Nope- - - -the Zephyr distributor is actually two distributors in one housing, with two coils integrated into one case sitting on top of it. That one runs 6 cylinders on one coil, and the remaining six on the other. Once the dwell is set on each set of points individually, then they must be synchronized so all 12 cylinders have the same initial timing and centrifugal advance. Ford also uses a "vacuum brake" system to retard the timing during acceleration when the manifold vacuum drops below a certain point. There's a reason there were Ford mechanics back in the 40's and 50's, and "everything else" guys!
Dad would install an 8 cylinder cam into the Zephyr distributor with 4 lobes ground off, so each set of points ran 4 cylinders. He also had to modify the rotor, and pick out 8 of the 12 plug wire terminals to wire for the V8 engine. The end result was about 50 degrees of dwell for each firing impulse, and a fat blue spark about 3/4" long even on 6 volts. On his own car, he added a little sneaky Pete trick- - - -he used an 8 volt battery! Since they didn't run generators, late in the racing program he still had a hot spark when everybody else's battery was getting a little weak! The starter also cranked that 11:1 compression engine better with 8 volts instead of 6. That's probably the only time I've ever seen a good reason to run an 8V battery, BTW!
Jerry
