Distributor identification
Turbo Mini Forums

I've got a dizzy here that is supposed to be a recon unit - it looks clean/new, but I'm not sure it's suitable for my car.

Part number is AUU 1531, which tells me it's suitable for a pre-injection Cooper.

The serial number is a bit dodgy though... I checked the distributor ID page but not able to match it to anything. Serial number appears to be 42658A although it's clearly been altered - it looks like the old serial number was 42659A. I have no idea if this was legitmate during the recondition, or whether the seller has altered the ID to try and con the buyer (which was me).

I've got a totally standard Metro Turbo engine... Will this dizzy be suitable?

Cheers for any help :)

Dan.

Metro turbo owner

Hi,
The only dizzy that will be suitable for a turbo engine would be a turbo dizzy. Any dizzy can be used if the maximum advance is set correctly, but anything below that will be wrong!
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Gavin - thanks dude. As for the advance, is this something that I can set myself? I know nothing about distributors or advance curves or whatever. Can I adjust this dizzy? Or is it no good to me? It was sold as a turbo dizzy, but on closer inspection I realise it's not (problem is that I bought it, like, about a year ago - spenmt most of the day today cataloguing the parts I've collected for the rebuild and found the dizzy among various other bits).

Dan.

Metro turbo owner

Hi,
You can set the maximum advance to be correct for the turbo engine, but the advance curve will be wrong.
You may cause engine damage or not depending on how far out the curve is.
Unfortunately the curve is something you can't alter without stripping the dizzy and changing springs, weights and end stops :(
You can weld up the dizzy to give fixed timing, this won't cause any damage once it's been initially setup, but again is far from ideal....
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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A decent RR guy should be able to do this for you but it'll not be a good use of his time at £xx/hr

Every day is a school day ...........

How fast and how expensive ...... the same question...

Would there be any benefit in using my current dizzy, striping out the bits, and building int into the recon dizzy body?

Or are all the bits that would normally wear over time be those very same bits that I'd be ditching from new recon unit and bringing across from my current dizzy? As in - would I basically taking apart a recon unit and putting all the old bits in - which would be kind of pointless :)

Guessing it's probably best off to just get a new dizzy?

Metro turbo owner

Have you thought about megajolt? Do a search on here theres loads of info on it.

Edited by AL on 17th Mar, 2007.

Dan, if you want to check if it has the correct curve you can install it and check the advance across the rev range. The Austin Rover workshop manual lists the centrifugal advance at discreet points across the rev range. You just need a timing gun and a rev counter.

Hi Rich,

Fair enough - worth a shot :) Once the engine is actually back in the car and running, I'll do as you suggest :)

Dan.

Metro turbo owner

Go for MegaJolt ..... no dizzy is ever going to perform like a mapped ijnition system and as the costs are comparable you'd be mad not to!!!

Every day is a school day ...........

How fast and how expensive ...... the same question...

I believe Dan is going for a concours Metro turbo, so Megajolt isn't really an option.