exactly - the D16A1 distributor has two vacuum advance mechanisms on it, along with a centrifugal advance - one mechanism is strictly vacuum but only advances the timing by 6 degrees - the second one is partly controlled by the ECU (which we don't use) through a solenoid that controls the vacuum to the mechanism based on readings from sensors on the engine, i.e. coolant temperature, RPM and load - this advances the timing by another 12 degrees - without the ECU, it just didn't work right - we could have probably figured it out eventually with a distributor machine, but after countless hours we got tired of messing with it and just spent the money on something we knew would work; and we were already using some of the MSD items like 6AL ignition - it is quite a bit of money to do it the way we did - it could have been done for less - we use between 34 to 40 degrees total advance on the ignition but we are running at altitude of 5000 to 6000 feet above sea level
one thing that you are going to need is a quality, high volume, low pressure fuel pump - the carbs only need 3-5 psi pressure, but need a lot of volume - anything more than about 5 psi and they will let fuel by the needle valve causing flooding - we run ours at 3 psi with a Carter Rotary Vane 4 psi pump and a Holley fuel pressure regulator
to use the D16A1 distributor, you also need to swap the #6 intake camshaft bearing cap with one from the 86-87 Integra - with that part you can get the top bolt on the distributor bolted up - the other two bolts still won't line up with the head but it seemed to work just fine with the one bolt - that part may be harder to get than the distributor - you can find these D16A1 distributors for around $50 U.S. on ebay.