Have a spare distrubitor (an MSD) with a magnetic pickup set up and wonder if it is any better than the one in the engine now ? It is a Comp9000 Mallory that is unilite pickup. Both are locked to work with the MSD 6530 control box.
Re: Distrubitor question The mag pickup will look like a phase angle change as the rpms increase. This has the effect of retarding the timing slightly as revs increase. The optical pickup may have some timing changes, most likely in nano seconds, but nothing noticeable. Is one more stable then the other? I haven't noticed anything on mine. The larger cap may benefit you more than any timing variations between them. With the larger cap, the rotor will be further from the terminal for each degree of rotation and so slightly more stable for the same coil and box.
Re: Distrubitor question i would stick with the one with the bigger cap, Mallory of course. I can think of many logical reasons to stay with the Mallory , But no exp with MSD , so basically reading this will do nothing for you. Unless you like sarcasm!!!!
I have (2) Mallory Comp 9000's and have been running them for the past 20+ years without a stitch of problems. No problems with the Standard Trigger MSD's I have used in customer cars, but I have run into issues with the MSD "Ready To Run" distributors, though they seem to a popular choice. My vote is for the largest cap available, especially for the guys who feel they must have a vacuum advance as it will help to tame the crossfire that can occur as the rotor goes out of phase with the cap terminals. Larry
