bulletbirdman wrote:

The D2 should mean 1972 but the oil fitting and ceramic insulator is like my old bird stuff pre 63', the way the cap's clipped looks unique also...... I would guess its special either industrial 72 or a ford racing part. How many sets of points does it have? 2=hipo, 1=industrial , remember I'm guessing.

single set of points

Greg B wrote:

What you got there is a Mercruiser marine distributor.   

 

cool are the points the same as early mustangs?

It appears to be pure mechanical advance and it is hard to say whether the advance curve would be ideal for a street motor but I suspect not.  I would suggest a proper street distributor with vac. advance for better driveability or upgrade to Duraspark.

Well, they do call it vacuum advance...  Under normal to low-load conditions it supplies additional advance to the mechanical - this of course will vary depending on the exact engine as they messed with advance and retard over the years but I am fairly sure most Ford street apllications in the 60's used an advance out of a timed port on the carb.  So, you are able to run a little more reasonable advance at idle without risking kick-back during starting that you might run into with mechanical only and on the highway you gain a little more efficiency with the added advance.  If this is a street driven non-modified engine, vac. advance should be a good setup.  The thing that I question and only question because I don't have data - is what is the advance curve for a marine distributor versus an auto application?  The way an engine is run in a boat is a lot different that street driving so it may not have an optimum/desirable curve.  Maybe it can be checked and re-curved but with odd-ball parts there would seem to be a lot better choices.