Well I started it last night. I bought a MSD distributor for a 351C. I bought one with a smaller diameter rotor and no vacuum advance. (After talking with Vic Edlebrock, on the Hot Rod Power Tour, about my carb set up he suggested diconnecting the vacuum advance - made a huge difference.) Any way I also bought a MSD Blaster coil. I promised Soaring an aricle when I am finished. I have been going through the installation methodically taking pictures.

 

Good man. Lay it on us when you have finished. Especially include all the small problems you encountered, and how you got around them.

 

Speaking of problems: I pulled the old distribuot last night and the shear pin on it is heavily warn. Has anyone ever heard of this? I am wondering if something is holding up the oil pump or it is bad. There is less than 5k on the rebuild.

 

i have heard of oil pumps coming new bad, but no instances were it wore the sheer pin down??? maybe the pumps is gummed up, and is having a hard time working right... huh i have never heard of this problem sorry

 

Sounds like you have a pump and/or related items that are putting undue pressure on your dizzy shaft for it to wear the shear pin down that fast.

 

You might want to read this, especially if you have a roller motor.

http://www.cobralads.com/butcher63.html

 

That was a great article THANKS.

Here is the story to give some more insight. I rebuilt the engine approximately 10 years ago. Since then there is less than 5k miles. It did not get driven much. When it was rebuilt I follwed the formula for a homemade BOSS. I am running 1970 Closed Port heads and the engine was bored. I am running 11:1 compression. It dynoed at 378 with out the dual exhaust and with out the elctonic ingnition. I put a petronix on it a few years back with a MSD 6A. This summer on the Hot Rod Power Tour I sheared the shear pin on the distributor on the road. I had another shear pin pressed in at a NAPA and drove the car 400 miles home. I have been driving it about once a week for 10 miles since. I had though that the higher HP and the fact that the stock distributor was 32 years old was to blame for the original shear pin.

Last night while changing the distributor to the MSD, I found another shear pin, the one I had pressed in the STOCK distributor, just about to shear yet again.

That article scares me about the new MSD I just put in.

 

Wow Tim...good stuff....thanks for sharing that info.

 

Hey believe it or not the car is up and running. I started this right before deer hunting season and every spare moment has been spent in the woods.

Well yesterday I took the time and got the car running. I had to pull the distributor, find top dead center for cyl 1, reinstall distributor and time. Because of the compression that I am running, I have to time it with a light to get me close and then drive it and adjust to find the sweet spot.

One note I installed the MSD 8455, which was a narrower distibutor with mechanical advance only. The distributor is taller than the stock and I can not use my Monte Carlo bar. I am looking into rewelding it to go over my new distributor.

 

Here is a pic of the engine compartment....

[IMG]local://upfiles/16459/B7F8DA10597E4E978605D3B0491B61DC.jpg[/IMG]