I'm just about ready to order a brand new Pro Comp distributor for my 8BA, from ThunderChicken Auto on eBay (it's advertised as a "pro billet"). It's only $99. Pretty low price, anyone have experience with these? I didn't find anything on a search. Thanks for any info you might have. Gary
I know a couple people who have been using the procomp stuff for a while now, seem to really like it too. Wasnt the dizzy for the flathead, but they have 2 of them for sbc, they say the stuff is really good, apparently its a direct copy of other brands, like their MSDI boxes with the 6al part# only thing different is the I, they have red blue and black fuel pumps just like the holleys, same specs just less $$$$
I have a pair of the BBF heads and though I have not ran em yet the quality of the castings is impressive and the price is hard to beat.
Well...other than the fact that it's made in China....and a lot of their products have evil reputations for failure...and MSD took them to court for copyright infringement and won....because they directly copied MSD's designs, using inferior-spec Chinese-sourced components....just like they've copied a number of other US & Australian manufacturers' designs...and, in certain cases, made detrimental changes in those designs, like cylinder head ports... ...and the fact that they use US & Australian addresses to deliberately obscure the fact that the products are Chinese built....and label/name/package their products to make them appear similar to the original manufacturer's parts they copied... other than all that, I just don't like 'em.
I don't run chinese shit on my hot rod period. The hot rod community really needs you to buy american.
Hmmm.. no wonder they're so cheap. I've already spent so damn much money on this F1 it's hard to resist the temptation of saving a couple hundred bucks though...
DAMN, Did not know that!?!?! They are some real fine looking castings to be China,most stuff you see from there is real rough looking.
well put homespun and 100% accurate Typical chinese knock offs and they do not last. they were sent to our shop and although they ship thru Australia to hide the country of origin and have a distribution net in the states they are still chinese shit, and the BBC heads are crap as well, try to get ALL the bolts in any of these products. Thanks Max Sr.
Oh dear. If you guys only knew what was made in China... And the brand names aren't telling either. Or they play dumb as in "We get them from a supplier, don't kknow where he gets them from..." etc. If it's cast aluminium, better than good chance it's Chinese. For example, a lot of cylinder heads (except CNC made race ones), good ol' AR Racing and Halibrand wheels, Winters QC's, all those Scat blocks, cranks and rods and on it goes. Sad but true. They have no clue what they're making, they're just doing it for a price for someone. And if that someone doesn't watch quality like a hawk, it will be compromised. I've even seen enitre sprint cars come in a kit from there - just add engine and rubber. But as a mate of mine who's been there more than once told me, there's no such thing as seconds in China.
Hey X, there also a lot of shit that gets made here and goes back Stateside as well known US Brands/Made in the USA too. Youd be surprised. And no Im not naming names.... Rat
Found this post a bit late - but here is my experience with that particular distributor... I ordered it off Epay and what I recieved was a good approximation of what a distributor should be. It had however, been put together (forced together) wrong. The problems were: The shaft had enough vertical play that it was able to move up and have the weights slide underneath it. It had been assembled this way then the rotor was JAMBED on to the extent that the nutserts were bent slightly. It was rusty and had a fair bit of corrosion on it. After I took the unit completely apart, cleaned it up and reassembled it, I took it to a local guy to have it setup. According to him, the weight of the springs which the unit was delivered with (and the only springs) didn't have all the advance in by 6000 rpm. He ended up putting MUCH lighter springs on it so that I was all in by 2500 rpm. The next thing I did was throw away the rotor and cap and replace them with real MSD product. Now, to make spark, I made a 1/2" aluminum plate to mount a GM HEI module and modified the 'billit' to attache the plate on the bottom of the distributor. The magnetic picup comes out the bottom, attaches to the HEI module, then off to the coil... Its all pretty simple and hidden. I don't have any close pictures of the finished deal - but this gives you the basic idea. So - all in all - I ended up spending probably as much again as the original unit cost me, but still half the price of an MSD unit and I'm very pleased with it, it worked great all summer long. I bought this unit with my eyes wide open expecting to have to do some work - I think it payed off.
I applaud you ingenuity. But you have definitely convinced me to never buy one of these cheap alternatives. I will save my money and buy one with better quality control. I was tempted to try one. But the converted Gm units sold by a Hamber "Bubba" is the same price with good quality.
Wow, thanks for the writeup Crisalt. I think I'm with Petejoe, I'm going to contact Bubba and see if I can just get a dizzy that I don't have to mess with. Nice looking flathead, by the way. Thanks again to all of you guys for the guidance. Gary
The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of a cheap price is forgotten!!!! Buy American!!!!!!
Actually - I tend to buy from the 'bone yard' I think the phrase these days is 'buy {insert your country here} <INSERT here country your>quality control'... Almost everyone is having their stuff made in China - some (lots?) of it is very good - the quality needs to be controlled. I ended up doing a fair bit of business with Bob Drake when I was putting my '40 together - pretty much everything was made in China - none of it was cheap - the quality was good. The Pro Comp stuff is cheap - the quality of the machining was quite good - but it was put together by someone who rides a bike to work and has NO IDEA what a flathead V8 is. These were ordered under the strict directions 'make me a container load of this thing' end of story. No quality control in that. Doubt that one was made, tested, refined, retested etc. I gambled and think I came up even. I started out with a box of Dodge distributors (from the bone yard) with the intention of machining up my own (search earlier posts). My lathe was to small for the job, I ordered this setup, the other half that I would never have spent on an MSD unit I used to mentaly lower the cost of buying a bigger lathe! (made in China of course)
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