As some of you know, my 86 V6 regal has been decomputerfied and has a big old Q-jet from a 73 Pontiac sitting up top. My question involves the distributer: I have my initial timing set at about 17* (was 15*, per the tag on the rad cover, until yesterday) and it runs fine. I went to the Autozone today to get an advance spring kit for an HEI. Got home, I popped off the cap and rotor and to my disbelief, there is no mechanical advance. Not even a provision for it. I though those extra wires sticking out of the dist were to replace the vacuum advance?? Anyway, is there a way to make this thing have mechanical advance without tearing apart the distributer? Or, am I stuck with 17* all the time?? Would taking it up to 20* ruin my idle quality (didn't seem to bad when I tried it last night) If I do have to tear it apart will any parts from a points distributer work? I've never tried swapping parts between the two different types. All of my HEI's are in vehicles that run, so I don't want to compromise their drivability for my crappy V6. I'm going to post this over on the small block forum to get a little more traffic, so don't feel obligated to post on both. Thanks!!
Well since no one knows anything, I'm just going to run the piss out of it till it blows. Then I'll put my 350 in it. Will I get a response now???
I'll bite. I think the distrib is probably not going to be fixable. You'll need a mechancial advance to get it running properly and they should be quite common the wrecking yards. It's a pretty quick swap.
Hey, you'll not have any luck, the computer controlled distributors advance was controlled with only the computer, for now my best recomendation is to advance it as far as it will go and still be able to run well. But a better solution is to find a distributor off of a non computer-controlled car. 77 through 80 had mechanical and vacuum advance distributors, becareful with the 77 engines, some were odd fire some were even fire, it's an even fire that you want. Hopefully this is of somehelp. Jason
Thanks guys!! I was trying not to pull the distributor. I hate doing it cause I usually do something stupid. I know how to properly do it, I've done enough times. I just like leaving them alone when they're in. The only one I didn't have to screw around with afterwards was for my 91 Crown Vic (maybe cause its a Ford). Any way I was looking to minimize my effort in the junkyard (although, finding a 78-79 Buick V6 should be easy enough). I haven't been to one in over a year. I had a bunch of points type dist laying around. Figured I'd make use of them, but the cam on the shaft would be a definite problem. I think I might set my initial back to 15*. It doesn't seem to like 17* at idle, but it'll open the secondaries a little more and it will downshift when I punch it at over 50 mph. Work in progress, what else can I say. Thanks
Sorry for ressurecting an old post, but I have a distributor from a 77 V6. Donnie picked it up for me yesterday when he was driving around saving gas. Think it came out of a 77 Regal. Anyway, we put it in today, and of course the cap was different and no one had the right one. So, the original cap is on...backwards. The vacuum advance is pointing towards the front (like its supposed to) and the where the wires go is pointing towards the back. Before you start wondering, yes it works. The car drives around almost the same as it did before. Here's my new problem: we set the timing to 15* initial like the tag says to. I was driving it around and in the beginning of a hard acceleration it will pop. Sometimes twice. I bumped the initial up to 17*. Same situation but more rare and the pop almost stalls the car. Is this something that can be resolved, or is it just my dumb regal being as dumb as me? I'm kinda thinking that the springs are advancing too quickly. Maybe I'll try heavier springs. The stock ones look pretty light. Question on the timing. Its set at 18* initial. Without the vacuum advance hooked up its 36-37*. With it hooked up: around 55*. No noise at all however. Maybe this is what it wants. Also it stumbles around at 12* initial.
Do some head work & put a nice cam in and you will put that 6 " in" the sweet spot. my guess on $$$ roughly under 300 US dollars.
peak power OK then,how about a turbo. "hot air style"You will still retain your MPG's I'm not trying to push anything,just trying to help find a reasonable solution :TU:
Yeah!! Hot air style with a carb. Wonder where I can find one of those?? Anyway, I picked up the correct dist cap today. Maybe that's the problem.
Joe, not trying to be a salesman...... Before I swapped a Buick 350 into my Cutlass I bought some performance parts for the v6, so would you have any interest in a Edelbrock manifold and Holley 390CFM 4 barrel carb? If you are Just PM, if not no worries. Do you have any plans for a cam or headers? I always wanted to do that but my v6 burned up a few valves before I got that far.
