The MSD distributor has the mechanical advance that is nearly identical to GM distributors. The bolt in limit bushing is a improvement. The reluctor and pick up coil are designs straight from Fords Duraspark distributors. Best of both worlds.
Love your channel Mr Brent and your affinity for the FE. MSD was really gaining popularity when I was cutting my teeth at Valley Head Service in Northridge CA. Joe Lapelli was a regular visitor and they were building him a car at one point. The pro billet distributors came out and I thought they were great until I realized they had a GM advance weight system. While way more time consuming, the Ford and Chrysler systems were much more reliable. My Mentor Steve Dragus was assembling engines for Ofria at the time. He showed me how to take a junkyard or Auto Parts Store rebuilt mid 70s Ford magnetic distributor, recurve it, Wire it to a 6AL or a stock GM HEI module and make an instant race distributor
Brent, thanks for the recurve tutorial. I need to do this myself to an MSD distributor and watching it done takes the mystery out of it for me. I'm thinking the 750 Dominator on an adapter spacer might be worth about 10 HP on this combo over a 650 4150. We did this 750 Dominator swap at the strip on a friends car a few years ago, a mild 460 in a 3400 lb Fairmont and gained about 5 hundreths in E.T. over the 4150 carb on a Torker II intake IIRC. The 4 corner idle helped some too.
I’m super excited to see the results of the 363 with ported heads and ported Edelbrock RPM Air Gap intake. I would love to see how high the RPM range is. I loved your 7500 RPM 390 with hydraulic lifters. I would love to have you build me a 363 similar to the one you are building, only I would love to have the Cleveland style heads. Years ago I had a built Boss 351 engine that spun 8200 RPM’s. Now you know why I love RPM’s so much. That was in 1983, when I was 19…
Thanks for the info Brent! I never really thought about how much cfm the intake manifold flows vs. the cylinder head's cfm! On my Dart SHP 363, I used AFR 195 Renegade cylinder heads with a port matched Edelbrock Performer RPM AirGap intake manifold. I wonder if the AirGap is limiting flow into the AFR 195s? Oh! And that 750 Dominater will make 11 more HP.
You seem to have left out lining up the trigger point of the distributor, since you had the engine at about 34 degrees you could twist the rotor to full advance, line up the reluctor and lock down the distributor. Or you could have wound the engine to 16 degrees and lined the poles up without twisting the rotor. I used to like doing it with points and a test light, you could get the timing spot on before starting it.
Man I bought a pertronix heirloom kit for my 350 in an old c10 I had. Night and day difference those light springs will do! That thing revved so much quicker. It was a different truck. I suggest if anyone has the stock hei distributor in their car to get that kit, think it was a hundred bucks, came with the module, coil, and all the little bits and pieces to over haul one of them. Let’s face it, I see those ugly things in front of sbf’s all the time in the internet, so they’d benefit from them.
Ima guess 35hp more from the 750 dominator on JJ JR.!--Im curious about torque,myself!-I totally approve of this experiment 😁-AND ANY carb built by Mr. Drew Projednick😎...as they'll be perfect!
Hi, I have a 400hp sbf 306 in a 2700 lb car with fuel and me on board. Do you think I should be aiming for around 16 degrees initial and all in by about 2500? Thanks Dave
I noticed that you are dropping in the distributor in at 32-34 degrees but isn't the timing going to advance way pass 34 degrees when mechanical advance comes in???
We do this to have plenty of advance for a first start. Most guys put the dist in at TDC or shortly before and the engine cranks or doesn’t start quickly. If you give it enough lead, it will start on the first crank and you’re gonna set the timing anyway. If you notice, i always say that it will start immediately like this.
The MSD distributor has the mechanical advance that is nearly identical to GM distributors. The bolt in limit bushing is a improvement. The reluctor and pick up coil are designs straight from Fords Duraspark distributors. Best of both worlds.
Love your channel Mr Brent and your affinity for the FE. MSD was really gaining popularity when I was cutting my teeth at Valley Head Service in Northridge CA. Joe Lapelli was a regular visitor and they were building him a car at one point. The pro billet distributors came out and I thought they were great until I realized they had a GM advance weight system. While way more time consuming, the Ford and Chrysler systems were much more reliable. My Mentor Steve Dragus was assembling engines for Ofria at the time. He showed me how to take a junkyard or Auto Parts Store rebuilt mid 70s Ford magnetic distributor, recurve it,
Wire it to a 6AL or a stock GM HEI module and make an instant race distributor
Stock GM HEI ignition modules fall on their ass at 5000-5500 rpm....that’s not race rpm...
Brent, thanks for the recurve tutorial. I need to do this myself to an MSD distributor and watching it done takes the mystery out of it for me. I'm thinking the 750 Dominator on an adapter spacer might be worth about 10 HP on this combo over a 650 4150. We did this 750 Dominator swap at the strip on a friends car a few years ago, a mild 460 in a 3400 lb Fairmont and gained about 5 hundreths in E.T. over the 4150 carb on a Torker II intake IIRC. The 4 corner idle helped some too.
Good explanation Distributors role in engine for spark timing Thanks
I'm thinking about 20HP with the dominator. Nice tutorial on the advance curve.
I’m super excited to see the results of the 363 with ported heads and ported Edelbrock RPM Air Gap intake. I would love to see how high the RPM range is. I loved your 7500 RPM 390 with hydraulic lifters. I would love to have you build me a 363 similar to the one you are building, only I would love to have the Cleveland style heads. Years ago I had a built Boss 351 engine that spun 8200 RPM’s. Now you know why I love RPM’s so much. That was in 1983, when I was 19…
Thanks for the info Brent!
I never really thought about how much cfm the intake manifold flows vs. the cylinder head's cfm!
On my Dart SHP 363, I used AFR 195 Renegade cylinder heads with a port matched Edelbrock Performer RPM AirGap intake manifold.
I wonder if the AirGap is limiting flow into the AFR 195s?
Oh!
And that 750 Dominater will make 11 more HP.
Good info! Thanks Brent!
The all mighty CAMMER,cool Brent
That dominator carb is insane for the little motor and heads.... I'd go with no more that a 700 cfm Holley double pumper.... But that's just me...😉😎👍
Can't wait to see the cammer!
You seem to have left out lining up the trigger point of the distributor, since you had the engine at about 34 degrees you could twist the rotor to full advance, line up the reluctor and lock down the distributor. Or you could have wound the engine to 16 degrees and lined the poles up without twisting the rotor. I used to like doing it with points and a test light, you could get the timing spot on before starting it.
Timing gets set on the dyno. This just insures that it has plenty of advance to fire immediately. Been doing it this way for the past 20 years.
Good information Brent. When you dyno engine’s using MSD types of ignitions what spark plug gap do you use?
Forgot to say, 5 spd manual with 3.44 diff, thanks, Dave
Good info bud,thank u
on a hyd roller aftermarket steel cam - is there ever a time to use melonized over the steel gear?
Man I bought a pertronix heirloom kit for my 350 in an old c10 I had. Night and day difference those light springs will do! That thing revved so much quicker. It was a different truck. I suggest if anyone has the stock hei distributor in their car to get that kit, think it was a hundred bucks, came with the module, coil, and all the little bits and pieces to over haul one of them. Let’s face it, I see those ugly things in front of sbf’s all the time in the internet, so they’d benefit from them.
Ima guess 35hp more from the 750 dominator on JJ JR.!--Im curious about torque,myself!-I totally approve of this experiment 😁-AND ANY carb built by Mr. Drew Projednick😎...as they'll be perfect!
Hi, I have a 400hp sbf 306 in a 2700 lb car with fuel and me on board. Do you think I should be aiming for around 16 degrees initial and all in by about 2500? Thanks Dave
Most dont remeber the 750 Dominator…
I noticed that you are dropping in the distributor in at 32-34 degrees but isn't the timing going to advance way pass 34 degrees when mechanical advance comes in???
We do this to have plenty of advance for a first start. Most guys put the dist in at TDC or shortly before and the engine cranks or doesn’t start quickly. If you give it enough lead, it will start on the first crank and you’re gonna set the timing anyway. If you notice, i always say that it will start immediately like this.
I'm interested in small block build. How should I contact you
10 HP
25 hp
27 horsepower difference.
15 HP
8 hp
19