Breakerless Distributor

First of all let me say hello to you guys. Im Building a 72 matching numbers Big Block Camaro. I know I should have brought this car back to original, but I went ahead and put aftermarket stuff on it. Ive been working on it about 2 1/2 years. So now Im getting ready to re install the wiring, and Im wondering exactly what is a breakerless distrib and how does it work, and was it a good choice.

Oh yeah, I got a mustang too, and they didnt have a Camaro avatar.

a breakerless ign has no points, the spark is timed with a light or magnetic trigger, much more reliable, hotter spark. The wiring is the same but you have to be careful to check what voltage your new distrib needs, GM HEI units take a full 12 volts, some aftermkt systems use a voltage resister.

The HEI unit BOB mentioned would be a good choice. If you want aftermarket I would suggest a Mallory Unilite. I run a Unilite in my car and have no complaints and I like the look of it (eyecandy). The Unilite requires a ballast resistor unless you also use a HyFire box then no resistor is needed. I have had some bad experiences with the machining in MSD's distributors so I won't use them but I haven't heard anything bad about their boxes. The HEI is nice cause replacement parts are readily available.

My engine builder already put in in my 402. I just dont know anything about them. From what I understand it is not HEI. Its just a Mallory breakerless distributor, looks like a unilite. Its a nice setup with my Accell 8.8 wires. Alright, I get the gist, Ill post some more questions if i run into trouble. Thanks.

The Mallory Unilite and the bigger coil is a better system than an HEI, particularly if you use it with an MSD module. The HEI will begin to degrade the spark at 4000 rpm and above, as will be the case with what you have, but you are starting out with a hotter spark to begin with. The real advantage to the unilite is that you will not be losing spark because of lack of maintenance to the breakers. Take a look at an MSD module. I believe they are worth their weight in gold for a car with a lot of fuel delivery and high compression.

fo' betta or for worse i got a uni lite and have had zero problems with it for the last 8 years. i burned thru my coil wire once, really had me looking for problems till i found it. i bought a new module and i still had the problem, so now i have an extra module. trouble with them is that if the module goes (it wont with a regulator and of course the ballast resistor) the module costs almost as much as a whole new distributor. some people have bagged on the uni-lite tho, i cant understand why, unless they didn't use the b.r.