So i was at school and i found this distributor that looked exactly like a factory 2.8 distributor. I asked if i could have it and the teacher said yes because they dont even teach about them anymore. He also told me that it was never ran in a car. they only had it for demonstrations. When i got it home i searched the part number and it came back for a 4.3 V6 for GM trucks. i took the cap off and the ICM, pickup coil, rotor, cap contacts, and reluctor wheel all look brand new. I have heard of people getting a new distributor and seeing a noticable difference in running performance over the stock one. Even just a new ICM. My question is can i swap all the guts out of this one and stick it all in my stock distributor housing?
Thats why i grabbed it. From what i see, the only real difference between this one and my original is the the distributor shaft housing is about 2" taller to make up for the taller deck height on the 4.3. I am almost positive that everything else will swap over except i am not entirely sure about the ICM. I dont know if they work the same exact way and may or not be interchangeable.
Originally posted by Red87FieroGT: Thats why i grabbed it. From what i see, the only real difference between this one and my original is the the distributor shaft housing is about 2" taller to make up for the taller deck height on the 4.3.
I think the shaft would be too long then, thus you'd have to press the magnet or pole piece off the 4.3 shaft and onto the 2.8 shaft.
Someone on here has done the swap but I do not recall if they did a how to.
The shaft along with being the wrong length, also has the wrong oil pump drive coupling on it. Rather than the Fiero hex oil pump drive coupling, it has the blade type (SBC)
[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 08-17-2012).]
Well i just did the swap and the car does seem to run much better. Almost all of the magnets on my factory reluctor wheel were either cracked, had missing chunks, or almost non existent. The pick-up coil was no prized peach either. There was no real power increase but i wasnt expecting that. Only thing i did notice is that it seems to have a little more torque down low because i can take off and go through the gears under normal acceleration with less effort. Throttle response is better also. I havent filled up with gas yet but im interested to see if my MPG goes up as a result. Overall though i am very pleased with the result. And i cant argue with the price either.
No, you can't just 'drop it in'. As stated in earlier postings: 1. The shaft is too long. 2. The oil pump drive is different. The Fiero oil pump uses a hex drive and the 4.3 dizzy has a blade drive. They aren't compatible. You have to take the 'guts' out of the upper end of the 4.3 dizzy and swap them into an existing 2.8 dizzy. (Don't try to swap the shaft. Again, it will not work.)
But if you don't swap the shaft you can't swap the stator. And the pick up rotor is pressed onto the shaft. So the only way this could work is if you could press the rotor off of the old shaft and then press it on the new shaft. Also the pick up rotor's rotation on the shaft needs to be aligned with the top high voltage rotor. And since there are magnets in the pick up rotor, be careful not to heat it or damage it.
I really can't see how any of that 4.3 dist can be used successfully in a 2.8 dist.
parts that are interchangable are the coppercap and the pole piece along with the icm. i have done that swap on just about all my fieros and i believe that it improves spark and less hesitation in the engine for the electrical system because it doesn't get covered in rust as fast.
parts that are interchangable are the coppercap and the pole piece along with the icm. i have done that swap on just about all my fieros and i believe that it improves spark and less hesitation in the engine for the electrical system because it doesn't get covered in rust as fast.
