I'd like to drop a new distributor in my '68 Cutlass with 350 rocket and I hear a lot of people talking about Pertronix is the best way to go. I'd like to replace the whole distributor and I think Pertronix makes them. Is that what people are referring to, or rewiring the stock distributor. The Distributor that's in there now has a gray cap and I have no idea if it's stock or not, but I know there are newer spark plug wires and I almost wonder if the previous owner didn't put HEI or a different distributor in general. Is there any way to tell? And then on from that, what Pertronix distributor would you recommend. It's a 350 rocket 4bl. Thanks!

 

I just used the points replacement module that uses the stock distributor. Also used a MSD blaster coil and painted it black so it looks stock. Combo is working well so far.

 

You can easily identify a points distributor from an HEI distributor. The HEI distributor has the coil built into the cap, a points distributor has a seperate coil that is bolted to the back of the intake manifold.

 

Ahah, well then I believe the previous owner replaced with HEI already. No idea what brand or what not. The coil sits on top of the distributor cap if my memory serves me correctly. I'll get pics tonight just to make sure. It hasn't been running great though, so I'm tempted to replace it with something that might work a little better.

 

No need if you already have an HEI distributor. If it isn't running well chances are it just needs a tune up. When was the last time you set the timing and the carburetor settings?

 

I just got the vehicle about 2 weeks ago and I'm going through things as I have time and money. I had another post earlier: https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...il-change.html
This refers to the problems I was having and I'm beginning to think it's moisture in the distributor causing it because we've had nothing but rain for the like the last month and half. It just was odd that it ran that way after the oil change. I still need to change the plugs out. I'm still trying to determine what carb is on the car because it's a 4 bbl with an aftermarket manual choke installed on it. I believe its the original quadrajet which I'd like to keep. It seems like it was running great before the oil change 2 days ago.

 

Back to your original question, I ran a Pertronic Igniter ll with a Flamethrower ll coil on my old small block. Put out about twice the voltage of the old points system.