Thread: 352 fe distributor ??

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here's my question,


I have a 65 352 4bb it has a vaccum adv. dist. on it now. and i found a mechanical adv. for cheap. so the question is whats the difference between the two and is a vaccum better than a mechanical one?

thanks
John

The vacuum advance distributor has both vacuum and mechanical (centrifugal) advance. For street use, the vacuum advance unit works great. It will have low intitial timing to make cranking the engine easier. Once the engine is running, the vacuum chamber pulls the advance plate to get the engine to idle smoothly. The centrifugal advance starts coming in aound 1000 RPM (depending on the springs and arms used) and should be full in by 1800 to 2000 RPM,

I'd stay with a good vacuum advance distributor enless you expect to turn in excess of 5500 rpm.

That said a well curved dual point mechanical unit is pretty cool... Regardless which you chose have it recurved by a reliable shop for best results or get a timing light capable of doing the job yourself.