Yes, it has been modified to accept electronic distributors as well as points, centrifugal types. It has a the ability to fire 8 spark plugs which can be observed with a magnifier and a variable pressure chamber with primary and secondary traces visible on a scope.Do you own a distributor machine?
Over 45 years of restoring (never merely repairing), recurving advance curves, removing bounce and jitter at high rpms, and indexing the proper firing interval between cylinders.How much actual experience do you have repairing distributors and using distributor machines to calibrate advance curves, hours, days, years, decades?
Also graphing the advance curves so the distributor can be correctly installed in the engine.
No. We gather engine data using high speed logging directly from the engine while it is on the race track. Data in rpm steps is bogus. A higher sampling rate will produce smooth data curves that can be fed into engine simulations.Have you ever gathered timing information on a dyno in 500 or 1000 RPM steps through an engine's full RPM range to maximum engine speed, used a distributor machine to apply that information and confirmed the results on the dyno?
Dyno tuning is only a beginning step toward track winning performance.
We sell and service engine management systems (MoTec), and perform the ignition and fuel mapping as well. Our history includes vintage high pressure fuel injection systems as well.
Forty to fifty years ago, even Formula One engines used mechanical distributors, (sometimes more than one), quite successfully. Then we went through a series of changes including: magnetic triggers, optical triggers, Hall Effect triggers, transistor switch boxes, CDI boxes, hybrid systems, individual coils per cylinder, etc. Did I mention knock retard system ignitions? While the management of the systems improved, not much has changed in the plug gap.You present a good argument that a vintage mechanical distributor can be a more accurate ignition timing device than an ECU.
Whatever the device, if it misfires or does not have the proper interval and curve, it is not a performance part.
I will admit my bias. Since we have worked with Bosch for so many years and received so much technical assistance from them (still do), they are my vintage preference.What do you consider a good vintage?
With regard to current technology, either the MoTec or factory systems with reprogramming, and linked to a quality
data logger is my choice (requirement).