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Converting a Delco 470 distributor to Pertronics

Hey Dennis, I saw your posts on breezeworks a ways back. If it wasn't for that site I would never have been able to rebuild my engine. stractor is the man on there! He helped me tremendously. I was pretty much in your shoes about a year ago and did everything you are asking about. You will be glad you did what you are doing now. I also run NGK plugs and have had absolutely great results. I was wondering if you went with the flamethrower 40,000 volt coil? That is what I bought and it works great. I have a four barrel carb. on mine and the motor seems to run great set around 5-6 btdc. with the pertronix setup. My engine won't idle as well at 4 btdc. Oh yeah, being that the engine has a short advance curve, guys on breezeworks mentioned that you should try and get idle down to around 600-650 or as low as possible before going ahead with the timing light. You will like the pertronix if you take your time to set everything up right. talk to you later, Tom
 
Tom,
I have everything from the Pertronics module out to the plugs. New Echlin cap/rotor, 8mm wires, Flamethrower coil 40,000v and NGK plugs gapped at .040. After I get the engine warmed up I will take as much idle out of it as I can so I get no mechanical advance from the weights. Going to set initial timing at 6*BTDC. I will play with the idle from there. Looking to get a low trolling speed of 1.5-2.0 SOG by the GPS. Then I can adjust up from there. This is a heavy 19' 1983 Grady White. So I feel I should be able to get that. This engine is bone stock and has been maintained very well. Doing a dry compression test first followed by a second with oil in each cylinder so I get a picture of that as well.

Dennis
 
kimcrwbr1 said:
I dont believe in pouring oil to diagnose poor compression...... do a leakdown do determine where the leak is
Click to expand...
I'm with you on that one.
Oil in a cylinder decreases chamber volume proportunate to the volume of oil added....., thus it can't help but create an increase in cylinder pressure, often giving a false-positive!
Oil also has a tendancy to pool to the low side of the ring landings in V engines and/or engines fitted with dished pistons.
 
FYI- Here is a pic of what I am working with. Please comment or make some observations.
DSC02902.jpg
 
Dennis, the engine looks like someone took good care of it. I see it is bone stock as you mentioned. If you are going in cold water as you previously mentioned, you should be ok with the stock setup along with the pertronix. Run the boat and have fun. If the engine runs strong maybe think about adding the alternator kit if the water cooled voltage regulator decides to take a dump. Some of the old timers are still running with the original charging systems. The problem arises when the voltage regulator either undercharges or overcharges batteries. So you have either no charge, weak charge, overcharge issues if it fails. These water cooled voltage regulators are not cheap and may be a NLA item. I know you are probably already aware of all that I am saying. No charge and you are broke down on the water, weak charge and the engine will run horribly and you will probably smell unburned fuel coming out the exaust, overcharge and you will smell rotten eggs in the battery compartment. (boiling batteries) Another problem with the stator is that the magnets come unattached and can do damage to the front timing cover. Not always, but mine came off and knocked the timing marks pretty good on my timing cover. Alot of guys simply cut wires from the rectifier when installing the aftermarket alternator kits. The problem with this is that the rectifier is still producing ac voltage and will continue to do so until the harmonic balancer (stator) is removed from the crank. Alot of guys either don't have enough room in the forward engine compartment to remove stator and take out rectifier completely or are afraid of damaging crank.
I removed everything out of mine and yes it was a proper pain in the ass not getting off but getting all the way back on. Anyway, run the boat the way you got it now and have fun before you go any further spending a bunch of money. However, just something to think about if the engine continues to stay strong for you. said enough, all the best, Tom
 
Dennis, I too will say that it looks very clean and very well taken care of. That is a real plus.

My only observation would be a possible check valve in the bilge pump discharge hose. If so, I'd get rid of it.

Pull the drive and check the engine coupler alignment, and go have fun like Tom says.
 
OK guys thanks. The alternator conversion will definitely get done. I will sink no money into this old system when a better one is available. I'll start out using it this season and watch it carefully. Before it goes in the water it is going to a Mercruiser dealer. I will have the outdrive removed and serviced and the whole area inspected. New impeller, check all bellows, gimball bearing service and coupler alignment as you suggest, seals, gaskets etc. Then I know where I am with regards to the outdrive and I can move forward from there. Check valve for bilge too. I'll post some results along the way and fire some questions here as needed.

Thanks Again,
Dennis
 
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