123Ignition replacing Vacuum Advance Distributor?

[twistedtree]

Has anyone actually done this?  My '64 230SL takes an 046, 046, or 050 distributor per the Technical Manual, all of which are vacuum advance.  I have the 123 installed and set to curve #6 which is the one called for for 046 and 050 distributors.  But I'm getting very odd timing results.  In particular, at idle I have the timing set to 10 BTDC.  But when I goose the throttle, the timing retards 10 deg briefly, then goes back to 10 BTDC.  If I rev the engine up it advances to about 30 BTDC which I think is correct.  But I don't understand this momentary retard.  Further confusing the issue, the retard behavior happens regardless of whether the vacuum line is attached.

I know lots of people have been very successful running these 123 distributors, but as I browse through the forum I'm not finding anyone who has installed one on an older vacuum advance car.  I tried a 123 in a Volvo and discovered that some of their advance/retard programming is backwards, so to me they are all suspect until shown to be correct.

[Paul99]

I would be interested to hear about this as well.  I get similar strange issues.  It might be why they changed the disy later models.  I find the timing is correct untill i get to high revs when it seems to go out.  Lower revs find. 

I know there are some other types of electronic disys out there as well as the 123 system.  Think others have fitted these as well.

[twistedtree]

I'm still puzzling over my engine's running performance and am not sure what role the distributor plays at the moment.  The engine runs, but has very low power.  It was running too lean (adjusting newly rebuild FI pump to correct), buts still may not be right.  The timing still wants to be way advanced, but that might still be compensating for a mixture that remains too lean.  I picked up an air/fuel ratio meter and hope to get a definitive mixture setting dialed in over the next few days.  What I really need is a vacuum pump and gauge so I can directly lot and confirm what the distributor is doing.....

[Rick007]

I'm running the 123 Distrubutor for 3 years now , and i'm very happy with the performance of the car , but AFTER i altered the curve setting .  My cars original Distrubutor is a 009 with vacum , so this may not work for a 230 , but my setting according to the manufacturer was settin E, and i experienced the same syptoms, and only after i changed it to setting 8 it gave me the perfomance i was used to ...and even better .
These settings maybe will not work for your car , but i would defintively try a different setting .