A buffalo’s first bowtie

A coupling nut machined down to the exact length you need may be a little neater than a bunch of washers.

8122pbrainard wrote: A coupling nut machined down to the exact length you need may be a little neater than a bunch of washers.

Thanks Pete, I agree! ...and I was sure you'd know the name of that other bolt so I could google it. The best hardware store in town didn't have them or know the name either, so it must be a super specialty bolt.

Coker equipment is the hardware store I was referring to and they do have coupling nuts. We may have gotten our wires crossed...the un-named bolt I'm chasing is the 1 like the top right in my water pump above.

There isn't anything wrong with the bolt in the pump. I'm trying to find 2 like it but bigger(3/8" x 16) for the manifild and throttle bracket. The pic is my attempt to 'make' one. I'm going to ask Sherman about welding the nuts to the stud; then I would feel better about getting the right torque on it.

Chris also made a good point. I may be chasing my tail until I have my carb in hand and decide what ignition system to use. The carb mount throttle bracket may put the whole issue to rest.

I put a MSD marine dist. in my SBC and love it. I know of at least two others that put MSD's in their BFN's and they also can't say enough about them. I would highly recommend them.

I'm not familiar with the HEI style dist. that Tim has but if he recommends it, you can bank on that too.

I'm sure you wouldn't go wrong with either one.

Greg, do a search on here for more info on the DUI. Several of us run them (JoeinNY has 2) and swear by them. I picked up 200rpm on the top end with mine. The parts are all replaceable with off-the-shelf GM HEI parts, and the thing is cake to work on. They custom make each one, so there is a little lag once you order- but they match the advance curve to the engine components. Once you get it, plug in 2 wires (12V and tach) and youre good to go. You can even select a cap color to compliment your shiny new paint!

The only bad thing Ive heard about them is that they "dont look right" on a Ford, especially in a vintage boat. Thats not an issue with your Chevy.

The engine looks great, by the way! Im sure you cant wait to get it in the boat.

backfoot100 wrote: I put a MSD marine dist. in my SBC and love it. I know of at least two others that put MSD's in their BFN's and they also can't say enough about them. I would highly recommend them.

And this is actual BFN experience. I heard somewhere that when Eddie talks, people listen!

I do have two this blue one on the 302



and a clear one on a 408. For a reverse direction ford they are kinda expensive, require some work, and some can argue they aren't brand correct, for a slightly warmed up well loved and pretty 454 chevy they are competatively priced, drop right in, simple to install and should be perfect. But theres nothing wrong with a mallory, msd system, or combo setup price em out and decide what you like.

Greg,
The MSD system looks more like the OEM type distributor. It has a mechanical advance that is tunable to your particular application with lighter or heavier springs on the advance weights and a bushing that you change out for adjusting the amount of total advance that you want. You have to use the MSD ignition box in conjunction with the distributor though which will add cost as compared to the DUI that Tim and Joe are talking about. The trigger for the MSD system is magnetic in the distributor itself but they offer crank triggers that you can install if you prefer that method. The hardest part of the installation that I ran into was where to place the ignition box. Got that solved with some inginuity on the backside of the engine cover. They also offer watertight connectors that I used so that I can just unplug the three connections from the box to the power, distributor and tach so that I can easily remove the engine cover if I need to. Just can't run the engine without the cover on but I didn't see that as an issue. I've had it installed for about eight years now and the only issue that I've had is the advance weights got sticky and not advance as they should one time in the last year and I had the terminals tarnish up inside the cap once. These issues could easily be contributed to the FL humidity. They have an excellent technical support staff to help you if you need any assistance. Highly recommended as far as I'm concerned.

Your motor looks incredible by the way. I'm sure that you'll love the results as much as the effort.

This shows the distributor, ignition box and the MSD coil.


The bottom right of this one shows two of the three watertight connectors to the box. The third one is just below the cable tie located between the throttle cable and the raw water strainer.

To me the main difference to you would be a drop in experience with the DUI, they would curve it with the correct springs and advance for your application and you wouldn't need to mount a seperate coil or control box with the additional wires. For something that is going to be that simple, clean, high performance, and precurved to your setup for 320 bucks would be for me as Tim said, a no brainer.

But believe me I wouldnt kick that msd setup out of my boat and might even end up that way in one of them because of a nitrous upgrade. How much money are we looking at there backfoot?

Of course you can always do stock with a quick point replacement module or a mallory and a coil

Joe...what is that thing with the yellow sicker on it, on the top left corner of your motor?

Backfoot...What kind of wires are those and where did you get them? (ps) see you at the river!

Buffalo...That motor looks sweet, what do you think the "hp" is going to be?

[QUOTE=MaddMarxx] Joe...what is that thing with the yellow sicker on it, on the top left corner of your motor?

[QUOTE]

Thats the flux capacitor... actually just the perfect pass actuator.

JoeinNY wrote: BTW you all have some pretty fine looking engines someday when i grow up i hope to have that kind of attention to detail.

Joe, I think you have a fine looking engine as well. As far as details, I'll agree - you missed removing the Glastron tags from the manifolds!! Did you have to buy a old Glastron to get them?

79nautique wrote: well I would go with Tim's suggestion on the DUI unit, not sure but believe you don't have to worry about the gear on it working right. It's a solid unit, packages better and free up some mounting bosses and it won't look out of place on a chevy block.

I'm sold!

Only 2 leaks.