Project, 4g Distributor / Ecu ( Obd-1 )

[EricW]

wow that is cool....later once its finish you should make a seperate thread that does not have 16 pages...and then some mods should make it a sticky...good luck with your swap....are you going to dyno after?

No i don't plan on taking it to a dyno. I will probably just create a decent street tune so i am more fluent with tunning and then install the turbo stuff and have more fun.

[A20A1]

I'm confused... but I remember I don't have that part of the distributor since I'm carbureted.

How doed that bit engage the 4th gen distributor? and what about the assembly being balanced?

looks good though

[EricW]

After I weld a washer to the top of the shaft i will then cut the two notches in it to make it mirror the end of the cam shaft. The small shaft i will am creating will basically be a 2" extension of the end of the cam shaft. As for being balanced well right now it should be pretty close and it will be when i finish with it but i don't think i will have a way to balance it without taking it to a machine shop. I don't think it will cause that much of a problem since I am keeping all of the weight as close to the shaft as possible.

[shepherd79]

cool, can't wait for the finished product.

[SQ is the SQUAD]

glad to see this thread picking back up again

[EricW]

Heres some more progress. If I have another couple of hours to work on it I should be able to finish it.

[EricW]

The only problem that i see right now is one of the screws that holds the distributor cap on may hit the thermostat housing, but i won't know until I get the distributor mounted.

[guaynabo89]

hey Eric Did you or are you going to key the distributor key at all? The reason I ask is because without doing that the distributor is facing the wrong way for it to fire the cylinders correctly. it would have to sit with the square side facing down and hitting the water pipe coming out of the cylinder head for it to fire correctly if the distribbutor isnt keyed.

[EricW]

I haven't got that far yet. But if you say it needs to be done then it will do it when I cut the slots in the shaft for the key to fit into instead of re-drilling the key. If you look in the first and second pic of the update that i posted you can see the shaft that is going to be between the cam and the key is laying on the adapter plate. I still have to weld a washer to the top of the shaft and the cut the slots in the proper places for the key. I may also have to get a different upper radiator hose but i will figure that out when the time comes.

[EricW]

I solved the problem of how to line up the key on the distributor. First of all i ran into some clearance issues with the way i was going to mount the distributor so i moved it up about 1/2 and inch or so by using another part of the stock distributor.




Surprisingly the place where there is a bearing in the stock distributor is the right size for the Bottom of the distributor to seal fit into. The only thing I had to do was remove the lip on the bottom.

Since the firing order is the same (1 3 4 2) I lined up the distributor with the number one cylinder mark on the bottom and had the part of the stock distributor lined up with the # 1 cylinder mark also.


I had to make the shaft a little longer to compensate for the extra 1/2 inch that i moved the distributor up. I welded two 7/16 washers to the top of the shaft. Then a reassembled the base and placed it on the head so it was at TDC. I already had the 4g distributor on the #1 cylinder/TDC mark and then place a small amount of paint on the bottom of the key. Then i mounted the distributor how i wanted it so it would leave an imprint of paint on the washer i welded to the top of the shaft and removed the distributor. I disassembled the base and then marked the outside edges of the paint with a sharpie and used the cut off tool to cut the notches into the washers.



I reassembled the base and placed the adapter plate on it. I placed the distributor back on top with the key in the slots and marked where i needed to drill the holes for the 4g distributor, drilled the holes and traced where i need to cut.




I welded to nuts to the bottom of the plate where i had drilled the holes for the bolts for the 4g distributor.

[EricW]

Here's some more pics of the distributor in place.










I just need to cut the adapter plate into the shape i want it and the rest of it will be running wiring for the distributor. I am also going to have to remove the stud for the distributor since its not long enough to hold the plate down.

[shepherd79]

So i don't understand. why can't we just mount 4g distributor with key in right way. I getting ready to do this project myself.
So far i found that 3G key is horisontal and 4G key is vertical. but if you turn the distirbutor one way to the other it should work. i am sure i am going to have to grind and what not, but at least i won't need to redrill the key.

I can't wait for cylinder head get here so i can start the project.

[A20A1]

I hope it makes it there in one piece... I had to form a custom box. The cardboard was kinda cheap though, since it was ment to transport bulk clothing items.

[guaynabo89]

So i don't understand. why can't we just mount 4g distributor with key in right way.

if you do nothing to the key you will need to bend the water pipe coming out of the cylinder head down to clear the distributor. This is what justanothermike did. if you look on the first page you will see the square part of the distributor cap is pointing almost straight down and just a little forward. That is how you can mount the distributor without modifying it and use tabs to hod the distributor on like justanothermike did.

If you take the key off the distributor and put it back on 180 Degrees from how it originally comes you can mount the distributor with the square part of it facing up and towards the rear. The only problem with that is that the distributor hits the thermostat housing and will be off timing. And you canot bend the thermostat housing out of the way like you can the water pipe coming out of the cylinder head.

I did not want to bend my water pipe down so thats why I just put a couple of holes through the key so I could put the distributor in a stock-like position. With the square part of the distributor cap facing up.


Eric

Is this the way you are mounting it? and did you redrill the key at all?


i f you did not redrill the key I dont think that is top dead center. That is the way I had set mine up too when I had the legs welded back on the distributor. The car wouldnt fire and I had to cut all the legs off again and try and find the correct spot for tdc.

If you look at this picture the red lines outline how the square end will fit when you dont redrill the key and leave it as it comes and try to get it to 15 degrees before tdc. and even when it hits the water pipe its only at like 0 degrees before tdc. that is why you need to bend the water pipe down to get the distributor to turn downwards enough to set it at 15 degrees before tdc.

[shepherd79]

you got the point there. i forgot about that pipe. I guess i will have to figure out how to get around it.

[A20A1]

remove the pipe maybe? and tap in a 90* elbow aluminum fitting?

replace the AN part with a barbed end and then run the coolant hose to that?


I remember Justins turbo head had an aluminum cap closng up that pipe hole so maybe there are threads in there already to use.

[EricW]

Eric
Is this the way you are mounting it? and did you redrill the key at all?

i f you did not re-drill the key I don't think that is top dead center. That is the way I had set mine up too when I had the legs welded back on the distributor. The car wouldn't fire and I had to cut all the legs off again and try and find the correct spot for tdc.
If you look at this picture the red lines outline how the square end will fit when you don't re-drill the key and leave it as it comes and try to get it to 15 degrees before tdc. and even when it hits the water pipe its only at like 0 degrees before tdc. that is why you need to bend the water pipe down to get the distributor to turn downwards enough to set it at 15 degrees before tdc.

I didn't re-drill key. My way around that is the shaft between the cam and the 4g distributor. The slots in the end of the shaft are not at the same place the slots in the end of the cam are. This should work since the head was at TDC and then i positioned the distributor at the TDC and kept it there then placed it where it thought it would fit best and used the paint on the end of the distributor key to mark where I need to cut into the end of the shaft. This allowed me to have the distributor at TDC where it is positioned.

I will post a pic later after i get out of class to show you what I did and so it is easier for others to see.

[guaynabo89]

oh ok

so you used the shaft to do the same as redrilling the distributor key. yeah I was just worried about it since I had to pay for the work twice and didnr want that to happen to you too.

[EricW]

To help clarify how i got around re-drilling the key here is a pic.


The shaft that goes between the cam and the distributor has a key at one end and a slot at the other end, where the distributor key fits. The red line represents the the direction that the slot in the end of the cam. The blue line represents the slot in the end of the shaft where the distributor key fits.

[military mase]

What's the deal with the vss issue. I know it was talked about for a brief second but what was the fix on it.i can't remember where i saw it. I need to find this out for my tuner who is helping me out while i'm gone

[guaynabo89]

What's the deal with the vss issue. I know it was talked about for a brief second but what was the fix on it.i can't remember where i saw it. I need to find this out for my tuner who is helping me out while i'm gone

I made a post about it with pictures i think it was in the other ecm options thread. somewhere in the middle of the pages I think its in.

basicly it was the 6k resitor wired in to the speed pulser output of the gauge cluster and a zerener diode to keep it from interffering with the speed pulser to the cruise contorl.

[military mase]

Just to make sure this is only if you want to keep your cruise control or do you have to do this reguardless. I took my cruise control out. I'll check the other thread too to just read up on it.

[shepherd79]

I started on my 4G distributor project. Actually i found the way to keep the key from redrilling.
it requires of adding matterial to the distributor legs. I actually moved distributor coutterclockwise and fliped the key 180 deg.
I still have to deal with thermostart housing, but the way it looks i just have to do minor grinding on the distributor itself. It won't be as much as the other guys did.
I will post the pictures after i get it mounted.

[snoopyloopy]

yes, pix please. because i've got this notion to go obd-1 presently.

[military mase]

Ok guaynabo i found the thread and the site you refered to. Looks preety easy to do. Thx for the info. I'll pass it on to my tuner. It just sucks not being there to see how the progress in going but the guy who is doing my car i've helped him in the shop many time so i know he's keeping my baby safe