carb and distributor

[whatdoyouwant]

I am still trying to get the right stuff for my engine and now don't know what dist. or carb I need
My engine is a 1950 8BA 4" x 3-3/8" with a JR 400 cam and a single carb. My timing cover is aluminum and will accept the cast iron type dist. I want a distributor with both mech and vac advance. I guess I have learned that my cam will not allow just vac advance, and my old Stromsburg 97 carb will not work because of no vac port in it. Is anyone running a setup like I described and can tell me what I need. The car will be for street use only by a OLD man.

thanks

[Flathead Fever]

Just get an old Mallory dual point, centrifugal advance only. Ford used that type of distributer on the high-performance engines from the 1960s. The vacuum advance is there to advance the timing under normal driving which can also be done with just a centrifugal advance. What the centrifugal advance only cannot do is retard the timing under a heavy load when the throttle is opened far enough that the vacuum drops off. When the vacuum drops, the timing is retarded by design by the vacuum advance to lower the cylinder pressures to prevent engine pinging. It should have been called a vacuum retard device. On a high-performance engine, you do not want to retard the timing under a load, or you will lose horsepower. With the centrifugal only advance you run a higher-octane fuel to prevent engine ping. I have always run dual point centrifugal only advance distributers on my Mustangs. My '66 GT-350 has one from the factory. I don't run electronic distributers which are better only because I like using the vintage technology from the era. Plus, I grew up working on distributers with points. Since you're building up a high-performance flathead you do not want a distributer with a vacuum advance you would be killing horsepower when you stomp on the pedal.

[tubman]

While agree with "Flathead Fever" that a Mallory dual point centrifugal only will serve your purposes just fine, but if you must have one, you can get a suitable vacuum over centrifugal by obtaining a proper SBC distributor and have "Charlie ny" convert it for flathead use. I initially had one of these on the Merc in my '51 Ford (stock Merc cam), but later found a "flattop" Mallory and changed out the SBC distributor for it, mainly for the way it looked. I have not noticed any difference in performance.

With an engine that big, a single 94 or 97 simply won't cut it. I strongly suggest a bored out late Merc 4-bolt manifold and a small base Rochester 2G. That's what I have and I love it. At one time or other over the last 65 years, I've run just about everything else (duals, triples 4-BBLs) and like the 2G best. Always concerned about appearances, I found a Canadian late Merc aluminum intake manifold.

[Ol' Ron]

Tubmah Has it. However, The vacuum advance is necessary to retard the timing as the advance in cruise is there to provide bettter fuel economy. You need more adance to burn a lean fuelAF. ON the track with a 400jr we used 18 fixed advance power the car off the corners on a short track. When running a race engine you have to consider the application and provide the right amount of power to achieve the best performance. That's the same as running a "street " engine it rarely gets over 3k.
Gramps

[flatjack9]

Hands down, one of Charlie's distributors with centrifugal and vacuum advance. With that cam, you surely need more spark advance at idle and cruise modes.

[aussie merc]

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you can change the throttle body on the stromberg to one that has the vacuum tap or if you look the 97 it has a flat section where you need to drill its not that hard .this would give you what you need for mechanical and vac advance distributor