I have a completely stock 400 and am wondering if it'd be worth upgrading the ignition, coil, distributer & wires. Any suggestions?


What would be the best bolt on bang for the buck?

(The exhaust manifolds are stock, but the carb is a holly 750)

If you are still using the points distributor than I would replace it with an HEI distributor.
As far as wires, good quality 8mm at least. The one thing to remember is that if you go with the HEI unit "used one" I would have it recurved. The reason is that the HEI came out in 1972??? The timing curve was set for fuel milage and emissions.
The strange thing is that everyone says to have your distributor recurved to the cam you have but why is it so hard to find a shop that recurves distributors???
My thought.Joe

All Seattle replies... Lol...

Personally, I would go with an electronic ignition upgrade like Pertronix or there are a few others out there. It just replaces the points and in effect changes your stock looking points dist. into a solid state electronic dist.

I plan on going that way, with my points Dist. Although I do have the MSD Coil/Box and after market plug wires etc...

But after seeing your car, I'd keep it looking stock, and upgrade internally.

Brett - 67 Drop Top 455!

Don't use a Pertronics in your points distributor, I really didn't like it. Ran better with points than the Pertronics. More trouble than it's worth. Just my .02.

Steve

Mallory Unilite ... my personal choice. With their coil.

Q

You ask what't the best bang for the buck in a bold on application. It would be an HEI. I fished mine out of the trash, and it only cost a few dollars to recurve it. I bought one of those snake oil, mega coils for however much money. It was a waste of money.

I put in Accel HEI Supercoil, matching cut-to-fit 8mm wires, and split accel spark plugs all for less than 150 dollars. It made a very big difference in fast starts, acceleration and looks very good. Plus, I'll never mess with points again!
Harr Harrrrr...!!!!

I'm gonna move to Amervo's neighborhood. His trash is way better than ours.

Q

Has anyone experienced clearance problems with the (HEI) distributor being too close to the firewall? The points distributor is really close as it is.

I only have a bout 1/4" of room. It is difficult to turn the back screw on the cap! I push down on the screw and turn it from underneath.

I bought a re-man dist. from the parts store and the Pertronics conversion, coil and wires from ames. It looks pretty stock and I have had no ignition problems, I am very happy. Pete