Sparking Performance

Sparking Performance Two Guys Garage Podcast · Jul 16, 2026

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Term

distributors

A distributor is an older ignition part that decides when each spark plug should fire. It helps make sure the spark happens at the right time as the engine spins.

Term

Contact points are the mechanical contacts inside a traditional distributor that open and close to interrupt current to the ignition coil. That interruption creates the high-voltage spark, so point condition and gap directly affect starting and spark strength.

Term

small block

A small block is Chrysler’s smaller V8 engine family. Because of how it’s packaged, the distributor can be harder to reach and adjust than on the bigger engines.

Term

big block

A big block is a larger V8 engine family from Chrysler. It’s different from the smaller V8s, and that can change where the distributor sits and how you service the ignition.

Term

Mopar

Mopar is a nickname for Chrysler’s cars and parts (Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler). Here it’s used to talk about the classic engine and ignition setups those cars had.

Term

distributor is located

Distributor location just means where that ignition part is mounted on the engine. If it’s in a tight spot, it’s harder to adjust the points and keep everything working right.

Term

dwell meter

A dwell meter tells you how long the points stay “closed” before they open. Getting it right helps the ignition coil charge properly so you get a strong, consistent spark.

Term

electronic ignition

Electronic ignition is a newer way to control when the spark happens in the engine. It usually means fewer tune-up headaches than older ignition systems.

Term

performance distributor

A performance distributor is an upgraded ignition part. The goal is to make spark timing more accurate so the engine runs better and stays dependable.

Brand

DUI

DUI is a brand that makes aftermarket ignition parts—especially distributors. The speaker is saying their DUI distributor has been dependable.

Term

cap

The distributor cap is the part on top of the distributor that helps send spark to the spark plugs. The host says they only check it occasionally.

Term

axle running gear

This is the set of parts near the axles that help the wheels move the vehicle. Off-roading stresses these parts a lot because of bumps and traction changes.

Term

rock crawling

Rock crawling is off-roading over rocks at low speed. It’s tough on the vehicle because the wheels and suspension constantly deal with uneven ground and impacts.

Term

endless trails

They’re describing long off-road drives on rough paths. That kind of use can stress ignition parts, especially if you deal with water and bumps.

Term

modules

The ignition module is an electronic box that helps control when the spark happens. It replaces older mechanical parts that used to do that job.

Term

bigger cam

“Bigger cams” means aftermarket camshafts with more aggressive valve timing and lift. That changes how the engine breathes and can worsen combustion conditions (like mixture quality and exhaust gas remaining), which can expose ignition weaknesses like misfires.

Term

residual exhaust gas

Residual exhaust gas is the leftover exhaust that stays in the cylinder instead of getting fully cleared out. It dilutes the fresh mixture and can make starting/combustion less reliable.

Term

blower

A blower is a device that forces more air into the engine. More air (and pressure) can make it tougher for the spark to jump, so the ignition needs to be up to the task.

Term

compression

Compression is how much the engine squeezes the air-fuel mixture. When pressure is higher, the spark has to be stronger to ignite it.

Term

misfiring

Misfiring is when the engine doesn’t burn the fuel in a cylinder when it should. That can cause rough running and loss of power.

Term

gears going bad

Some ignition systems use gears to drive the distributor. If the gears wear out, the timing can get off and the engine may run poorly or misfire.

Term

bearing

Bearings are parts that let rotating parts move smoothly. If they wear out, the moving parts can get loose, which can throw off timing and cause misfires.

Term

ARC

An “arc” is when electricity jumps through the air or along a damaged surface instead of going where it’s supposed to. In an ignition system, that can cause weak or inconsistent spark.

Concept

points of failure

This means there are several places in the system where things can go wrong. In an ignition system, heat and high voltage can damage different parts, not just one component.

Term

ignition coil

The ignition coil is the part that “turns up” the electrical voltage so your spark plugs can fire. If you push more voltage than the rest of the ignition parts are designed for, they can wear out faster.

Term

super stock coil

A super stock coil is a performance ignition coil meant to produce a stronger spark. Stronger spark can also mean more heat and stress on older ignition parts, so they may fail sooner if you don’t upgrade everything together.

Brand

excel super coil

The speaker mentions Excel Super Coil as a brand that sold a performance ignition coil. They’re using it as an example of older “upgrade” parts people installed to try to make the car faster.

Term

ignition module

The ignition module is like the brain for the ignition system—it controls when the coil gets charged and when the spark happens. Better modules can help the spark stay consistent when the engine spins faster.

Term

spark energy

Spark energy is the amount of electrical energy delivered to the spark plug to create the ignition event. More spark energy can improve ignition reliability, particularly when the spark plug gap is larger or combustion conditions are more challenging.

Term

hotter spark

A hotter spark refers to a more energetic ignition event at the spark plug, which can improve how reliably the spark ignites the air-fuel mixture. In performance engines, a stronger spark helps prevent ignition problems when conditions make combustion harder.

Term

combustion chamber

The combustion chamber is the space in the engine where the air-fuel mixture is compressed and ignited. It’s where the spark initiates combustion, and its conditions (like mixture preparation and compression) strongly affect whether the engine runs cleanly or misfires.

Term

misfires

Misfires are ignition failures where a cylinder doesn’t properly ignite the air-fuel mixture. They can happen when the spark is too weak, timing is off, or combustion conditions are too difficult—especially in high-compression or high-RPM setups.

Term

carburetor

A carburetor is an older way of mixing fuel and air. If it doesn’t mix them evenly, you can end up with fuel droplets that don’t burn as cleanly.

Term

fuel droplets

Fuel droplets are tiny bits of liquid gas in the air. If they’re not small enough, they can clump and make the engine’s air-fuel mix uneven.

Term

runners

A runner is the passage that feeds the mixture into the engine. How it’s shaped affects how well fuel and air get mixed.

Term

mixture motion

Mixture motion is how the fuel and air swirl around before they burn. Better swirling helps the engine avoid having some areas too rich or too lean.

Term

big overlap

Big overlap is when the intake and exhaust valves are open at the same time near the top of the exhaust stroke/early intake stroke. That timing can increase scavenging and cylinder filling, but it also allows more exhaust gas to remain and mix with the incoming charge.

Term

spark plug

A spark plug is the part that makes the electrical spark to start the burn in the cylinder. If the mixture is tricky, spark behavior matters a lot.

Term

air-fuel ratio

Air-fuel ratio is how much fuel vs. air the engine is mixing. If it’s not right, the engine can burn unevenly and may not ignite reliably.

Term

flame front

The flame front is the boundary where the fire is actively spreading through the mixture. If it spreads well, more of the fuel burns.

Term

boosting

Boosting means forcing more air into the engine than normal. More air changes how the engine burns fuel and can affect ignition and tuning.

Term

supercharge

Supercharging uses a driven compressor to pack more air into the engine. That can make more power, but it also makes the engine work harder and can affect how well it ignites.

Term

density

Here, density means how much air is packed into the cylinder. More dense air can change how the engine burns and how much fuel it can effectively use.

Term

air gap

Here, the air gap means the tiny space inside the spark plug that the spark has to jump. If that space is too big, it can be harder for the ignition system to make a strong spark.

Term

50,000 volts

That “50,000 volts” is the high electrical voltage used to create the spark in the spark plug. The higher the voltage, the better the spark can jump the tiny gap and ignite the engine.

Term

dual points

“Dual points” is an older ignition design that used mechanical contacts to control when the coil charged. They’re mentioning it to explain how dwell can be extended to help the spark last longer.

Term

spark duration

Spark duration is how long the spark keeps firing before it stops. A longer spark can make it easier for the engine to light the fuel-air mixture, especially when the engine is under boost.

Term

gap perspective

Spark plugs have a small gap between two metal tips. That gap affects how easily the plug can make a spark, so changing it can change how well the engine runs.

Term

big cam

“Big cams” are performance camshafts that open the engine’s valves differently than stock. Because they change how the engine breathes, the ignition and fuel/air burn often need tuning to keep idle smooth and power strong.

Term

idle

Idle is how the engine runs when you’re stopped or not pressing the gas. Better ignition can make the engine shake less and respond better when you start moving.

Term

higher RPMs

RPMs are how fast the engine is spinning. At higher RPMs, the engine has to keep lighting the fuel reliably, or power can drop or the engine can run poorly.

Term

tuning the distributor

Tuning the distributor means adjusting how the ignition timing changes as you drive. In this case, they’re talking about changing springs inside it to alter when the timing advances.

Term

springs

The distributor uses springs to help control when the ignition timing advances as the engine revs. Swapping springs changes how quickly that timing comes in.

Term

timing curve

The timing curve is basically how the engine decides when to fire the spark as RPM changes. The goal is to fire early enough for good power, but not so early that the engine knocks.

Term

pinging

Pinging is when the engine starts knocking—burning in a rough, uncontrolled way instead of smoothly. It’s usually caused by the spark happening too early for the fuel and conditions, and it can be harmful.

Concept

advanced curve

An advanced curve refers to an ignition timing map that provides more ignition advance (spark earlier) than a baseline setup. Whether that’s safe depends on the engine’s compression, cam timing, and fuel octane—too much advance can cause knock/pinging.

Term

octane

Octane is a measure of how resistant your fuel is to knocking. If you use lower-octane fuel, the engine may knock sooner, so you often need less ignition advance.

Term

cam duration

Cam duration is how long the engine’s camshaft keeps the intake or exhaust valve open during each cycle (measured in degrees of crankshaft rotation). Longer duration changes the engine’s breathing and cylinder pressure, which influences the ideal ignition timing for best torque and knock control.

Term

valve lift

Valve lift is the maximum distance the camshaft raises the intake or exhaust valve off its seat. Higher lift typically increases airflow, which changes combustion characteristics and can require different ignition advance to match the engine’s new pressure and burn behavior.

Term

knock

Knock is when the fuel-air mixture starts burning in the wrong way inside the cylinder. It can sound bad and can potentially hurt the engine if it keeps happening.

Term

spark timing

Spark timing means when the engine’s spark plug fires during the engine cycle. If it fires too early or too late, the engine can run poorly or even damage itself.

Term

mechanical weights

Mechanical weights are inside the distributor and move as the engine spins faster. That movement helps the ignition happen earlier at higher RPM.

Term

vacuum advance

Vacuum advance changes ignition timing based on how much suction the engine is pulling. It helps the engine run better at idle and light throttle.

Term

fixed vacuum

A fixed vacuum advance unit is set up to add a specific amount of timing when vacuum changes. The idea is that it stays consistent instead of drifting as adjustments wear out.

Term

light throttle

Light throttle is when you’re barely pressing the gas. The goal is to make the car respond smoothly without hesitation or weird behavior when you give it a little more gas.

Term

base timing

Base timing is the ignition “starting point” you set for when the spark happens. Once that’s set, the engine can still change timing as RPM changes.

Term

initial

“Initial” here means the starting spark timing number you set at idle. It’s the baseline before the engine adds extra timing as you drive.

Brand

AMC

AMC was an American car company that also owned the Jeep brand. The speaker is saying they’ve learned a lot about AMC/Jeep setups and that it’s a bit of a niche community.

Brand

Chevy

Chevy is short for Chevrolet, a big American car brand. Here it’s mentioned because the speaker is talking about engine setups they’ve encountered.

Brand

Jeep

Jeep is a car brand known for rugged, off-road vehicles. The speaker is saying the tuning setup they’re talking about was on their Jeep.

Term

coil-on-plug

Coil-on-plug means the spark coil sits right on each spark plug instead of being shared. That can make the spark more consistent and is common on newer cars.

Term

distributorless ignition

Distributorless ignition means the car doesn’t use a traditional spinning distributor to send spark. The computer and coils handle spark timing electronically.

Term

high output coils

High output coils are upgraded ignition coils meant to create a stronger spark than the factory parts. Performance kits use them to help the engine burn fuel more effectively.

Term

low resistance plug wires

Low resistance plug wires are special spark plug wires designed to lose less electrical energy as the spark travels. That can help the spark stay strong at the plug.

Term

computer controlled engines

Computer controlled engines are managed by a car computer that decides things like when to fire the spark. Even with upgrades, the computer still runs the engine’s control logic.

Term

coil pack

A coil pack is a single unit that holds multiple ignition coils. Instead of a distributor, it helps generate spark for different cylinders.

Car

Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang V6 is a Mustang with a V6 engine. They’re saying they make an ignition kit for that engine family, using a coil pack and plug wires.

Term

sun distributor machines

A Sun distributor machine is a tool shops use to test and set up an ignition distributor. It spins the distributor and helps the tuner check how the timing changes as RPM increases. That way the distributor can be matched to the engine it’s going into.

Term

mechanical advance

Mechanical advance is how an older-style distributor automatically changes ignition timing as the engine revs. It uses internal parts (like weights and springs) to move the timing earlier at higher RPM. That helps the engine burn fuel efficiently across different speeds.

Term

advance curve

The advance curve is a tuning map that tells the ignition system when to fire the spark at different engine speeds. The goal is to get the timing right so the engine runs strong without pinging or knocking. Different engines and setups need different timing.

Concept

custom tuned

“Custom tuned” here refers to tailoring the ignition timing behavior (via the distributor’s mechanical advance and the resulting advance curve) to a specific engine and its intended use. The idea is that a one-size-fits-all setup may not match the engine’s compression, cam, and other build details. Custom tuning aims to improve drivability and performance consistency.

Car

Toyota Land Cruiser

They’re talking about older Toyota Land Cruisers that used a straight-six engine. A straight-six is six cylinders in a line, and it’s often chosen for smoothness and long-term durability.

Term

long spark

“Long spark” means the spark lasts a bit longer than usual. That can help the fuel burn more reliably, which matters a lot in racing.

Term

high dwell

“Dwell” is how long the ignition system charges the coil before it fires the spark. More dwell can help the spark be stronger when the engine is under load or at higher RPM.

Term

low current

They’re saying their ignition setup uses less electrical power (less current). Using less current can mean less heat and less wear on the ignition parts over time.

Term

ignition system goes down

This means the engine’s spark stops working. If the ignition fails during a race, the engine can’t run, so it’s a worst-case scenario.

Term

alternator

An alternator is a generator that makes electricity while the engine runs and keeps the battery charged. In some race cars, they don’t use it and run mostly from a battery.

Term

three amps

“Three amps” is how much electricity the system uses. Lower amps means less drain on the battery during a race.

Term

straight 12 volt battery

They mean the car is running off a 12-volt battery directly. If the ignition draws too much power, the battery can run down during the race.

Term

coil to distributor

It’s the route the ignition spark takes in an older-style ignition system. The coil makes the high voltage, and the distributor sends it to the right spark plug.

Term

low resistant plug wire

Plug wires carry the electricity that makes the spark. If the wires have too much resistance, less spark energy reaches the plugs—so the engine can feel weaker, especially at higher speeds.

Term

fiberglass sleeve

That fiberglass sleeve is basically extra insulation for the plug wires. It helps protect the wires from heat damage when they’re close to the exhaust.

Term

headers

A header is part of the exhaust system near the engine. It gets extremely hot, so anything nearby—like plug wires—can need extra protection.

Term

loom

A loom is the way the wires are held and routed. If a wire slips out of it, it can end up touching hot parts and get damaged.

Term

weakest link

The “weakest link” idea means the whole system is only as strong as its weakest part. In an engine, if one ignition component is weak, it can hold back power even if other parts are upgraded.

LIVE

It is two guys rock podcast he is Kevin Byrd. I will be fired up today, man

Today we're talking that voodoo magic known as distributors. Hey man this year's

come a long way in our lifetime I don't know how early you got on the track man

but I do recall bro the contact points the points man remember

The old points

Yeah

Dude what a wild time that was that was fun. I was so bad

So what was your kind of go-to procedure on set and points?

So with the chicks man, so having a dodge and I'll tell you this man

It's so important on on Mopar if you get a big block or a small block

You know why where the distributor is located if you have a small block

Back like a small block 350 that was a nightmare for people back in the day

If you got a big block, it's up front and that makes such a world of difference

It's so enormous. You have no idea, but I remember a little chicks man like God

I've kind of forgotten the I remember sitting dwell at a little dwell meter. I remember taking my mom's

Finger nail files bro. How funny is this my mom would always accuse me of stealing her fingernail files?

What she what she found out that I'll take them and the contact points for those that don't know the distributor

The shaft is like a like a stop sign, you know these these points got a run on it

And it sometimes wears it uneven the contact point you want that that contact point is even flat as possible

You know and sometimes when they strike they wear different and so forth

Well on an omopar you would sit there and you take my mom's fingernail file and just

You file that contact point straight

So when they open up and close back together and they get it it would be a nice flush contact point

You get a big spark

So you'd be sitting at the drag ship in between runs like filing contact points checking plugs doing everything

You know you rely on a normal distributor nowadays, but that was that was the mechanism

That's how we had to kind of fight the demons back in the day. Yeah, I had a pretty good trick for those man

I would loosen up that one bolt like down at the bottom

Way down there, and then you take the clamp off and then you pull the whole thing out and you chuck it

And you go like a modern electronic man, it's awesome. It works so well

So much better, man

And they keep your mom from yelling at you from stealing her dang file her nail file

Yeah, it was easy for you Chevy guys cuz you know

Chevrolet offered that fairly early, but when I was a kid

Mopars didn't have that all Mopars weren't electronic ignition. That was a big bold step back in the day, man

Today we have a boy Brian on for performance distributors and man

And you talk about a different approach and a great approach these guys really have done something magnificent

These guys are so good. How funny is this before we found out that Brian was coming on?

I've got the same Jeep that is going on this adventure ride that we've talked a couple times

You've seen it on the show this year. I got this huge ride

I'm doing in September against all these, you know, big king of the hammer buggies

That distributor in that 360 engine is a you know performance distributor says DUI on it

It and it has been so reliable. I have never had any problem and or issue with it

Never I dude. I've checked the cap once or twice outside of that

I haven't done anything to that whole setup and I've beat on it and for

You know a decade a decade

Dude, that says a lot. That's a lot

That's the kind of parts that you want to put on your car like a one-and-done, you know

Yeah, like you do some upgrades and then you know, you're always fiddling with them messing with them dialing them in

Yeah, so it's it's a true testament to

what they have going on and

Today we're gonna peel a layer or two back and find out what is so unique and different about performance distributors

Really what they've you know what their route is compared to so many others and it's not a normal route

You know beating pads ever beat men these guys took took a different path and it's it's really cool

So we're gonna bring Brian on let's take a break

We'll get back to it. It's the two guys garage podcast. He's kevin bird. I'm willy b. We're back after the break

It is two guys garage podcast he's kevin bird I am willy b. We have a boy Brian Carruth on

Performance distributors you guys go look this company up. It is wild man

These guys have been doing this for a long time and man hats off to you Brian welcome to podcast you guys are killing it, bro

Absolutely killing it. Thank you Willie. Thank you for having me today. And you know, we're just doing our best to

Provide one of the best ignition systems out there. Yeah, and testament to it man. I was telling bird

When he first saw my Jeep few things. I've not had to worry about on that thing

I've replaced a ton of stuff on that all the axle running gear, you know wind style body panels

I've been a couple things into the engine

But you know the engine was it was in that Jeep and the guy got it from and put it in there recently

When I bought it, but I pounded on that thing for years

And it's so reliable and I have submerged that thing on a couple times on accident

I've had it over on the side several times

I beat it up on rocks on endless trails and miles man

I have never had an issue with your distributor not once. I mean not once man. It's been amazing

Oh, that's that's awesome. And that's that's what we want to hear. You know, and that's the quality product that we build

So it will take a beating. Yeah

And you know, it's just hard to beat these things. Hey, it's it's wild so many people

Haven't heard about you. So let's get him informed

Kevin, you know when it comes to distributors, I'm sure man growing up. You did a lot of racing

And a lot of fun stuff like like that. Do you ever run into any nightmare distributor problems any like man?

you know because

They were out there man, especially in the early days when I was on points and I was first switching over to electronic ignition on those

Mopars because they were behind

Man, you had some serious hurdles to get over. Yeah, and you know, there's there's issues with distributors

And if we kind of open it up a little bit, right your whole ignition system, right?

And your distributor is like that key kind of component

It's like the quarterback telling you know which cylinders firing right now

You know and in there right on the modern ones

You've got that module and that module is right doing that same function that you did mechanically back in the day with your dwell

Right and so that's kind of set in the whole course of what's gonna happen

And you know, you can get all kinds of issues and if you're lucky, right?

And you're not pushing let's say the horsepower the rpm or anything else

You just drive around and yeah, it sparks and then it kind of works

But you know, you're putting bigger cams in right your mixture is not great anymore

You've got a lot of residual exhaust gas still in the chamber. It dilutes everything makes it hard to burn

Right all of a sudden you can tax you put a blower on now

You got a lot more

You know compression with the blower in there and you got a lot more resistance for that spark to jump

And all of a sudden you're misfiring you're not burning fuel, right? You're not making the same power that you should be making

Yeah, it's all in your ignition system, right? Again, your distributor kind of being one of those things

But then you got all the mechanical stuff to go along with it

So you've got your electrical which got to get your spark and then you got the mechanical with things like the gears going bad

Right in the gears in the in your cam, you know trying to drive the thing the bearings inside getting slop in there

I mean, there's a lot of things gone wrong, right in a distributor and an ignition system

Yeah, you know, you take simple things like the rotor cap, you know, you got that distributor cap

Or riding on top of that that distributor shaft if you will

You know, there's a lot of voltage goes through that and over time it wears and it becomes, you know

Roded and whatnot you start losing that that great arc

You know to the contact points in in that cap and you think about, you know other wear and tear items on there

And you can see it's kind of a hostile environment, you know in that rotor cap. What's going on in there?

Um, so it's pretty nasty and things just get gummed up jammed up, you know, you've taken it off

Corroded, eroded, all those things, right? How many times you pull to the shipper cap and put your fingers in there

It's just laid up with black

metal and carbon and like whoa

Definitely some some ugly environment to live in but it does that day in and day out and we ask it to do that without ever

Without ever failing and and really

There's a lot of points of failure in there and you think about all that voltage all those conditions it's living in

all the temperature variations

Uh, you know and how much heat plays into it, uh, when you start adding coils

Like, you know, I remember when I first started bumping up, you know, how much how many of us are guilty of running the

to oh back in the day it was uh

Super stock, right or it was a the super stock coil, uh, that yellow thing

That you would get at excel super coil. Yeah. Yeah. That was it. That was it

Uh, and you would burn up the rotor cap or it'd be way too hot for it

You know, we all did dumb things. We've rolling the super chops. Hey, give me that thing on the wall

I'm supposed to make my car faster, you know, not really knowing what we were doing to some internals

And it takes a company like brian's got to really go in there and beef everything up and look at it

You know a whole different way. So brian, uh, thanks again for coming on man

But you guys really do have a great program there and and something is a little different than what most distributors

Uh, how they may create and just distribute power

Right, right. And what we've done is taken like the hi design. I mean, that's that's our signature

distributor and

It just improved on the functionality of that unit

because it's such a good design that, uh

improvements to the coil the ignition module the

Uh mechanical advance can yield a lot more power and performance

Over just a stock distributor. So well, you figure those things were

Yeah, like I said, they're a great design, but they weren't designed to do what we've been doing with them

Right racing pushing the horsepower like they meant to just drive around for a long time

But now here we are building huge power revving the things up doing all kinds of abuse

Putting a lot of heat to it putting a lot of like willy said putting a lot of spark energy into them or coil energy through them

So you guys are out kind of fixing and beefing up all the things that go wrong, right?

Correct. That's what we're doing. You know, we we've increased the voltage in the coil

And what why do you do that? What? Yeah, why do you increase the voltage in the coil? Is that curiosity?

Just so that it can fire a larger gap

It's putting a hotter spark in the combustion chamber. So if you got higher compression

more duration

This thing's going to fire it. So you you don't have to worry about misfires

Yeah, one thing that a lot of people don't think about is what is actually in that chamber

Right if you if you see somebody on a youtube video, whatever they've poured gasoline on of on a fire

And they're going to go ignite it. Well, there's lots of time the air and the fuel

You know the the fuel is kind of vaporized. It's mixed with the air. They go to light it and boom the whole bomb blows up

Right, uh, it's real slow motion. But inside that chamber, right?

Think about the speed of how much or you know the speed of firing

bang

So you got to pull that air in you got to throw in just especially with an old carburetor and stuff just

Droplets of fuel running down the runner, you know kind of flinging around pooling up in different places

It's not a great mix, right? You're trying to get a lot of mixture motion in there

Then you have you know a lot of exhaust gas, especially when you have a big overlap can

You're not pushing all that exhaust out. Some of it's still in there. You're sucking it back in

And so now you got all this just stuff in the way burn, you know, unburnable gas in

there.

So you have this terrible environment to try to, you know, light off in an instant with

a quick little.

So the more gap you can put into a spark plug, right, though, the more exposure you have

of that spark to all that air fuel that's in there, right?

And if you can get a nice long burn on that spark, then if you missed some of that good

air fuel ratio, because it's not even in there, you're going to have pockets where it's super

lean, you're going to have pockets where it's super rich, you know, and you really want

to get those rich pockets.

So if you can get a spark that's big, long, fat, you got the best chance of getting a

good ignition.

And once that starts, then hopefully you've got a good spread and it burns it all.

Yeah.

A big flame front, right?

And then as I kind of mentioned earlier, once you start boosting and you supercharge,

you're really increasing the density.

Once you compress with the piston, you got a lot more in there.

You compress it, well, now you got density.

So there's resistance to jump that gap.

So it makes it even tougher.

That's why a lot of times when you're boosting, you got to close the gap on your spark plug

or it just, it'll misfire.

It puffs it out, man.

It blows it out.

And we haven't even talked about how much that air is tumbling as it comes in to that

chamber, you know?

Which on the good side, it's helping you mix.

But on the bad side, it could blow the thing, the candle out, right?

Yeah.

Just like a three-year-old on his birthday cake.

Yeah.

So you guys are pumping up to like 50,000 volts, right?

That's a huge amount of spark energy.

Now, what are you doing with your module?

Because you guys are doing kind of an interesting thing, trying to get that big, long spark,

right?

Right.

And what we've done to the module is increase the dwell in.

So it's equivalent to running dual points back in the day to extend the dwell.

So what that's doing is extending the duration of the spark.

So it's holding it at that air gap for a little bit longer.

Yeah.

And that's where I said, like everything you can do to get a powerful spark, a longer

spark from a gap perspective and a longer time that it's in there, man, you got all

the chances of getting a good burn.

And you'll see a lot of old, old-school motors, especially with big cams and stuff.

Man, if you upgrade the ignition just right, all of a sudden, man, that sucker idle is

a whole lot better.

Right?

It pulls out of the hole a whole lot better, right?

And hopefully doesn't fall apart at the higher RPMs as well.

Yeah, man.

And now you're picking up power, now you're picking up fuel.

So, you know, that's what I said earlier on, like a lot of times you don't realize what

you're missing until you do the right upgrades.

Or if you're not pushing the limit, you don't realize that, you know, hey, what I got is

good enough.

But when you're pushing it like we do, like all our listeners are, right?

That's when that key ignition system really comes into play.

Yeah, it's going to help with every aspect from starting quicker to smoother idle, much

smoother acceleration, and then just top-end performance.

Cool, man.

We're going to get into it right after the break.

Let's dive into a quick one.

We'll come right back more with Brian to look up performance distributors, you guys.

It's funny, man, too, because I got to tell you, one of the first things that people say

when they get in my Jeep, I got your old DUI sticker, high voltage, it's caution, high

voltage sticker inside the dash in my Jeep.

And everybody's like, oh, what's that?

And I'm like, ah, you know what, that's my distributor and I've never had an effing problem

with it.

And we just keep rolling on.

So it's, they got great scary stickers too, man, so definitely know you got a good product

when you see one of those.

More with Brian, more with Kevin, it's the Two Guys Garage Podcast, back after the break.

It is Two Guys Garage Podcast.

He is Kevin Byrd, I am Willie B. We have our boy Brian Carruthon.

He is with Performance Distributors.

Make sure you check that out, man, Performance Distributors Online.

So really cool stuff.

We're talking kind of at the break there about how you guys do something kind of unique.

You guys actually tune the distributors when people buy them.

And it's kind of funny because we were just laughing.

So many people, you know, you kind of just think about this and you don't think about

it so often.

A lot of people don't know the first thing about tuning the distributor.

You know, it comes with springs, I'll just put the red one in there and see if it does

okay.

You know.

Wait, wait, wait.

I never looked down that far.

I mean, there's stuff in there.

Well, it's underneath the rotor, but it's wild, man.

Can you explain a little bit about what you do there as far as the tuning goes?

And why, for people that don't know, why would you tune a distributor?

You just spark all the time, right?

Yeah, you would think that, but it's actually, it's a science to it because having the right

timing curve with your engine combination is going to make all the difference in the

world.

So, you know, say somebody's got a nine to one engine with a mild cam, well, they might

need, might not need as much timing, you know, especially if it's in a vehicle that's doing

a lot of towing, they need less timing to keep that thing from pinging all over the place.

And then if you've got a, like a full blown race engine with compression and high lift

cams, then you're going to need an advanced curve that's tuned for that specific setup.

So that's, that's what we do.

We take information as far as the weight of the vehicle, the cam duration, valve lift,

compression ratio, what octane of fuel is being run.

And we dial all that into the advanced curve so that when the customer gets it, all they

got to do is just take it out of the box, drop it in, set initial timing, and they're

good to go.

Yeah, that's pretty huge.

Cause like you said, generic just doesn't fit, right?

And for some people out there that aren't familiar with tuning a distributor, they just

dropped it in there.

It goes back to what I said, like it's the amount of time that the cylinder has to actually

do the burn, right?

When you light a piece of paper, the whole paper doesn't go off.

It travels from one edge to the other edge, right?

And it's the same thing the cylinder, it travels from where the spark is to all the other areas

of the cylinder and you only have a fraction of a second.

And so you figure out low RPM, you got lots of time.

And if you were to ignite too early, right, you'd finish the burn and you'd build this

pressure and you would knock.

But at high RPM, you need to start earlier because, man, it's going to take me a while

to burn all that air and fuel and build the pressure at the point I want it in my stroke,

right?

So you got to change your spark timing based on your RPM.

So you've got these mechanical weights in there.

And so as you're spinning, right, the distributor, as your RPMs are going, these mechanical

weights are moving, right?

They're spring loaded and they pivot out, right?

Due to inertia and it's changing and advancing your spark timing.

But like you said, every engine has a different need for that timing.

And then of course, on the other end, you've got your vacuum advance, which helps you down

at idle.

And I don't know if you guys do anything special on that and the things or is that a little

bit more generic on the vacuum side for advance?

It's a little more generic.

I mean, we do use a particular vacuum advance can.

We don't use the adjustable types because those over time will lose their adjustments.

We use a fixed vacuum and we select one that's going to have the right amount of timing to

work with the mechanical advance and work with what this engine's being used for.

So idle quality, cruising conditions, you know, we're trying to eliminate any light

throttle pain that could occur.

Yeah.

And then, you know, it goes back to, right, you got to set your base timing in the distributor,

right?

As I mentioned, it's going to change it dynamically with RPM.

Can you give us the rule of thumb for when you set your base timing?

What do you do with your vacuum advance?

Well, it's disconnected when you're setting base timing.

So you're only setting your initial without any vacuum or mechanical advance coming in.

And typically, we try to set these up so that you can run about 10 or 12 on the initial

because that's going to give you good low end performance.

A lot of stock applications have, you know, four degrees advance at idle and, you know,

that's just poor, poor quality.

So we bump it up.

So we try to set the mechanical advance to allow for more initial advance.

And that's just going to give you better, better starting, better idle quality and better

off idle performance.

Way cool.

So obviously, you guys, you know, I'd say Chevy AMC, you got to be big in the AMC world

because when I bought my Jeep, that is what was on it.

And that's one thing the guy I got it from was like, hey, man, this set up is great,

is great on it.

AMC, that's, that's a unique world, man.

I'm proud of you guys for being a, I know, putting your, put your hands in that basket.

What else do you have?

You got a lot of Mopar stuff, a lot of stuff.

And then what else besides distributors can you tell me a little bit about the, the firepower

ignition kits that people are receiving and wanting out there as well?

Right.

Since most everything now is just a, you know, coil on plug or distributorless ignition,

we developed some kits to help improve the performance on those with, with higher output

coils, low resistance plug wires to just help improve the performance to get a little more

oomph out of these computer controlled engines.

Yeah.

That's like a full kind of upgrade package, right?

What does all that come with?

It depends on the kit because we do have one, another one that's a big seller force is like

the Mustang v6 kits and it's a coil pack and a set of wires.

And then we have the deep firepower ignition kit, which is an upgraded coil, cap and rotor

and a set of plug wires for like the 4.0s and even the 2.5.

So like from the early nineties up to the early 2000s, we sell those kits and that's

another big seller force.

What, what's unique in your distributor that makes them so reliable?

Obviously you said you're throwing more voltage at it.

What else as far as the internals that you feel like is a step up and a step, a grade

level up, you know, over your competition?

Quality parts because we're, we're, we're very particular about where we source our

parts from and our manufacturers.

So we're not just getting, you know, low grade parts and putting in these things and

trying to sell them.

No, we are using high quality parts, you know, plus with customization of the mechanical

advance, you know, I know you're familiar with the old sun distributor machines to tune

the advance.

So that's, that's what we still use today is, is the old sun machine and we spin these

things up, get the right advance curve in them for the customer's application.

And that's a, that's a big selling point for our distributors.

Nobody does that anymore, man.

Nobody throws weights and springs at it, you know, because you don't know what you're

going to get.

So having something custom tuned is just going to make your world a lot easier.

Yeah, no doubt.

Is that why you have so many repeat customers?

You have people coming back because they appreciate that additional depth and that level of customizing

that you guys are going to provide for them as opposed to, you know, a big box store to

stamp it out.

Another one.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

I mean, we have numerous repeat customers just because they buy one and then they've

got another project vehicle and they said, man, this thing works so good on the last

one.

I was definitely coming back to you guys.

So yeah, we have a lot of repeat customers because of this distributor.

Now you said AMC and Chevy, you guys make a bunch of big block Mopar stuff.

Just out of curiosity.

Yeah, we've got a big block Mopar.

We've got small block Mopar.

We've been dabbling in like the Toyota inline six in the old Land Cruisers, Toyota four

cylinders, just a number of applications.

I mean, we've got the Oldsmobiles, Buick's, we name it, pretty much anything GM.

And the Fords, that's been a big seller for us for all the small block and big block Fords.

Yeah, that's a pretty stellar lineup there.

Now, you know, one thing I've picked up on that you guys do is in the way that you're

doing that really high dwell, long spark, somehow you've worked some magic that you're

actually drawing a very low current.

Right.

How does that work?

You guys are drawing a low current, which to me means, right, I've got more durability.

I'm not going to wear out parts or overheat parts that I might be concerned about, especially

racing, right?

Because that's the last thing you want to do is in the middle of the race, your ignition

system goes down, right?

And then shoot, a lot of guys don't even run an alternator.

So I think low current would probably have a lot of benefit on any of those guys running,

right?

Oh, that's correct.

The round track guys love them because the maximum average draws three amps and most

of these guys are just running off a straight 12 volt battery.

So they're able to run their races without the fear of drawing too much current off the

battery and draining it and then losing top end performance on the ignition.

Yeah, another nice little perk.

Yeah, you guys have a great little setup and it goes all the way from coil to distributor

out through the wires, right?

You guys do your own wires?

We do.

Yeah, we have our own brand of wires called the live wires, which are low resistant plug

wire.

Plus, we add a fiberglass sleeve to the wire to the outside of it for added heat protection.

So you know what, you mean I'm not going to just boil all my wires off my first day

off laying on the header because I wasn't paying attention or popped out of the loom.

That's right.

Come on.

These are going to protect them.

So yeah.

Yeah.

What's the fun in that?

That's right.

Yeah, I tell you, I had, I'm going back a few years, but I had a small black Chevy and

thing ran great.

But you just would lose it on the top end and I just, you know, I had an old set of

wires that I grabbed, you know, on that build and I was just sorting out everything.

And man, when I finally went and put, you know, just a good set of wires back on the

thing, how much it just woke the whole engine up, you know, like, especially when something's

been around for a while and they just been beat on, they probably hit the headers a few

times here and there, right?

The insulation's gotten a little thin, if not there and, you know, you ground it out,

you know?

Oh yeah.

Some place on the header, got a couple air gaps in there.

Yeah.

And if you bought the performance out of the distributor, you've got to have a good set

of plug wires and a lot of these guys don't get that.

They think they can just go to part store, pick up a cheap set of wires and think they're

going to be good, but wires make a huge difference in the quality.

Well, it's all about the weakest link, right?

And your ignition system, man, you throw any weak link in there and all of a sudden you're

not making that power.

You need that juice at that plug, man, to get that thing to fire off right.

That's right.

Well, it's just racing, racing is a constant search for the weakest link.

An ignition system is usually one of those big ones.

Yeah.

Yeah, man.

No doubt.

So, hey, man, Brent, tell us how people can find out more about you.

You gave us some skews, but I'm sure people are interested.

Where do people go online to find out more about what you guys have, offer,

and so forth?

You can find us at performancedistributors.com to access our website, and then we also are

on Facebook.

So just Facebook and our performance distributors?

Yes, sir.

Well, right on.

Brian Cruz, performance distributors, make sure you check them out, look them up.

You guys in need of distributors, hey, man, can't complain.

I wouldn't have one single complaint about the one I ran for about a decade.

So not once.

It says a lot, a lot of confidence there, man.

Now, make sure you check out our show and stuff like this and more.

It airs all over the Motor Trend Network.

Check your local listings.

It's also available on Discovery Plus and Max.

Thanks to our producer, Scoop, our senior producer, Justin Carter, and executive producer,

Bob Ecker.

Yeah, and don't forget, check out our website, twoguysgarage.com, and we're everywhere on

social at Two Guys Garage, and of course, the Two Guys Garage podcast is copyrighted.

There you have it, man.

Brian, thanks for all the heads up and the knowledge, bro.

Yes, sir.

Thank you for having me.

Right on.

Well, thanks for making some great product.

I hope you guys learned a little bit about Ignition Systems or at least where to go to

get the real advice.

We'll catch you on the next Two Guys Garage podcast.

Take care.

Two Guys Garage podcast is a production of Brent and Productions.

For more episodes, visit iHeartRadio, Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to

your favorite shows.

0:00

33:13

distributor is located

axle running gear

endless trails

points of failure

dual points

higher RPMs

custom tuned

ignition system goes down

About this episode

Original notes