Ignition Experts; Att: Bubba!

Zaemo

Zaemo

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Hey guys, this distributor has be baffled. I purchased this with the word "Splitfire" written on it. It is in an early V8 case but didn't come with anything else to help me figure out how it works. It has only four lobes on the cam at the 11, 1, 4 and 8 o'clock positions. The points are positioned so that they open one immediately after the other. The rotor is an LZ V 12 obviously but it has been shortened to fit in the v8 case. Any theories out there?
 

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These are not the guts to a Lincoln unit as I said above (aside from the rotor).
 
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I always equated a four lobe distributor with a four cylinder engine. The dual points extended the time for the coil to build for a hotter spark. It alsmost looks like it was an 8 lobe with every other lobe machined off. How about it fitting a compressor engine. Weren't those an 8 cyl that ran on four and pumped air on four?
 
Definitely parts from an LZ to V-8 conversion, and this is a point plate variation I haven't seen before...there were MANY ways to do this, and some used the Lincoln and Lincolnized bits in a Ford 78 cae with adapto for LZ coils up top, others used the LZ case with adapted trminal plates. If rotor was shortened, likely this stuff onece lived in the 78 case.
The conversions all (so far!) used Ford cams with half the lobes ground off. Ignition was effectively 2 separate single coil ignitions, each running 4 cylinders. I think yours likely has a pre-36 point plate with one post 36 point, a combination I have never encountered on thes things.
 
I am like Bruce a little puzzled with this configuration.
In my world i would have to have it on the machine to see exactly what is going on here.
Theres a time line for each of these modifications etc and ya just got to wonder what were they thinking when making this modification.
Spliting the contacts ( like the Mallory rev pols etc) would in fact allow the coil ( both of them) to have a slightly longer saturation or build up time (dwell) , however the trouble of making such a modification and the actual rpm band of the engine makes me wonder why bother.
The cams in these things make most lathes have a heart attack because they are so hard and even a slight metal removal would have been difficult to say the least.
The real problem ( at least in my mind) would be the increased level of secondary voltage (if any) would burn the caps of yesterday and the rotors as well.
 
I'm just glad I'm not the only one puzzled by this. Yes, this setup came in an early V8 case. Were V8 ignitions ever adapted to 4 Cyl. engines? It's still weird to me that the lobes aren't placed equidistantly around the cam.

Bubba, if I end up sending you something, I will throw this in with it so you can have a closer look.

Z
 
Air compressor? V8 Converted to 4 cyl for power, 4 cyl for air)

Or it could just be someones misguided attempt at a conversion or some wizz-bang idea that didn't work.

Couple hours in the shed, try it out, don't bwork throw it in a box of spares.

Now decades later we're spending weeks trying to work out what was intended.

Good fun, though.

Mart.
 
While you have a valid point, I got this from Dick Spadaro. It was an eBay purchase and if I remember correctly, he said it came from a flathead racer or from a racing flathead engine. I think it was on his shelf for a long time. HE was probably trying to figure it out also.
The other intriguing thing is that I have just learned of another ignition enthusiast who has the same type of dual coil conversion (early V8 case + LZ rotor and modified caps) but I have yet to see any pictures of what he has.
If I'm stumping the experts here, maybe it never did work. Seems like someone would have labeled it as NFG and tossed it rather than "Splitfire" and saving it.
 
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A racing application would help explain the dual point setup. What type of racing used hopped up 4 cyls. Circle track?
 
Here's what Dick remembers about this part.......

I bought that an another distributor in a box of race car parts at Thompson speedway Ct years ago, it has been setting in a box in my barn for almost 20yrs. I assumed that it was from a midget racecar ignition that had been converted to run a Lincoln rotor and twin coils for better spark. I never investigated it any more and thought that it would be a good conversation part.

Z
 
It's a good conversation piece, all right.

How about a twin plug 4 cyl conversion - one set sparks just after the other.

Mart.
 
Seem to recall that back in the early 50's there was a racing conversion to convert a V8 with a special crank and other innards into a 4 cyl. engine ( that is, 2 cylinders firing at the same time or close to the same time) An outside possibility?
 
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Hi guys , I guess this is a little bit of super sleuth investigation. Zaemo PM'd me about this distributor but as i said I got it in a pile of old race car parts. I have another more complete I figure that it is for a flat crank V8 60 engine.
 

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The first photo from Zaemo looks like an attempt at utilising the Lincoln's split coil circuit for a hotter spark ,its the 1936 points plate and case ,for sure .I don't think it would work set up like that .
 
Hey Guys, could it be that this conversion had something to do with the old 180° racing flatheads? They fired two cylinders at a time which would explain there only being 4 lobes on the cam. I have no idea what the firing pattern would have been. As I said before, the lobes are not equidistant from each other.
Just thought I'd throw this at you guys. This seems to make sense, especially since Mr. Spadaro found it in a box of flathead racing parts. I'm hoping to get my Sun 504 distributor testing machine this week so I hope to get that figured out and see what this thing does.

Z
 
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