Electronic vs vacuum/mechanical timing advance
 

Hello.

I have a 1991 Metro with a vacuum advance distributor. I also have a junker 1992 Metro with an electronic advance distributor. Based on the assumption the elctronic control is better than the vacuum control, I would like to use the 1992 distributor. After looking at the wiring diagrams, it appears that I would have to swap out the ECU if I were to use the electronic distributor in the 1991 Metro.

Is this correct?

Are there any issues with swapping a 1992 ECU with a 1991 car? Will I have to swap any other components in order to make the ECU happy? Will I have to move wires around on the multiwire connectors?

Thanks.
- Peter

You'll have to make a bunch of changes to the wiring. The '92 ECU won't plug into the '91 wiring harness.

Will it be that hard to do? I was thinking of swapping the distributor too but if it is too painstaking then I might change my mind instead.

My experience with the Metro is very limited, but I've lots with some other cars that also went from Mech -> Elec on the distributor. And, the ones I know about, the swap would be very very hard to do. 99% of them do indeed require you to swap the ECU over, and most of these swaps involved a lot more than just plug-n-play. I can't think of one where all of the ECU Pins even matched. Granted, the Metro might not be as complex as others, but I think you'll be doing way more work than it's really worth. The gains will most likely not justify the work.

Not the answer your looking for I'm sure, sorry I couldn't offer more help.