Possible Performance Distributor for 2.6l

[Sscorpion]

Ok so here we go I looked around a little on the site trying to find if anyone has ever done this before and I had no such luck. So I'm sorry if this is posted somewhere else and is redundant but I thought it was too cool not to share.

So a lot of gear heads have probably heard of recurving a distributor for performance. Right????

Everyone knows on these trucks short of going to and edis system your kinda stuck with mechanical advances and what not.

Well I was having trouble with my original distributor being loose and worn out and hated trying to play with the weights and springs because of there location on the factory 2.6l distributor. So I started researching and googling for hours and days and finally i found a solution.

The picture below is the factory 88 g54b 2.6l dizzy. You will notice the electronic are above the weights and springs.... meaning if you want to play with it you have to essentailly remove the guts to get to it to make quick adjustments..... not practical at all.



Long story short at first I just wanted a functioning replacement and bought a remanufactured Cardone P#31-560 it showed up and looked like complete crap. If you have seen my motor I was not going to put crap in place of crap on my baby. So I sent it back and kept searching for better idea.

I found that a dizzy out of a 1983 Ram 50, Mighty Max, and/or Montreo with the 2.6l had a different cap that screws on instead of clipping on. So I kept looking and found a company named Spectra made a new replacement distributor. I had never heard of this company so being very skeptical I ordered the Spectra P# DG27 (pictured below) from amazon to see if it would work.




This is what showed up??? A brand new replacement for the 1988 g54b with the side clip mounting, not the one pictured above? Not what I ordered but was what I was originally looking for. After really looking at it they completely redesigned the guts and everything is different. Compare below pic#2 to above Pic#3. So I called Spectra in Canada and there tech support guy said it is impossible and that they have never made a distributor for the 88 ram 50 pickups and the only distributor listed for 2.6l g54b is p# DG27. The one I received below had the casting stamped DG27 and the box it arrived in had DG27 on the Spectra Box with all there info on it. But yet they have never made one????? To this day neither one of us knows what the below distributor is for, but I sent it back and ordered another one from a different source.



Now this time I got what I asked for and guess what it fits. The gear is the same with same number of teeth, same length, and mounting hole.



Beautiful!!! The stock factory vacuum advance has a 10 stamped on it. The Spectra DG27 comes with a 7.5 vacuum advance. So I wanted more adjustability and found that if you order the vacuum advance off of a 88-89 turbo Starion they have adjustable vacuum advances!!!!!!!!

So I order Stand Motor Product P# VC269. If you remove the acorn nut on top there is a very tiny screw that you can turn in and out to fine tune your advance!!!!

So if you look below the difference between the factory dizzy and the Spectra dizzy, they are pretty much the same but the springs and weights are on top of the electronics instead of the bottom. Also the rotor is screwed onto the plate with weights so it can never wiggle loose and move at all!!! Verses the factory dizzy slips on and depending on manufacture actually moves and wiggles loose.



Also the new distributor cap and rotor is a way better set up because it has a built in shield on the rotor to contain and direct the spark in one direction instead of being open to take the path of least resistance.



Now the cap and rotor that come with the DG27 are black in color and probably work just fine but the terminals are aluminum. So I found brand WVE(aka NGK) P# 3D1068A is grey in color. The main plug from the coil and rotor are brass and the cylinder spark plug terminals are copper which is much better for electricity.

So to wrap this up it is not a performance distributor per say, but this setup gives you the ability to pull off cap and rotor and change springs very quickly, conseals and protects your spark, and the ability to adjust timing advance better then you could before.

This setup is for the 2.6l G54B Engine. I have it installed on the M28 non-jet head but that shouldn't matter.

Spectra P# DG27 (Distributor) $108.00 (amazon)
Standard Motor Products P# VC269 (Adj. Vacuum Adv.) $55.00 (amazon)

WVE P# 3D1068A (Copper/ Brass Cap & Rotor Kit) Grey instead of Black $ 21.00 (amazon)

Total Setup cost $184.00 and it's brand new vs. RemanufacturedCardone P# 31-560 for $182.00 (No brainer)

I am sorry for being so long winded but I went one step further and looked up other guys computer controlled timing tables (cranking advanced) that worked well on this website and used those as a base for my adjustable time.

I used a Innova 3568 Digital Timing Light to set the timing at different rpms in netrual to set it as close to the timing table I found in Thread: cranking advance for 2.6l post #11 by LSR Mike. I pulled this table from that post only cause I don't know how to use it as a quote in a new thread. Please don't be mad.

So using this table as a base since I can't tune it under a load and didn't really know what Mike considered low vacuum values and High Vacuum Values I shot for middle of the graph for my application.

RPM across the top
The ignition advance number below
the 9 rows of numbers are the S1 to S10 load lines shown in the graph.
The Bottom line being low Vacuum and the top line being High Vacuum.

0 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 2250 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
8 8 13 19 29 32 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40
8 8 13 19 29 32 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40
8 8 18 24 30 35 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40
8 8 18 24 30 35 38 38 38 36 35 35 37 37 37 37- Mikes Computerized reading
8 8 13 23 24 26 28 30 32 34 35 36 37 38 - My Manual timing light reading adjusting the vacuum advance screw on top
8 8 16 19 21 27 30 30 31 28 28 28 30 30 32 33- Mike Computerized reading
8 8 9 13 13 18 18 20 21 21 20 20 25 28 28 30
5 5 8 9 10 11 12 15 16 16 17 16 20 22 24 26
3 3 7 8 9 11 11 14 15 16 16 15 17 21 23 25
2 2 6 7 8 10 10 14 15 16 16 14 16 20 22 24
0 0 4 5 6 8 8 11 12 13 13 12 15 19 21 23

I still can add more if I wanted to but didn't want to go over 40 at idle. It was pinging a little at 40 so I backed it off and ended up at 38. Wish I could put more in around cruise but that's what I ended up with. My red numbers are exactly in between Mikes Chart values so I would call that a win for an Adjustable Mechanical Vacuum Advance Setup. Also super noisy and sketchy even with a helper at 5,000rpm to try and see numbers and not suck the cord into the fan. LOL!!

Well sorry for being so long winded but I often find information on forums to be lacking details and sometimes leaving me to search on. So I tried to cover it all in one location for all those guys who have the tinkering itch.