I NEED TECH HELP!

I recently purchased an older boat with 454 in it. It has been converted to an electronic ignition distributor (not sure which it was converted to) how do I determine. It does not have any mechanical weights or vacume advance, it has a seperate HEI looking coil which is conneced to the distributor by a two wire plug. There is another plug on the distributor that is not connected to anything.

I am trying to find out which distributor due to my timing trouble. In order to get 30' advance @ 3,000 RPM I have to set idle timing @ 20'. I have read that on some distributors you have to put them in timing mode, but with the trouble the starter has turning it over with the timing set this advanced I think maybe I need a differnt module so that I can have a lower idle timing and still get 30' at speed.

Thanks for the help.

I'd pull that out and put in a MSD distributor and MSD marine control box.Easy to install and comes with complete instructions.Distributors are fully adjustable and come with different springs and stops.You can set them up for whatever idle timing and full advance you want.

I now think it may be a Delco EST, if that helps any.

I'm sure that is what you have. It is a great, easy to use setup. They sell a pigtail that plugs into it to set the timing.

westcoast,

are there different modules with different advane curves, or is mine just bad?

thanks

I'm not sure...