Recent content by distributorguy

I'm going to say it bluntly: If the primary centrifugal advance wasn't so horribly F'ed up, both high and low altitude drivability would be worlds better. Get it? Vacuum only gets used under low load, which is almost never at altitude. Load is significantly higher due to a lack of oxygen...

For those folks calling about my services, these are newer distributors than I usually rebuild. I'm typically ONLY a points guy, plus those engines are mostly built prior to all the SMOG stuff you;re trying to keep alive. The dual vac is strictly a smog thing BTW. If the timing curve was...

That makes sense. Full vacuum applies 20 degrees of advance, which is too much for anything other than a small displacement, lethargic engine with very low compression and a horrible combustion chamber design. It should ping or detonate, unless you're at high altitude where its less likely...

So what you're saying is that likely 90% of all FJ owners don't need the valve because they'll never drive at 4500' or higher... That means they could all run better with a better single vac installed because the portion of the vac unit working at low altitude is NOT ideal, and if it was really...

Altitude may have been an excuse, but it works the same at any altitude. I wasn't aware that there was a separate import smog test at high altitude. Usually that was done in coastal facilities. All Toyota cared about was the certification so they could be unloaded and get out of customs...

I'm sure the goal was that the first stage of vac at 8 degrees advance would give better emissions than the 20 total from both being in service. If you need to pass emissions, retard the timing. Make the engine run poorly. Lean out your idle mixture as well. Going from a dual to a single is...

I can say this for sure: if I make the tooling to rebuild the original vac unit, they will run $125-175 for the vac rebuild by the time I make the necessary internal parts to complete the rebuild, and make the tooling to be able to reassemble them properly. The aftermarket single vac units...

So I've gotten to the root of the vacuum advance dilemma... I just rebuilt an FJ60 distributor circa 1987. The mechanical advance curve os so far out of tune, the dual vac unit becomes a bigger tuning aid than it should be. The outer vac port advances 4 degrees (8 at the crank due to the...

Yep! Alloy head, ceramic coated pistons, Ceramic coated exhaust manifold, and likely a FiTech 2bbl system.

I'm hoping to make an adapter for tooling I already made to be able to rebuild them. The other option is to buy and modify the existing double-vac units so the phasing is correct (modify the arm length). Its not a big deal. I already rebuild at least 20 vac units a week for other applications...

It sounds like at least a couple are on their way here. This is my busy season, so I'll post pics in a couple weeks when I dig in and figure something out. I think the awful surface finish from Cardone isn't a matter of shot blasting. They dump all the alloy and steel parts into an abrasive...

I don't just have a Sun machine, I have 13 of them and a Snap-On Distrib-U-Scope. That photo of a 504 is the "Cadillac" of Sun machines. I'm currently using that one, plus I have two others, and a lot of times I use the 400 which is more compact and can be "hotrodded" for a higher peak rpm and...

Sorry for the big pic, but here's one I rebuilt a couple months ago, including the rebuilt vac unit. Typical work out of my shop looks like this, and is set up for best performance on today's pump gas.

This is Jeff from Advanced Distributors. I just registered so I could explain myself a little more thoroughly. I'm willing to try to rebuild one of these vacuum units, but getting both vac cans to operate my not be possible. It depends on how its built, and how long it will take me to make the...