64 Fuel Injection Ignition Questions

[Larry M.]

I don't know much about this so I thought I'd just ask for some help. I've gotten my car to the point where I want to improve performance (some major cosmetic things which bothered me are done). I've owned it 12+ years and only put 1000 mile on it. It has always started are run, but with some flat spots and hesitation during acceleration. Just completed new exhaust and it starts better and runs better; I likely had a collasped muffler, at least on one side. I have a new main diaphram and hose kit for the fuel unit which I plan to install, but I had a real gearhead drive it last week and he told me I needed to start with plugs, wires, points, etc. based on what he heard. I'd planned to do this anyway so now I'm into buying parts.

1. The original Delco distributor cap is a D310 I think. I see these discussed as with the "R" and without. Which is the more origianal or preferred??? I know what this looks like and I suspect the R version is the better. I may put a generic on for now but I want to get the correct part for future.

2. The Delco rotor is a D409....right? Again, generic for now but correct for the future.

3. Plugs - for carbureated engines the specs call for AC Delco 43/44/45 depending on heat range. It looks like fuel injection just calls for AC 44. My car has AC 45 plugs which are fouled but the car has not been driven much and is seldom if ever up to stabilized operating temperature, but that will change. John DeGregory once told me (as I recall) that AC 46 might even be better. Any advice on this???? My gearhead told me to use the coldest I could get by with and only to hotter if I had problems.

4. Points - any advice on what/where to get the best???

I'd really appreciate the help.

[William C.]

Re: 64 Fuel Injection Ignition Questions

Well, part of the answers really depend on how much and how hard you want to drive the car. Some of the parts are the same regardless of driving intent, like the Short tower D-310 cap, (also used on some Oldsmobiles) and the rotor. Be careful with rotors as there are various lengths in the electrode from the center contact to the tip and the ones from the emissions era are shorter than those of the early '60's resulting in a larger spark gap internal to the secondary system in the distributor that in my experience means less power available at the plug tip. Plugs are again dependent on your driving. Extended tip plugs may not work in a real FI engine as the piston domes can close the plug gaps at high rpm's (again another long hard-learned story) there are workarounds for that, but best left for racing applications. 43 for Race only, 44 for highway, 45 for city driving in general. Just a little advice from a guy who was using a '58 FI car as his sole source of Transportation to College in 1967 (with 327-375 hp configuration engine) and has pretty much always had an FI something ever since...The '380 unit is the best by far, just go easy and learn, and don't expect a set of plugs to get to redline after about 2000 miles of street driving. I used to pull mine and give them to one of the guys I lived with in school for use in 283-327 pass car engines. They would work fine in the 9.5 to one CR pass car engines but wouldn't pull redline in my 375hp version any more...