Distributor Spring Exchange Q's

[Coke]

I had been told to run 2 of the "loose fitting" springs in my distributor to give more low grunt. I swapped the tighter fitting spring with a looser one, so I now have 2 loose springs....Set the timing to 11BTDC....and the car is now slower then ever. It builds boost up to 18-19psi....but feels like stock boost.

 

Thoughts?

[Starwolf]

Im not sure justin...i tried asking some questions to PQ a while back to try and figure out about the grease spots (fairly obvious anyways).

 

This might help?

 

http://starquest.i-x.net/viewtopic.php?t=148

[redflatty85]

I just did mine, i used the two springs that have more coils, and its made of a thinner wire, car feels better outa boost now, and under boost its normal. Guess make sure the weights are moving free and that you really did use the lightter spring. Something cant be right if your running slower, cuz all its doing is making the advance come in sooner ~1k, not really adding any advance as far as i know..

[Coke]

Maybe Shelby has some insight on this? Shelby...oh Shelby........where art thou?

[StarquestRescue]

I had been told to run 2 of the "loose fitting" springs in my distributor to give more low grunt. I swapped the tighter fitting spring with a looser one, so I now have 2 loose springs....Set the timing to 11BTDC....and the car is now slower then ever. It builds boost up to 18-19psi....but feels like stock boost.

 

Thoughts?

Maybe to much timing to soon for that boost level and the knock sensor is pulling timing. If the last mod is not working than undo it and go back to what worked. When did the car become slow? Last i heard it ran a 13.7 @ 100. But the weather is hot and humid now and that robs power, plus your uses to it. What else did you change since than?

[Shelby]

leave the springs the way you found them just make sure the stator shaft is able to move freely and the weights are free to move,,

also check for wear on the upper houseing plate it can not wobble too much or the ign may see a poor signal from the pick up,, the stator and reluctor poles must never touch

[Coke]

Maybe to much timing to soon for that boost level and the knock sensor is pulling timing. If the last mod is not working than undo it and go back to what worked. When did the car become slow? Last i heard it ran a 13.7 @ 100. But the weather is hot and humid now and that robs power, plus your uses to it. What else did you change since than?

 

It got slow right after I changed the springs. I put the springs back to the way they should be...and it got better.

 

leave the springs the way you found them just make sure the stator shaft is able to move freely and the weights are free to move,,

also check for wear on the upper houseing plate it can not wobble too much or the ign may see a poor signal from the pick up,, the stator and reluctor poles must never touch

 

Yeah I put the springs back to the way they should be for now. Runs right bout how it used to run. The distributor is completely rebuilt and relubed by me, following the PQ How-To over at I-X. Then I sent it out to UlrichWolf because the reluctor poles needed resetting. I bought the distributor used, and I bet someone dropped it and threw one of the poles off. It was touching one of the poles when I recieved it and I knew that was not right. Tim reset it very carefully, and it spins freely now and the car runs the same as it did with the original distributor.

 

I thought these cars were supposed to run better with 2 "loose" springs?

[Shelby]

you can't beleave every thing you hear,,many times some thing entirely diff was the op real problem and this was a bandaid fix

[notfried]

they may seem "looser", in yer own words, but are they "lighter"?

 

and ya wanna be careful when ya recurve a dist, because too heavy a spring and ya have a slug with no vac advance and too light a spring and yer advancing yer spark too quick for your air/fuel

 

you can play with this by hookin' up a timing light and watch how fast it advances with stock springs, then go lighter from there and watch it every time to make sure it's not advancing too fast

[Scotty Dont]

The looser springs that don't pull the weights fully closed when just sitting there are the heavier springs and if you throw two of those on there then your timing will probably not advance at all and feel like a wet dog. What you want is the two softer springs those will advance the timing faster.

[Coke]

I figured it out. I had the wrong springs.

[Shelby]

the yr the Tainters came down and ran their 12.4 they had a chev v8 spring in the dist and the dist would never see full advanc of the mechanical adv system , i install'd the proper quest dist springs

 

dist advance you want to come on in stages part at low rpm to assist in low end power,, but not over advance first stage is aprox (1800-2000) 10-11 degrees , then as the rpms increase to 3000 to 3400 it almost goes full advance,, # 4000 it is fullly advance'd

 

you ignore the vacuum adv because under boost there is no vacuum signal only pressure

 

too much adv too early can lead to knock,,even tho you may not hear it , it can damage piston ring lands ,, the engine will also surge under light throddle while cruiseing

 

 

durring the 15 yrs i was drag raceing i try'd 100's of diff timeing curves

Edited July 12, 2010 by Shelby