to do it, and you can do it if you have a timing tape on your damper, and good timing light, a tach, and lots of time. It will be a lot easier if you don't have a Ford dist, since you have to take the dist out and take it apart to make changes.
That's why you can't find anyone to do it anymore. It's too time consuming and labor intensive to get it right. You are the only one that really has the time to do it, and you can do it if you have a timing tape on your damper, and good timing light, a tach, and lots of time. It will be a lot easier if you don't have a Ford dist, since you have to take the dist out and take it apart to make changes.
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Well I've noticed that getting a different setup gets costly very quickly. What are my options keeping it around the $100-200 range? I'm not educated on all the systems that are available so I will need some learning on what system does what. I currently have pertronix and would like to keep that if possible but like i said I'm not aware of what I'm getting into. If i do go this route in spending more money, I want to get a system that sets my timing right on. Theres a balance of money and performance that I have here but I'd rather buy a good ignition setup than pistons. So if someone has time, you can start the list of my options. I know about MSD but thats about it. I don't know how it works. Thanks for your time.
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I can't remember which, but either Crane or MSD sells an electronic distributor that has all the necessary electronics for the customer to set his own curve. Hell, it might have been Mallory for all I know. CRS disease is the pits. This would be more precise and reliable than a mechanical distributor.
You used to be able to buy a weight kit for different curves, and I know you can still get an adjustable vacuum advance, I have one in my garage, never used. It's for a chevy. Contact Mallory or MSD and see if they can help you out.
Also, DUI(Davis Unified Ignitions) might have what you need, they might can curve yours, ask 'em and see. jd
You used to be able to buy a weight kit for different curves, and I know you can still get an adjustable vacuum advance, I have one in my garage, never used. It's for a chevy. Contact Mallory or MSD and see if they can help you out.
Also, DUI(Davis Unified Ignitions) might have what you need, they might can curve yours, ask 'em and see. jd
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From: Virginia
Basically what's going to happen is you are going to play with the timing curve with weights and springs like jimdandy said, while keeping records on paper of were the timing is at what rpm. After every change, you will take a road test to see the actual results. The idea is to have the timing advanced as far as possible without detonation.
To eliminate frustration, I would first get a new dist that has the weights exposed to make it easier to tune. I believe the Davis dist is much like the GM HEI, which has the wieghts and springs on top. I would imagine you can do some research on the MSD, and find the weights and springs are easy to get to on those too.
You haven't said what vehicle you are working on, but you will probably find if it's a large 4x4 with oversize tires and the stock gear, you may not be able to make too many changes. With a setup like that, you can't change the stock conservative curve too much without pinging.
If you have taken a stock engine out of a smogged up vehicle, and have installed it in a lighter 2wd with a cam, carb, exhaust, and a high ratio rearend, then re-curving the dist will give good gains in power.
To eliminate frustration, I would first get a new dist that has the weights exposed to make it easier to tune. I believe the Davis dist is much like the GM HEI, which has the wieghts and springs on top. I would imagine you can do some research on the MSD, and find the weights and springs are easy to get to on those too.
You haven't said what vehicle you are working on, but you will probably find if it's a large 4x4 with oversize tires and the stock gear, you may not be able to make too many changes. With a setup like that, you can't change the stock conservative curve too much without pinging.
If you have taken a stock engine out of a smogged up vehicle, and have installed it in a lighter 2wd with a cam, carb, exhaust, and a high ratio rearend, then re-curving the dist will give good gains in power.
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From: Virginia
Those 2.75 gears are going to make the timing requirements very conservative. The 390's usually had higher compression ratios, so it's going to be very easy for this combo to ping, but it should get very good gas mileage.
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From: NE Ga
Its in a 1973 F100 2wd, 390 rebuilt from a 360 (360 dizzy is what I have), Holley 600 vac sec, crane 34941 cam, stock valve timing, 93 oct (hoping to go to at least 89 when timed correctly), truck is 3500gvw, 2.75 gears behind a C6 3spd auto. I'm def gonna have to get another dizzy now b/c one day it is very likely that i will change my gears again and if so I'd have to recurve the dizzy again and I need a quick way to do that. What kinda dizzy options are out there that are painless at adjusting the curve? I would like to keep this under $300-400 if possible. I'm not looking for a hot shot .55 gap on my plug, just a reliable tuneable dizzy.
This is a direct post from the performance forum so I'm just copy/pasting to make it quicker and get more guys attention.
This is a direct post from the performance forum so I'm just copy/pasting to make it quicker and get more guys attention.
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From: NE Ga
well i took my distributor apart and pulled all the guts. What i found was very interesting. It was currently using the 18L slot wihch means alot of timing. It also had two different length springs in there. Not sure what thats all about. I uploaded a picture of everything in my gallery. Please let me know what you think.
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From: Virginia
The weights work together, so you can use heavy springs, light springs, or a combination to get what you want.
You have never said what the purpose of all this is, but reading between the lines I am assuming you do have a detonation problem with this combo? If so, and it's a part throttle ping, I have been here before, and if you want to you can try what I did.
Put it all back together stock, and run the engine with the vacuum advance plugged and see if the pinging goes away. If it does, what I did was set the static timing with a timing light, as far advanced as possible without it pinging, which ended up being around 12-14 degrees. I know that sounds high, but this gave me great low end throttle response and it still cranked over ok when hot, with no pinging at part throttle. Then I bought a adjustable vacuum advance(some of the Ford factory ones are already adjustable) and hooked it back up, and adjusted it till it pinged, and then backed it off a little.
Basically I found the factory vacuum advance was the main problem. How I knew this was I could go ahead and mash the throttle, and the pinging would go away. When you mash the throttle, the vacuum drops, which drops the vacuum advance back.
You have never said what the purpose of all this is, but reading between the lines I am assuming you do have a detonation problem with this combo? If so, and it's a part throttle ping, I have been here before, and if you want to you can try what I did.
Put it all back together stock, and run the engine with the vacuum advance plugged and see if the pinging goes away. If it does, what I did was set the static timing with a timing light, as far advanced as possible without it pinging, which ended up being around 12-14 degrees. I know that sounds high, but this gave me great low end throttle response and it still cranked over ok when hot, with no pinging at part throttle. Then I bought a adjustable vacuum advance(some of the Ford factory ones are already adjustable) and hooked it back up, and adjusted it till it pinged, and then backed it off a little.
Basically I found the factory vacuum advance was the main problem. How I knew this was I could go ahead and mash the throttle, and the pinging would go away. When you mash the throttle, the vacuum drops, which drops the vacuum advance back.
Last edited by Franklin2; Jul 8, 2007 at 12:00 PM.
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From: clinton iowa
heres a good link to recurving your dizzy http://www.reincarnation-automotive....ons_index.html
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[QUOTE=73F100*8Mile]Theres a balance of money and performance that I have here but I'd rather buy a good ignition setup than pistons. QUOTE]
Well I kinda mentioned that I was have detonation problems but it was really brief. Today i checked my timing and w/o vacuum adv it only goes to about 30-32. W/ the vacuum adv and shoots way up close to 50 (or at least way way past the BTDC). So for now I'm leaving the vacuum adv off and I guess when i get more time I'll try adjusting that thing. I wish these muddy waters would clear up...this timing thing isn't getting any clearer but I'll keep pluggin along.
Well I kinda mentioned that I was have detonation problems but it was really brief. Today i checked my timing and w/o vacuum adv it only goes to about 30-32. W/ the vacuum adv and shoots way up close to 50 (or at least way way past the BTDC). So for now I'm leaving the vacuum adv off and I guess when i get more time I'll try adjusting that thing. I wish these muddy waters would clear up...this timing thing isn't getting any clearer but I'll keep pluggin along.