I need some net.wisdom on the following situation:
A short time ago, a friend of mine came to me with his 1960 MGA 1600. The
engine
is freshly rebuilt to pretty much stock specs. It was running very poorly. To
make a long story short, I discovered the disbributor was on its last legs
aside
from being loose; indeed, it packed up solid in my driveway.
Needing to get him going (car had no top, the real reason he had come
over to begin with, and it was about to storm) I grabbed the nearest spare
distributor I had. It's from an early Triumph Herald 1200. It worked and, to my
surprise, the car felt very strong, with no obvious flat spots or
other hesitation -- this with 20-year-old+ points and by-ear timing.
The question: I don't have exact specs at hand, but I know that the Herald
dist.
has less initial advance, starting later, and less total advance,
occurring at lower total RPM. Is this likely to have a deleterious effect on
the
engine short term or long term? Should I try to switch over the
weights, springs, etc. from the old MGA dist. if I can get it apart? If
anyone needs to know, I can supply advance specs. for both cars; it's just not
here at work. What does anyone think?
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