[DeTomaso] MSD distributors - WTF?

Erik Anderson eanderson at geotracinternational.com
Mon Jun 27 16:08:34 EDT 2011


Thanks, Jack.

 

FYI, the MSD 8578 is ¾" shorter in height than the MSD 8577/8477.  So, after buying and returning two MSD distributors, I am now on to my third (and hopefully final) attempt!

 

When you say a REAL 351C gear, what do you mean exactly?  The speed shop told me the same thing and they have ordered the gear at a cost of $28.  Just wondering.

 

Also, when you say double-pinned, do you mean a "pin-inside-pin" or drilling a second hole through the gear and drive shaft?  Again, just wondering ...

 

Thanks again,

EA

#3528

 

From: JDeRyke at aol.com [mailto:JDeRyke at aol.com] 
Sent: June-27-11 12:37 PM
To: Erik Anderson; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] MSD distributors - WTF?

 

First, there are two different engine screens: the early one was all-screen while the later one had a sheet metal cover attached to the middle of the screen, and the sheet metal was bubbled up for more clearance with all stock stuff. THe sheet metal can be dimpled for more local clearance.
Second, MSDs use Ford Motorsport pickups and reluctors so essentially what you're getting for your extra bucks is a billet aluminum distributor body and possibly different advance springs for a better advance curve. 
Next, some Windsor distributors are made 1/2" shorter and will work just fine in a 351-C if you change gears to a real 351-C gear- double pinned. And there's nothing wrong with running an angled attach wire or two for clearance. 
FWIW, I slid the engine/ZF backwards 3/4" by reversing the upper motormounts left-to-right and bending a shallow Z in the rearmost end of each sheetmetal ZF mount. Extra 3/4" thick spacers are needed if you do this. I also sectioned 7/8" out of my stock motormounts and redrilled the ZF mounts. This lowered the entire powertrain by 7/8" so now I can run a big cap Ford electronic distributor with 1/2" of firewall clearance. 
The max limitations to shifting the powertrain this way is oil pan clearance to the under-engine crossmember and harmonic balancer clearance to the big rad hoses underneath. No problem with the slight angle this imparts to the halfshafts- which already have a slight angle as-stock; successful big block conversions shift the powertrain back 4 inches!  All this was covered in detail in various POCA newsletters over the last 5 yrs. The current newsletter covers recurving a Ford distributor and adjusting the vacuum advance as well.  Good luck- J DeRyke




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