I recently put a new MSD marine distributor and ignition box in my 1990 Baretta Phaser 230 OB. It has a Volvo Penta AQ231A-SP/A with a 21 pitch aluminum volvo prop. I just got fed up with messing with the stock distributor. The points system ran great with a msd coil for a little hotter spark, but points didn't seem to last long and plugs always seemed to gas fouled. With the stock coil it took forever to plane out because I had to ease into it. If I get into the four barrel trying to get on plane it would slow down and start popping through the carb. Wide open it might turn 4,000 rpms or a little more. So with the MSD coil it would pull 4,800 rpms as long as the points stayed good and with me and one passenger. So I tossed the points and put a Hot Spark ignition module in the distributor. Instructions said do not run the MSD coil on that module. So I didn't. It ran like garbage again and on long journeys the module got hot and it would quit running. Still wouldn't hardly rev to 4,000 and couldn't get into the 4 barrel trying to get it on plane. So I decided on the MSD stuff. Before I pulled the old I started the engine and took reference on where the timing was. Flame arrestor lid says 6 degrees btdc and 14 degrees btdc at 2500 rpms. at 750 rpms it was in fact at 6 degrees btdc. At 2,500 rpms it was only at 12 degrees btdc. The highest timing I got was 16 degrees advance giving me a total of 24 degrees advance. In my new distributor I put the "18 degree approximately" total advance stop bushing in the distributor. I also put 1 heavy silver and 1 light silver spring on the mechanical advance so it hit full advance right around 3,000 rpms. I set the base timing at 6 degrees btdc at 750 rpms. My "18 degree approximately" advance bushing only yielded me 16 degrees of advance leaving me at 24 degrees total advance. My question is how much total advance can/should a marine small block chevy V8 run?????? It comes out of the hole way better than it ever has. The boat gets on top of the water in to time. The downfall is it still only turn 4,200 rpms with me and that same passenger. Im just curious if the old distributor wasn't advancing as much as it did when it was younger. I know marine engines don't run as much timing as a car/truck engine. What is to much? 26, 28 degrees???? I normally run at a cruising speed of 3,000rpms because that where my boat is easy on my wallet for fuel and I always run at least 91 octane. But there are times that I want to pretend that I have the fastest boat on the water and want to see that 4,800rpms again. When it had a new set of points and I put my 19 pitch prop on that I use for pulling a tube it will spin the engine 5,200-5,300rpms and I know thats to much. Not to toot my horn on fuel mileage but I did make a 72 mile round trip voyage with 1,000lbs of people and cargo and only burned 15 gallons of gas. My boat never came off of 3,000 rpms. Most boats of comparable size I know of would have used more gas.
Last edited:
