308 ignition upgrades

Not out to beat a dead horse, but with the amount of questions people have, and the amount of people who have made alterations, I wonder if we could have a good thread dealing with this issue.


I feel that there are many here, and elsewhere, who love these cars, but are afraid to tackle some sophisticated project, and dont know anyone they can trust to play with thier car. There are also many here who want to keep thier car as simple and as stock looking as possible, without spending a fortune and wrecking a marriage over a car. A good simple system that is cost effective would help a lot of people here, especially the guys trying to pass emissions. If we could, lets keep the questions and answers focused along the following lines.

1. Does anyone have any further information on any V-8, or 4 cylinder caps and rotors that can be altered to fit stock 308 distributors, or ones that would make altering the distributor practical to use other caps or rotors. Think simple, something the home mechanic could do on his or her own.


2. As people are trying to both save money over factory replacement parts, while at the same time having something that works as well or better, the idea needs a budget. If we assume $300 per cap, and $75 per rotor, about $750 there, another $100 for points and were up to $850. I know the parts could be found cheaper somewhere but just for a good comparison, lets round it up to $900. In that vein, could a "system" be accomplished using a single distributor, or the dual distributors, for under $900, using caps and rotors that cost under $100? Wires do not need to be calcualted into this as those are readily available.


I have seen several distributors made from scratch using a GM or simular cap, but they all look so alien and out of place. I mean no offense to anyone who has gone to the trouble, and my hat is off to you all for trying to do this, but for me it has to appear close to stock. Using the existing distributor housing should be the goal. My best feeling is that we probably have to run a single distributor with some V-8 cap and rotor, a 8 cylinder shutter wheel with optical pickup (or one set of standard points), and one MSD, as I don't think there are any 4 cylinder caps that would fit the bill. Ideas? Sound off people......