Eat Your Cake

Power & Mileage With a Dui Distributor

- Fred Williams

THEY SAY YOU CAN’T HAVE YOUR cake and eat it too. Which means you can’t have it all at the same time. Building a 4x4 is the same thing. Big tires kill fuel economy and eat power. Big power loves fuel. And building for a low center of gravity and high ground clearance doesn’t usually work. But we found something that gives you the cake and lets you eat it, too: a new distributor in your old 4x4, specifically an all in one DUI ignition system from Performance Distributors.

Most gas 4x4s from the 1960s and 1970s have points-style distributors, which can be low on spark at best and finicky to tune and keep sparking at worst. The DUI distributor is similar to the HEI General Motors distributor with a 50,000-volt integrated coil and low-amperage draw built right into the distributor so minimal wiring is required. And since Performance Distributors builds each unit with a custom advance curve tailored to your vehicle’s specifications, it’s like getting an ignition dyno tune thrown in. With just a little wrenching you’ll instantly notice an improvement in drivability and power, easier starting, improved throttle response, and a 1- to 3-mpg improvement over the old ignition parts.

1. The old points distributor has one thing going for it, and that’s its ability to keep sparking at low voltage on your battery and charging system. But this does nothing for performance of spark, and setting point dwell can be time consuming and frustrating. We decided it was time for more power in the punch for our 1972 Wagoneer, and that was coming in the form of a new distributor.