What's different about the distributor that are used on the Magnum motors?

I don't know all/any of the differences in the distributors really.

One thing i do know is that the magum's caps have the male plugs for the wires and the LA use the female.

I don't know if they interchange or not. I would assume that they do.

You can use it in an LA engine. The biggest difference is the cap and the Magnum distributor is shorter height than the LA distributor.

the advance curve also doesn't run by vacuum, it runs from the computer.

So does that mean no weights or spring?

this is all I know, unfortunately:

"You won't run your Magnum engine with the MPI distributor that comes with it from the junkyard, since the stock units are designed to work with the engine's PCM. Any small-block Mopar conventional distributor will solve that. We used an MSD distributor, though a Mopar Performance electronic-ignition distributor is a popular alternative."

pretty much empty inside.

A rotor, a shutter wheel and a thing the shutter wheel spins past.

the magnum distributor is not a distrubitor in traditional senses. It is used for fuel sync and spark. It will not work as a distributor in a LA motor.

it's very similar to any lean burn distributor--no mechanical or vacuum advance mechanisms, just a locked out pickup. other than the housing/cap difference, the mag dizzy I have laying around here is essentially the same as the dizzy that came out of my '86 5th ave.