Ignition/Electrical
Pontiac V8 Ignition/Electrical
Spark You Can Trust — Ignition/Electrical for Pontiac V8s
Ignition and electrical is where a good Pontiac V8 either lights off clean and holds its timing or fights you every time it gets hot. Distributor, gear, coil, box, wires and plugs work as one system, and the distributor gear in particular has to match both the camshaft and the distributor shaft diameter.
Butler stocks HEI, ready-to-run, Pro Billet and EFI-ready distributors from MSD, Holley, Pertronix and Top Street Performance, BOP composite gears, MSD coils and ignition boxes, custom-fit Pontiac spark plug wires, NGK plugs sorted by head type, and one-wire alternators from March, Powermaster and CVF.
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1. Picking a Distributor
Start with how the engine is going to be run, because that decides whether you need an external ignition box at all.
| HEI | A new HEI distributor is the simple street answer and keeps the wiring easy. Butler stocks Pertronix HEI units with vacuum advance and an HEI III module on a .491" shaft, plus RPC HEI distributors. |
| Ready to run | MSD and Top Street Performance ready-to-run billet distributors carry the module inside, so no external CD box is required. The TSP unit uses a CNC billet body and hardened shaft on a sealed ball bearing and sintered bushing, with fully adjustable mechanical advance, a non-adjustable vacuum advance, digital tach output and a .491" shaft. Plan on a coil rated 35,000 volts or better. |
| Pro Billet race | The MSD 8563 and the TSP Pro Series are for engines running a capacitive discharge box and an external coil. The Pro Series can be locked out for a fixed timing setup and is built to stay stable to 10,000 RPM, but it is not compatible with a generator and cannot be run through a ballast resistor. |
| Points conversion | Pertronix Ignitor, Ignitor II and Ignitor III modules convert a 1957-74 GM points distributor to electronic with nothing visible under the cap. The Ignitor III adds a rev limiter. |
| Complete kits | Butler assembles ignition kits that pair the distributor with 8.5mm wires, a box where one is needed, a coil and separators, so nothing is missing on installation day. |
2. EFI-Ready Distributors
An EFI conversion changes what the distributor does. It becomes a sensor and a rotor rather than a timing computer.
| Dual sync | The Holley Pontiac dual-sync billet distributor carries both crank and cam sensors, which is what a sequential multi-port system needs to fire the correct injector and coil. On a Sniper 1 or Sniper 2 install the cam sync wire is simply terminated. |
| HyperSpark | The Holley HyperSpark distributor is the plug and play way to add timing control to a Sniper EFI install. It uses a Hall effect sensor for a noise-free RPM signal, a shutter wheel pinned and welded to the shaft, and a clear installation cap that takes the confusion out of dropping it in. |
| Gear note | The HyperSpark ships with a cast gear installed, and the recommended gear material is the BOP polymer .500" gear. Read the next section before you run it against a roller cam. |
| Crank trigger | Where distributor timing is not accurate enough, an MSD crank trigger is stocked. |
3. Distributor Gears
This is the most expensive thing on this page to get wrong, because the distributor gear also drives the oil pump and it runs directly against the camshaft. Two things decide it: shaft diameter and what the cam is made of.
| Shaft size | .491" is the stock Pontiac shaft, used by factory GM HEI, Pertronix HEI, points and Mallory distributors and by the TSP and RPC units. .500" is the aftermarket size used by MSD, Pertronix non-HEI, Holley and FAST. |
| Composite | The BOP Carbon Ultra-Poly gear is made in both shaft sizes and is what Butler points people toward when they are tired of finding gear material in the oil. It does not shed metal into the oiling system. |
| Bronze | Bronze gears from Comp, Lunati and MSD remain the traditional answer behind a roller cam. The MSD .500" bronze gear is machined from AMPCO 45 aluminum bronze containing five percent nickel, for teeth that resist wear even with a high volume oil pump. |
| Steel | A stock steel .491" gear with a 3/16" roll pin is the correct replacement behind a flat tappet cam in a stock distributor. |
| Ram Air V and Super Duty | OEM type 455 Super Duty and Ram Air V cams use a smaller cam gear, so they take a large diameter .491" gear of their own. BOP makes a composite version of that gear for use with hydraulic roller or solid roller camshafts. |
4. Coils and Ignition Boxes
The box and the coil are a matched pair. Buying them separately from different families is how you end up chasing a miss at high RPM.
| Boxes | MSD 6AL digital and analog boxes with built-in rev limiters, the 7AL2 and 7AL3 for race combinations, MSD Street Fire, the Pertronix 510 and the Sniper HyperSpark CD boxes for EFI. |
| Coils | MSD Blaster 2 at 45,000 volts, Blaster SS at 40,000 volts, HVC and HVC II coils, and the High Energy unitized coil that upgrades a GM HEI right in the cap at 42,000 volts. Pertronix Flame Thrower canister coils and ProComp canister and E-core coils fill out the range. |
| Match them | A CD box wants a coil designed for it and a Sniper EFI system wants the coil that plugs into it. Butler's complete kits pair them for you. |
| Points cars | A ballast resistor is stocked for points distributors, but it is not needed with an MSD 6 or 7-series ignition control. |
5. Spark Plug Wires
Wire routing on a Pontiac with headers is a real problem, and it is worth solving with the right set.
| Custom fit | MSD 8.5mm Super Conductor sets cut and assembled for a Pontiac in red or black, ready to install, plus custom-fitted HEI sets and matching coil wires. |
| Universal | Universal 8.5mm sets are cut to fit and require you to install the distributor end, which is the right choice when headers make a pre-made set awkward. Moroso Ultra 40 sets with 135 degree boots are stocked for tight header clearance. |
| Keep them off the headers | Clamp style 8mm separator kits and looms are stocked separately and included in the complete ignition kits. |
6. Spark Plugs by Cylinder Head
Pontiac heads take three different plug configurations and they are not interchangeable. Butler sorts the NGK line by head so you order the right one the first time.
| 1971 and earlier cast iron | 13/16" hex, 14mm gasket seat, 3/8" reach, in extended tip and recessed tip, in heat ranges 6 through 9. |
| 1972 and later cast iron | 5/8" hex, 14mm taper seat, .460" reach, extended and recessed tip, in heat ranges 5 through 9. |
| Edelbrock aluminum heads | 5/8" hex, 14mm gasket seat, 3/4" reach, extended and recessed tip, in heat ranges 5 through 10. |
| Heat range | The coldest plugs in each family, including the heat range 9 and 10 parts, are listed for nitrous and high cylinder pressure. A street engine does not want them. |
7. Charging, Clamps and Small Parts
The pieces that finish the job, and the ones that fix a problem the catalog does not warn you about.
| Alternators | GM 10SI and 12SI one-wire alternators in 100 and 140 amp from March, Powermaster and CVF, plus a high amp wiring kit. |
| Distributor clamps | Butler CNC mills a 6061 billet clamp in house, designed around the offset and elevation of stock and aftermarket blocks, with grooved posts to grip the distributor and a slotted bolt hole for adjustment. A plain steel clamp is stocked as well. |
| Super Duty and Ram Air V blocks | Those blocks have a larger distributor hole. The Butler SD distributor sleeve lets any distributor fit and comes with the sleeve, a gasket, the 11/64 drill bit and the set screw. |
| Caps, rotors and modules | HEI and MSD caps and rotors, an adjustable race rotor also used when converting to EFI, a high output HEI module with a rev limiter, and replacement magnetic pickups. |
| Timing tools | Timing tapes, distributor shim kits and tach adapters, so you can verify what the engine is actually seeing. |
If you are ordering a distributor, order the gear that matches your camshaft at the same time. That decision does more for the life of a Pontiac oiling system than anything else here.
Spark Plugs Distributors Distributor Gears Spark Plug Wires Ignition Coils
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Email our tech team at tech@butlerperformance.com. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.