We can trace the origin of this simple mechanical advance mechanism all the way back to the 17th Century. Isn’ t it time for hot rodders to move into the 21st Century with timing control?

My buddy Tim Moore and I were having lunch and talking cars as always. The subject of stepping up into the 21st Century is a near-constant theme. The subject began over a discussion about the small-block Chevy one of his many vehicles that had recently been running very poorly. It would surge and not accelerate which at first pointed to a lack of fuel. After a thorough rehab of the fuel delivery system including a new mechanical pump (which it needed anyway), new filters and an investigation into the carburetor, the surge was still present.

Next, he decided to look under the distributor cap of the HEI, something that hadn’t happened in some time. Tim quickly saw the problem when the mechanical advance mechanism was frozen solid and not creating any advance. Worse yet, he discovered that the vacuum advance canister had also failed, leaving the engine with only the minimal initial advance.

He quickly yanked the distributor, rehabilitated the mechanical advance system with lube and new springs, while also adding a new cap and rotor. He also replaced the vacuum advance canister and now the engine runs like a champ. In fact while we were talking about it, this 8.5:1 compression engine could probably use even more timing at light load cruise situation – approaching 50 degrees. I would be willing to bet that the engine will not only run better but also run cooler at the same time.

We started talking about how this seems to be a common problem with HEI’s and I made the comment that here we were, well into the 21st Century and “we’re still tinkering with a device that was probably used on the first steam engine”. After lunch, this motivated me to dig a little deeper into the basic design of a two-ball or three-ball governor. Wikipedia led me to James Watt’s installation of a two-ball governor used on his first steam engine in 1788.

Reading a little deeper, there was a comment that James Watt didn’t claim to invent this basic governor because it had been used as a speed limiter on basic milling devices dating back into the late 1600’s! So here we are, messing around with older musclecars that are still using a device perfected by James Watt that can trace its lineage back to the time of Louis XIV in France ast roughly the same time that early American settlers were gleefully participating in the Salem Witch trials. That is just flat astounding.

My grandfather was an engineer with the Chicago Northwestern railroad from the 1930’s through the ‘50s and he was one of those selected to transition from steam to diesel locomotives. We were having a talk about steam engines one day when I was just a kid and he showed me how a basic three-ball governor works. That’s the first time I heard the term “balls out”.

While most think this has more to do with a certain portion of the male anatomy – the truth is that the term “balls out” merely refers to maximum speed on a two- or three-ball governor-controlled steam engine. When the balls are flat out – that’s as fast as the engine will run – unless you cheat the governor!

While all this trivia is fun, it does little to drag us troglodyte car guys out of the 1800’s and into the 21st century. In classic stream of consciousness, this pushed me to start thinking about a story I did a few years ago that garnered nearly zero attention. A company called EFI Technologies makes a 24x and 58x shutter wheel for a small- or big-block Chevy that, along with a billet front timing cover from my pals at TPIS will now give you an LS computer crank signal. Add a 1996-2000 GM plastic crab cap distributor that uses a built-in cam sensor and we have the two important sensors necessary to convert a small- or big-block Chevy to LS engine computer control.

This allows us to not only use 21st Century sequential control over the fuel injection, but we can now use the factory GM coil packs and enjoy incredible timing accuracy with finite digital control over spark timing that is impossible with that James Watt device sitting on top of your mechanical advance distributor. According to my friend Jim Hall at TPIS, they have tested this system on several small-blocks and have seen an average torque gain of nearly 20 lb-ft of torque. That’s the average! My feeling is that this is due to the advantages of superb timing accuracy that is just not there with that whirling dervish distributor.

That whole conversion isn’t really expensive and would rocket a ‘50s era small-block right into the 21st Century. In the 1950’s prognosticators were telling us that by 2016 we’d all be driving flying cars and living on the moon. That hasn’t happed – but this LS conversion is affordable, easy and begs to be done. Who’s with me?