MSD Streetfire Dizzy

[jdheff1982]

Curious if anyone has any experience with these. I plan on getting it plus the streetfire plug wires. It does have an adjustable vacuum advance, however, the table MSD provides is confusing to me.

http://www.jegs.com/InstallationInst...1/121-8362.pdf

My vacuum is sitting at 8.5 hg at manifold. So, would I leave the canister @ 0 turns to get the 14* initial advance?

Is installation really as easy as pulling out the old and putting in the new with reference marks to retain timing? Last thing, will the hood need to come off to make removal and install easier?

Thanks.

[csb#356]

I have this distributor it works pretty good and I haven't had a problem with it yet. I don't see an advantage of it over the stock HEI but its a pretty good replacement. I assume that you are talking about the vacuum advance stop plate and it controls the total amount of vacuum advance that it will give, doesn't do anything when you open the throttle. If you set it for 14 degrees it will advance the timing an extra 14 degrees on top of the centrifigul advance at cruise speeds. No you don't need to take the hood off and don't use reference marks to drop the distributor back in just bring the engine to top dead center on the compression stroke on the number one cylinder and do it the sure correct way. Why try and take a short cut on something thats so easy. I've seen that reference mark method get people a tooth off so many times that I really don't like doing it that way.

[swb85]

I have a streetfire dist on my truck. The module won't last a terribly long time and the adjustable vac advance cans are junk, mine lasted about 50 miles before it puked. Both parts have been replaced and she works fine. I put a MSD curve kit in mine before installing as well, the curve it came with is pretty lazy.

[jdheff1982]

If I get the advance kit, would I want to stick with the light spring considering my engine setup?

Thanks.

[Cue-Ball]

Originally Posted by jdheff1982

If I get the advance kit, would I want to stick with the light spring considering my engine setup?

There's no way to know which spring/weight combination will work best for you without trying it and seeing the results (ideally, with a dial-back timing light). In my experience, the spring curves shown on the package are not very accurate. Most non-radical street engines are going to like centrifugal timing to come in around 1000 RPM and be all-in by around 3000 RPM. Total timing (not including vacuum advance) should be in the neighborhood of 35 degrees. Use whatever combination of springs and weights you need to get you in that ballpark, then set the vacuum advance for 12-16 degrees and you should be good to go.

[bigredchevy]

i bought one for my 400 sb and it worked good for a few months and as they have said the vacum advance died on me too then mabe a few weeks later the coil blew up on me after replacing them its been fine sence

[jdheff1982]

In any case, I have a bit of work ahead of me.

I have to remark the balancer before I do any of this. I will be getting a piston stop to make things easier. When finding TDC this way, will it matter which stroke the piston is on? My understanding is rotate the engine until piston touches stop, then reverse until piston touches stop again and the difference in distance is TDC. I imagine the deeper the stop is into the chamber, the less rotating I will need to do making it easier to find TDC. I have not read anything about where the piston needs to be initially to find TDC this way.

Thanks.

EDIT> On a side note, I became curious about the condition of the current dizzy. I pulled the rotor off and found the weights to be flopping around. There were springs, but attached wrong. The weights themselves do not have spring posts. Plus, the dizzy gear is pretty worn. I can jigle the shaft around a bit. Can't wait to get this new stuff in. It will prolly get done next weekend.