That first distributor, with the GM HEI unit, I would absolutely avoid. I spent a lot of time repairing those pieces of s#!t in the 80s, replacing burnt thru dist. caps, bad modules, and dead coils . Then add the hideous HUGE distributor cap, which usually means you need a smaller diameter air cleaner to clear its ugliness, plus the fact that its right there, in plain sight, no way I could ever make a FE look so ugly! The only possible reason I could possibly imagine anybody putting such a monstrosity on a Ford is that the "one wire" hookup is about the limit of their mechanical skills. You certainly do not ever see these GM HEI distributors on any Fords at the dragstrip, at least on any Fords that perform well. The second distributor looks a lot like the Pertronix Flamethrower my boss has on the 427 FE in his ERA Cobra. It seems to work OK, but personally, I really like the Ford Duraspark distributor (looks original, if that is important to you), reasonably priced, and very reliable, either when used with a "blue" Duraspark box, or as in the case of my Fairmont and old 85 Mustang, with a MSD box. The MSD billet distributor seems to be pretty good too, which interestingly enough, uses the GM style mechanical advance setup (easy to access and adjust), but rather than use the GM ignition pickup design, MSD chose the Ford Duraspark design.
