Mallory dizzy with Mech advance

[aceofspades]

So I got my 260z with a mallory unilight and its mech advance!

stock timing should be 8* with a vac advance dizzy

what should it be running a mech advance!?

seeing i'm not running a vac advance should I up the timing at idle?

and whats this about switching to a ZX dizzy?

[jmortensen]

Set the total advance to somewhere in the mid 30's at full mechanical advance (you'd need a dyno to really optimize, but it's probably going to do best somewhere between 34 and 38 degrees). If you can dial back the amount of mech advance, I'd set it to about 15 degrees, so that you're near 20 degrees at idle. If you can't adjust it, then just worry about the total advance and don't worry about the advance at idle.

The ZX distributor has 17 or 18 degrees of mechanical advance, so it's pretty good right out of the box in that respect, but the vacuum advance mechanisms are pretty much always broken on them, so I always assume that if I pick one up it needs fixing.

Best solution is crank fire ignition and there are getting to be some pretty cheap options there like mega jolt. Even an out of the box Electromotive setup compares pretty well with a brand new Unilite pricewise (vs MSA), and is way better functionally because they don't have gears driving them, 3 coils for more soak time much more adjustability in the timing curve, etc.

[aceofspades]

yea I don;t have that kinda money to send yet! =)

i'm just working with what the car came with!

sad part was on my web page a kids was selling a mega jolt set up for 50 bucks with every thing few months back!

hmm the only thing i would like to know is at what rpm does the mech advance go full out on my dizzy i know nothing about it yet just popped off the came and was like oh well thats nice no points!

[aceofspades]

oh also whats the timing sitting at at idle with the vac advance hooked up?

[jmortensen]

hmm the only thing i would like to know is at what rpm does the mech advance go full out on my dizzy i know nothing about it yet just popped off the came and was like oh well thats nice no points!

Put the timing light on the mark, rev the engine slowly. When the timing stops advancing, that's when it is all in.

oh also whats the timing sitting at at idle with the vac advance hooked up?

No idea. Depends on the amount of vacuum advance your particular distributor has. I would see if Mallory has a suggestion on that one or get advice from someone who has one. Zs-ondabrain is into them, maybe he'll have a suggestion.

[aceofspades]

thanks I set it to 15 at idle i'll see how it runs when i got it was set to like 5 and ran like crap then i turned it up to 12 and it ran great fast and smooth! and started quicker!

now 15 well see what happens I also turned up the gas!