68 390 Distributor - Stock vs Accel

First of all, just a quick fyi, you are in the wrong message board for this question. Not to give you a bad time, just you might get more responses as the V8 board is better frequented.

As for your question, why are you changing the distributor? I personally do run a dual point Mallory with mechanical advance only, and while it is fine for a street strip kind of vehicle, I wish it had vacuum advance. It improves drivability and mileage and is generally a bit more efficient and smoother. You can adjust the mechanical advance curve to clean up the idle, but you can not get the cruise mileage improvements and maybe not the smoother drivability.

Unless you are doing something pretty serious with the rest of the drivetrain, I would leave the stock dissy in place.

As for your other question, I have personally run the Pertronix and Delco remy distributor with the stock 1970 tach and had no issues.

Chris   

I believe that the tach for 1970 and the 68/69 versions are similar inside. I have run one with a Pertronix I and also with points, both in the stock delco-Remy distributor.

One the subject of points and electronic conversions, here goes. I will not try to sway you either way, either will work perfectly and up to you. The points will work up to at least 6,000 rpms, especially if you get some heavy duty points such as Accel or Mallory. Electronic will work that high or higher, rpm wise.

You can use the Pertronix Ignitor I with the resistor wire, contrary to popular belief, or you can remove the resistor from the harness. I have done it with the stock resistor in place and it is fine with the -I. The spark is more than adequate to fire the plugs either way. It will not work with the Ignitor II and up, but again, the -I is fine with resisted current. I have done it! That may be better for your tach, but I don't know if it really matters. The resisted wire still provides enough spark to reliably fire a stock or mildly modified 390 and from your information above I am guessing yours fits that description from what you have posted.

The Accel dual point will provide you with no additional power or anything else, it will simply cost you some mileage and drivability. I use a similar set up, but I do it for vintage purposes only. If not for that I would run a properly tuned stock Delco-Remy. Points or electronic are your choice!

I hope that helps!

Chris

PS: My car is a stick, for what it is worth.