Firecore vs. FBO

Looking at buying a new distributor for the 440 in the Newport. Currently running the MP electronic and having some issues with too much advance under vacuum. I know that's adjustable but after reading up on these it sounds like they have issues with jumpy timing and such. So, what are the differences between the Firecore and the FBO billet distributors? Besides 100 bucks that is if I don't have Don tailor make a curve for a new one...... Will the Mallory adjuster kits work in either of these dizzys?


https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-850535-1

Not sure of all the differences, but i had a Firecore distributor and in the first week of owning it, i melted the rotor tip right off of the rotor. About the 2nd or 3rd blast on my new 511 at the time and the motor sure did let off a big kaboom as the tip bounced around in the cap, firing cylinders out of time. It was so violent that i thought i had ran over my alternator with a rear tire. I swear it lifted the rear of the car off the ground. Crazy. I never seen this before. I was also looking at getting one of Dons vac dist curved by him as well. Looks like a nice piece.

I have no Firecore experience - although their wires are highly popular on the site - but there have been a lot of problems reported here with their distributors.
I DO have FBO experience, and would again use them for my next distributor.

I've read bad about both brands of distributors. I'd like some real world experience setting them up before I choose.

Send yours to Joe White https://www.facebook.com/groups/331984517742209/

He will set yours up right!

Jeff

I have heard bad about MSD as well, but a lot of people are still using them.

I agree. He did a tach drive distributor for my 493, awesome job and set it up perfect.

I’ve got FBO distributors and the complete system on several cars. Can’t say enough about how good they start and run. My buds bird has been hard staring ever since he built the motor. Not now. What notice about them the most it the timing light is much brighter and the timing is more steady. I recommend them to all my customers.

Don gave me the low down on Firecore distributors. He was gonna sell them at one point. Said China built a few and sent them over as demos, looked real nice, so he orders 2 pallets of Firecore distributors. They arrive and the quality was not near as good as the Demos they had previously sent. Said he couldn't sell them like that, so he didn't.

Word to the wise, Don is known to stretch the truth when it comes to problems with parts, his or some other brands he sells
He has never made a mistake he can't cover up

I've been using this deal from Progression Ignition.
Very happy with it, you can change curve tables in seconds. Idles and starts cleaner, and smoother all around than the old MP unit it replaced.
I feel better no one can start the car when it's off on security lock
You ditch the module and ballast, uses a full 12v

https://progressionignition.com/

I’ve been using Firecores, both bb and sb, in street cars for 4 or so years now, no issues. Much better than the MP piece I had in the BB, and the SB stuff I ditched an FBO setup that was in the car when I bought it-just had some weird issues.

Odd though, the Firecore site now only lists the sb from what I could see.

THAT'S A VERY NICE WAY OF PUTTING IT! I'M SURPRISED DON DOESN'T SELL JUSED CARS OR REPRESENT NIGERIAN INTERNET KINGS!

Well, I only have experience with Firecore.....Wires are ok, I found no difference in power when compared to procomp wires on my wedge testing back to back at the track. On the Hemi, I have had to re-adjust the clips for more clip on force multiple times. The Taylors I had previously were much better in that regard. I am currently looking at other brands and might go back to Taylor..

Their distributors I like. I have one on the Hemi and I like them because you can close up the curve with a Phillips screw driver and a vice. I only run about 8* mechanical advance in the Hemi...

Coils I have had bad luck with. The quit easily when used with a 7AL2....

MSD race units like the early 404 and the 7 race boxes of all types require a coil that has a lot different windings inside the coil, I don't remember exactly if the stock coils are 400 to 1 and the MSD coil need 200 to 1 or vice a versa
I like the early Mallory #28880 or the same coil with the MSD sticker on them The later small red MSD coil for their race boxes work well also

I have one of the first run of Firecore distributors, I think is was the first one Rick ever sold Been trouble free since the day I installed it with a set of FC wires. I run it with a 6AL and an MSD blaster SS coil .

Gus

I will never run a Firecore distributor again. The first one I had I thought worked great but after traveling to a track 8 hours away the car started acting up. Sometimes it would misfire and other times not and I lost a race because of it. Could not find the issue at the track so checked it over when I got home. After a few hours I see the little screws on the side of the dizzy loose and finally look inside and below the plate its a mess. Took it to Rick and he took it apart and said there were some issues with the early ones and the plastic guides were breaking. The problem was supposedly fixed and he gave me a new one. Guess what? It could not have been 4 races later and the same thing happened - no more for me MSD and no issues since!

Purchased the FBO this week and got a deal on it. Had it curved for my Newport. 18 initial, 14 on 11" of vacuum, and 16 mechanical at 3400 RPM. Will see Friday how it works in my 440.

I'm thinking really hard about picking one of those up.

Might just be the answer I need instead of a locking out dist. Which I have avoided doing.

Had the Firecore on my 383. Actually had great characteristics, engine fired right up. However, the ECU went out and left me stranded. Tried ordering another but Summit now sells them and won’t provide spare parts. Pretty much on the shelf now.

Well got it installed and I must say it runs smoother, the tach doesn't dance on deccel anymore. But, it seems to take a little more cranking to fire it up warm now, and it dies sometimes like when you idle in the drive through, and didn't throw it into neutral. Or, back up and then let off the throttle to put it in park or drive. I need to find an Edelbrock carb guru.

I had a firecore and its losened all up

Bingo!! anything he doesn't sell is junk unless he starts selling it then its the best product ever.

I was hesitant, but ended up very happy with the purchase.

Starting timing is 10 degrees, anything over starter RPM you can plug in. Mine likes 23 initial, all in by 1800. It takes minutes instead of hours to figure it out.

All things considered, between start retard, ditching the module, easy curve setting, race and street curve, ignition kill, I'm really happy with it.

Of course with anything new there is the possibility it could turn into a total turd in 2 years, got good reviews though.

I know this is an old thread but thought I would add my two cents. I just had my second Firecore distributor fail in three years.The first one lasted 6k miles, the second one 4k miles.

They are junk!!! I also had 2 failures and know of many others with the same issue. That's why they are no longer being sold!

Any idea why they failed? The pickup, internals blew apart......?

X2 on what ? Issues , bee more specific

I see Firecore no longer sells the RTR Distributors

However



Running a vacuum advance Firecore on my 383 Street 71 Bee

Three summers now

Thanx

Why not use yours by shortening up the mechanical advance by welding up the slots to get the amount you want ?
All the older stock Mopar electronic distributors I've done that to have the amount of mechanical advance stamp on the bottom of the upper part that rotor slides onto piece, IE stamped 12 =24 degrees advance ,(the distributor rotates half as fast as the crankshaft so you need to double the numbers stamped to get crankshaft degrees) 13 =26 degrees and so on. Measure the diameter of the pins on the advance weights and subtract that from the length of the slot, say pin is .250 diameter, probably bigger but this will work for this discussion, and the slot is .650 long so .650 - .250 leaves .400 and it is stamped 12 which is 24 degrees mechanical advance and you want to reduce it 16 degrees so you can set the idle at 16 BTDC and end up 32 degrees total mechanical so you divide the .400 x 24 which equals .0333 per one degree times 8 = .2666 to get the length needed to have 16 degrees total mechanical advance
I weld up the slots shorter than needed and then use a dye grinder to get them to the exact length I want
Works good, last a long time

Not sure the exact cause, two different symptoms.
2018 we were getting ready to leave for a car show, engine started running rough, took car out for a quick spin came back and decided to check timing, turned car off wouldn't start again until I changed distributor..

9/42021- driving to car show car just turned off while I was pulling up to stop light, slipped it into neutral and it started back up. Bogged a couple times while getting on highway on way home. Figured I had some [censored] in the carb and removed carb and cleaned when I got home. 9/11/21- when leaving car show had trouble starting, would start then die, took several attempts to start. Figured still carbs issues, fiddled with it ran good next day. 9/19/21. would start then die, figured it was fuel issues with symptoms. Swapped carbs, nothing, pulled fuel pump, checked fuel pump push rod, looked good, swapped in spare firecore distributor, started right up.
I'm done with this Chinese junk.

Pretty sure Summit has bought out firecore and you can get this crap from them.

So these must bee the RTR Distributors your talking about ? Built in ignition module inside distributor ?

Again , I see Firecore stopped making/selling these


Jegs and Summit still sell the Firecore NON RTR Distributors under there brand name


MSD has had issues with there RTR Distributors also


I wanted to try a RTR Pertronix Distributor , but it wouldn’t clear the Edelbrock aluminum heads due to size

Chinese junk is true for all of them , isn’t it ? - Same with oil filled canister coils

We are running out of options

Pertronix in a stock dist with the curve adjusted appropriately is my go-to. If you need a rev limiter they make an add-on box that also provides a tech signal.

Thanks for the details. Sounds like the pickup is bad. There is an easy way to troubleshoot the pickup. If that is the cause, the part is pretty inexpensive.

http://www.fourforty.com/techstuff/ignition.html

A good Ohm meter is your friend, I think the pick up should have between 400 to 500 ohms across the leads but make sure before testing

Pretty sure Summit has bought out firecore and you can get this crap from them.


Not true ---- Summit and Jegs also carry them and it's just a part any supplier can buy and sell. The problem I had with both of mine was the internal part that held the weights were made of plastic and wore out quickly. It would then jump timing and make the engine run horrible and could have even caused internal engine damage. My understanding is Summit and Jegs had enough buying power that they forced the supplier to fix the issue. Just more Chinese junk anyway!

Advice above....get rid of all of the revenator, Don@FBO, Firecore etc. gimmicks and run a Pertronix. The one in my Dart has no problem supporting 600hp on nitrous.

Once the MP boxes went to h ell it just didn't make sense to use anything else for a points replacement. Two wires, stand-alone unit, commonly available...what else do you need. If you really, really think you need an ignition box step up to a MSD and be done with it. The rest of over-marketed ignition products out there are known to be pretty much junk or they are akin to using an axe in lieu of a butter knife. Like the guy with the .509 hydraulic cam in his automatic street car that thinks he needs a rev limiter. We used to call that "valve-float" lol!

First the Firecore coil died, replaced it with an old accel. Then the Summit/firecore rtr distributor died and left me stranded. I went to an msd box with a summit (I think) coil and got a recurved distributor from fbo. Weird thing was the directions said to use full manifold vacuum which Ive never done. But, it hasn’t let me down like the others.

Been using Ice Ignition products for 10+ years now and never an issue with it. They only have 7amp and 10amp boxes. I use the 7amp with the coil voltage booster, which boosts the coil voltage to 16+ volts. I think they make a good quality product.

It ought to be good for what it costs.

Are the Petronix RTR units any good? Looks like an easy option to run on the street and then swap back to stock points for shows.

Why not just swap out the pertronix ignitor. Swapping back and forth requires r n r of a few screws and removig the power wire piggybacked to the 12v side of the ballast resistor and of course swapping the negative coil wire over from unit to unit.

In my opinion it is simpler to change points than replace the distributor and re'time the engine.

Sorry I do not have any feedback on the RtR units for you. They always seemed complicated for what they did.

I often feel that you get what you pay for. Step up to the pay window the first time and you may not have to step up again for the same product.

I agree 100%, but my MSD stuff has served me well and is more affordable.