I finally have everything to get my motor in the car, and now I'm working the top end, and I don't know what style distributor to get.

My motor is from a 93 Lightning, non roller. The truck was fuel injected, but I'm running a Holley carb with an Edelbrock Air Gap intake manifold. Are the distrubutor shaft lengths different for carb'ed and FI'ed motors, due to the intake manifolds? If so, would I be able to find out what the last year that the Lightnings were carb'ed and just get a distributor fitted for that year?

Also, all the old heads tell me to stay away from HEI style. Whats the pros/cons there?

And what about mechanical vs vacuum advance?

 

Im running that same intake manifold on a Lightning 351w block. I have a standard 351w distributor I bought off ebay like 5 years ago lol, I had a local performance shop tweek it up a bit but any general 351w Distributor off ebay should work. The only thing that will differ for a 351w distrib is if your just going to run a Coil or a controller but even in that case I think its still the same distributor? I would also suggest vacuum advance over manual.

 

I'd try and get a replacement distributor for a carb'd 351w. I don't think the shaft length varies between the two. +1 on the vacuum advance, although my MSD is computer advanced

 

I'd go with an MSD for a 351W and be done with it........

 

If I'm planning on running a controller box down the road, can I still go with a vacuum advance?