Looking at upgrading my distributor for my 1974 with a 383 stroker motor. It's currently running the stock tach drive distributor. Was curious what others are using and any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

MSD has a tach drive but it requires the box....a spendy proposition........
I run an MSD pro billet with an old 6AL analog and Blaster coil.......my tach is converted to electronic on my 72'
I am very adamant on the MSD as it allows for a perfect timing curve that you control.....with springs and bushings.
The electric tach to me is an upgrade too as it doesn't bounce around and is much more accurate than the stock cable drive......which can be troublesome.
The cables have to be lubricated periodically and a 90 degree drive is required in some instances.....which is trouble in itself......

I just don't understand after almost 20 years why MSD doesn't do the Ready to Run guts in the tach drive unit......baffling.....as a lot of Vette owners pass up on it due to having to buy and wire in a box.
That said...I had the MSD tach drive on the 66' in the Avatar with a 6AL and it was great.....

Jebby

 

yeah that tach drive distributor (MSD 8572) is like $600 alone!!

 

What do you expect from an upgrade? That will drive you to a product. There is nothing wrong with the points in a factory distributor. The biggest thing is they need some maintenance every 10k miles. Some folks will go to a HEI unit, others try pointless conversions and the other option is the MSD setup. I have have tried all 3 and currently have the MSD on my engine now.

 

This is correct....points are dead nuts reliable and easy once you know.....
You can setup the stock distributor too with a good curve.....this is the only real performance improvement you will get.....
I run a box because I have a cam with a lot of overlap and it helps keep the plugs clean as it fires multiple times below 3000rpm....hence the name MSD

Jebby

 

I just installed a Davis HEI distributor in my 72 and mam, what a difference. It even has the tachdrive built in. https://performancedistributors.com/...reetstrip-dui/

 

My car doesn't need the tach drive distributor. As I have a electric tach. Which can be done to earlier cars as well.
I put in a DUI, Davis Distributor not all that long ago.
And have to agree with above. WOW, what a difference!
And I did try recurving my distributor time and again. Can't tell you how many different weight arms, footballs and springs I tryed.
In the end, I spent the money on a custom curved DUI Distributor.
Car runs great and pulls like a train.

 

Shim the drive gear to reduce the end play down to .010" or so. Replace the centrifugal advance springs to bring the centrifugal advance all in by about 2600 - 3000 RPM. Measure your manifold vacuum at idle and select a new vacuum canister that pulls all the way in with 2" less vacuum than you have at idle. Connect the canister to a manifold vacuum source, not the ported carburetor nipple the factory used.

You will want to set your ignition timing at the top of the curve from now on, not at idle. You need a sharpie mark on the damper at 36 degrees before #1 Top Dead Center, firing position. Disable the vacuum advance and rev the engine to an RPM above the top of the centrifugal curve and set the distributor to align the sharpie mark with the zero on the timing tab. Lock the distributor down and recheck it. Hook the cannister back up and go for a drive.

After all that, you might want to consider shortening the centrifugal advance curve. A shorter curve will have the effect of increasing the initial timing at idle. The top of the curve stays in place but the beginning setting will increase so the idle advance goes up. The engine will probably like that.

Lars has several white papers on these desmogging subjects that he sends out if you want a copy. This list of mods is very effective and inexpensive. Old school for old cars.

DUI is also a good way to get all of this goodness from a single source. I have never used them but I would if I did not want to do this stuff myself.

 

My 69, with its VortecPro 468 big block, is going to be a mild build, and I intend to avoid all the aftermarket, big HP costs and parts. I am sticking primarily with what Chevrolet built, with Mark Jones / Vortecpro magic applied to those parts, like he did on the thread he created on his similar 427 build. Quiet, mild and reliable. So....I spoke with Jeff at Advanced Distributors up in Minnesota, and like what I heard. He is a big believer in points distributors, and explained alot to me about them. Considering this is NOT a max performance build, with a big block that will never see over 5500 RPM,.....he believes a single point, properly curved distributor is the perfect solution, and I agree. I am shipping it to him now. I bought an MSD brown cap that looks very original, Accel HD points, Comp Cams composite distributor drive gear.....and looking for a good coil right now. I ordered one from Zip that is advertised as a Made in USA coil.....and printed right on the box it says Made in China.....so thats being returned. I may look for and NOS Delco coil, or possibly and MSD coil, although it may very well be made in CHina as well....I will call them and ask before I order it from Summit.

I am very happy to be using this stock points setup.....once Jeff gets it rebuilt and curved properly. I think it will be everything it needs to be for my car and definitely in spirit with the overall car rebuild.

 

See my post #7 in this thread:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...or-choice.html

Lars

 

I'm running a $50 ebay special tach drive HEI. I did have to replace the module twice till I found a NOS delco one. I replaced the springs and I recently replaced the adjustable vacuum cam since the new roller cam I installed needed more initial timing with less vacuum but its been on the car for 11 years now. I bought an accel distributor (no tach drive) for another project and it looks to be made by the same chinese manufacturer so YMMV. The end play and such is fine on my unit and I noticed no wear when I last inspected it during a head swap but the distributor only has 3500 miles or so on it. I did play with aftermarket weights but found the ones the distributor came with had the best performance curve.

I had points on a few vehicles and got tired of messing with them and the chinese coils that go with them (had to echange a couple in a row to get a good one) so ended up going to pertronix modules and such or in this case the HEI which IMO is the best bang for the buck between points and MSD setups unless your planning on track time, then you will get better reliability from the msd at high rpms on a forged high rpm engine from everything ive read. If this is a cast crank 5500rpm motor then a standard HEI will work just as well as the MSD from what very little testing and comparisions Ive been able to find. Its at sustained high rpms that the msd shines.