Question is Why? And is there any chance FAST will replace it. It has no miles on it, 2 years old and the car is stored in a heated/ air conditioned garage. When ever I run the car it is always brought up to operating temperature for at least 20 to 30 min +.

Ahhhhhhhhh..... the $64 question.

You bought it 2 years ago --- it might have been in stock for another year -- making it 3 years "old" --- and maybe the first year was in a high humidity location...

I'd certainly ASK about a warranty replacement - or maybe from where you bought it... but if I was the factory - or dealer... I'm not sure I'd stand behind it at this point -- 2 years is a long time... and you'd have a hard time proving you didn't let it get that way during the build... but it never hurts to ask --- and honey gets more than you know sometimes.
:wow:

hmmm.... very interesting. I've found the same corrosion problem with an MSD distributor with an older MSD cap with aluminum lugs and no vent. The replacement cap i got had brass lugs and a vent. The steel reluctor also had corrosion on it. I sprayed everything under the cap & the inside of the cap with WD-40 before I put it on. Haven't checked it in a while and haven't driven much either so I can't give any results.

Any updates ?

Well- I shot the pics off to Matt(tech) at FAST and I dont think they want to know me. I still cant believe how much rust particles were in that cap. I swapped in an msd rotor and a vented msd cap. It seems to run good, havent taken it out on a long haul yet but we had it out last sunday, felt crisp.

Im gonna have to disassemble the whole distributor and either paint it or plate it. If the top looks like that can you imagine what the bottom looks like. Im sure lots of rust fell into the lower area of the distributor.

This lack of quality should be embarassing to FAST. If anyone knows of a direct replacement distributor for this junk, please give me the name of the company. I would like to pitch this one in the trash. :mad:

Rich

Rich --

I wonder if you couldn't just blow it out (taken out of the car of course) with some compressed air -- and then shoot it with some WD40 -- let that "dry"... it is for water displacement - and does "dry". The WD40 might put a protective barrier on the metal parts (looks like the advance weights are rusted a bit)... toss in a new rotor and a new cap.. and have a happy distributor?

I usually drill (do NOT use a twist drill for this - use a "step drill") a small 1/4" hole just behind the #1 stud in the cap. This "vent" does a couple of things - it lets you check with a timing light on the top of the cap... shows you exactly where the rotor is in relation to the "timing" (rotor firing on #1) so you can "phase" your rotor (if your distributor allows that - it should for EFI)... and it also gives an exit to vent the "static" out of the cap. This "static" is why they went to the bigger cap - ala the GM HEI style... There's another name for the static - but damned if I can think of it right now. MSD even sells a "vented" cap for "performance" applications.

Glad to hear you've found a probable culprit.

Re-check the MSD cap to see how well it fits "snug" to the distributor vs the FAST unit. Also make sure you don't see it "walking" on the distributor base when running/revving the engine. I've seen this happen with MSD/FAST when used together.

Thanks Dennis- As a matter of fact I wasn't happy with the fit , the cap is keyed but the spring loaded hooks on the msd cap that hold the cap down felt a bit weak. I could see how its possible for it to pop up and walk. Its no where near the clamping force of the original cap.

Any suggestions on how to secure it better? Any mods that can be done?

Rich

The MSD isn't a snug fit. We didn't mod anything but, decided the FAST cap was better and replaced it with another one of theirs.

Cleaned up the distributor the best I could and running with the msd cap and rotor for now. The engine seems to be running real crisp. Got it out for a long blast. No sense in vendor bashing, the pics speak for them selves.

Not to many weeks left here on the east coast to get the car out, the winters moving in. Thanks to all you guys for helping me out, really appreciate it. :thumbsup: .

Thanks again Rich