Re: which distributor? Wico,Mallory, 4 banger
I may be wrong on this but my gut feeling on the three offered in your question is the mag would be my last choice in a street car.
The magnetos are best at what they were used for which was racing. They don't have a Timing advance mechanism which we need for our idle to cruise operation.
Aircraft use magnetos because they are self contained and aircraft run in a very narrow rpm band.
The output of a magneto increases with rpm whereas the battery powered distributor output decreases with rpm.
Either of the Mallory distributor's would be my choice for our low rpm engines. The only advantage of the dual point is its ability to control the duration of the open period of the points which increases the maximum usable rpm. The model A engine rpm limit doesn't come close to needing that feature. Jim Brierley could probably use one in one of his Bonneville cars.
I have an old period duel point magneto that I am using on my Riley Two Port But also have a single point that I will use if it doesn't work out.
|