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udoittwo

Posted 2016-06-25 9:42 AM (#515063)
Subject: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Location: Valley Forge, Pa.

After reading more about it and really not finding any unusual issues with any of the aftermarket distributor systems. MAYBE there might be some issues when used with high performance but most opinions and info showed for street use, all the systems seemed to perform well with good reliability.

Because I really never physically looked at the H.E.I. dist., I never understood what a "larger cap" actually meant. If there are any of you like myself that don't know much about them, here is a picture of a standard 318 and the H.E.I. distributors. I was surprized by the actual size and weight, although the H.E.I. weight may not be much more that a stock distributor & coil weighed together?

I was surprised that there were no instructions with the distributor of any kind but fortunately it all appears to be very simple. There are only 2 external connections. 1 to a tach and 1 to the ignition. I do not have a tach, so I just need to run the wire from the ignition tp the right side terminal. I have to check this again to be totally sure, but I believe it no longer uses the ballast resistor. I bought a set of 8.5 plug wires that come with the plug end installed and will need to be cut to length and the cap end installed.

I haven't looked yet but I am guessing/hoping I have room for this huge cap? IF it will go, I am hoping the worst of it will be running the new ign. wire. They call for a 12 gauge ign. wire. I now have my ign. wire running from the ign. switch to a "kill" switch mounted under the front seat and then to the old coil. I will need to rerun that with heavier wire. For all I know, running that long distance and the connectors between may be part of my ignition problems anyway but I am keeping the kill switch.

I guess you could say the room lost to the large cap will be fair trade for removing the old coil bolted to the intake. I will leave the old coil and wired resistor inplace so, IF I have a dist. issue, I can quickly reinstall the old one. Again, I do not show my car but i still want to keep it as original as possilbe and able to return to ogiginal if I want.

As many of these parts are no longer available or a wait period asnd having lots of sapre space in my Suburban, I always carry a ready to go dist., spare coil, carb, ballast resistor, wheel bearings, other items and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, a fire ext. in the front and one in the spare tire compartment. Some don't think it can ever happen to them but again, here is my 69 427/435 HP Vette.

later,
Karl.

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udoittwo

Posted 2016-06-26 8:23 AM (#515156 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: RE: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Posts: 1348
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Location: Valley Forge, Pa.

I just dropped it in to see about clearence and to build the wires. Not going to try to hook it up today as the sun will be beating down on me shortly. Only take a minute to drop the old dist. in and move under a tree.

Here are picts showing clearence. At least an inch from the firewall and air filter husing. Poor quality picts.

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udoittwo

Posted 2016-06-27 7:00 AM (#515239 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: RE: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Posts: 1348
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Location: Valley Forge, Pa.

Plug wires took some time. I would silacone them and the rubber cap/cup. Tight fit but I could get the cap started. My guess is the cap was made for the smaller diameter wire as it was a bear to get on and once I ran it up the wire a couple inches, was really hard to pull back down to cover the end peice. After struggling with a couple, I took 2 small screwdrivers and slid them up either side of the wire inside the cap/cup. It allowed me to spray silacone inside. I could move the drivers side to sdie to work the silacone in and then it made sliding the cap/cup back down a much easier.

Including a blurry pict. of the screwdrivers inside the cap.

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udoittwo

Posted 2016-07-02 4:34 PM (#515764 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: RE: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Posts: 1348
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Location: Valley Forge, Pa.

Put the H.E.I. dist. in today. I had power but no spark. Took a while and then I remembered to plug in the lower unit wires into the cap[DUH!]. By reading here, I know I am probably the ONLY person that has made such a simple mistake.

Although the new H.E.I dist. cap is really large, it fit, but I was not able to turn it without hitting something[coil mount base or bracket for accel cable, ect.] I had to move the position of #1 wire on the cap twice intil I was able to adjust the dist without interference BUT it did work.

I really wasn't expecting much of a change but it really did smooth out the acceleration and it seems to accelerate much faster?

ttotired

Posted 2016-07-02 8:26 PM (#515781 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Location: Perth Australia

I did wonder about the HEI dizzy, I used a China bosch copy on my dodge, mostly because 1, it was cheap $45.00US and the leads were not expensive either, but the other reason was the cap is the same size as the original one (uses an external coil)

Because my dodge is R/H drive, there is a throttle linkage running across the firewall that would stop a HEI from fitting (I think)

udoittwo

Posted 2016-07-03 8:02 AM (#515810 - in reply to #515781)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Posts: 1348
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Location: Valley Forge, Pa.

Yeah, this big H.E.I. is fairly tight and unless your linkage ran below or above the dist., my guess is that it would be in the way? Because my vac. advance was originally pointing towards the right so that is how I installed this one. It might have given me a little more room if I had it on the other side but didn't try that and more room if I would have removed the old coil.

I have an in-line kill switch mounted under the front seat so all I did was run a second wire from that switch to the new dist. The old wire/ballast resistor/coil are still intact at least for now so i can switch back to the old system in a few minutes if I need too.
I carry a spare fullly ready to go dist. and as long as my back-up is the old style the old set up will stay inplace.

There were no instructions with the dist. but it was rather simple. The one thing I will need to correct is the length of my wires. I bought a wire kit and SHOULD have made the wires the same length or just a little longer for a couple of them. Instead I sort of eyeballed it and most of them are way too long.

Only setting the timing by driving it a little and tweaking it, it is real close. I'm going on a 2 hrs highway drive today. Tweak it a little more and I will see how it does and I am interested if it will affect the fuel milage? I'm towing my boat 6 hrs to Canada in a few weeks. As was, when it was tuned well, I got almost 17 MPG and that is in the tall hills/small "mountains" of Pa.

Was the $45 as a kit with the coil or was that seperate? This dist. was $59 total. The wire kit was $34 and there is plenty of extra length for any motor.

ttotired

Posted 2016-07-03 6:06 PM (#515829 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Location: Perth Australia

I bought this one (or about the same) Karl

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ready-to-Run-Electronic-Distributor-Chrysle...

I want to buy a few more as well when I get around to it, but I think I could source them myself from China if I looked into it

Chumley

Posted 2016-07-30 4:57 PM (#517999 - in reply to #515829)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

Regular

Posts: 52

Location: Massachusetts

Say, will that E-bay distributor fit on my '58 Plymouth with a poly 318? That looks like a nice setup...

mstrug

Posted 2016-07-30 5:49 PM (#518003 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Location: Newark, Texas (Fort Worth)

Yes small block dizzys fit polys. I have one in my 57 sedan/pickup, Probably a 301.

ttotired

Posted 2016-07-30 6:29 PM (#518006 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Location: Perth Australia

Yep Chumley

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Richbo

Posted 2016-07-31 2:17 AM (#518039 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Location: 33844

I am running 2 of the e-dizzy from white performance , and both have developed vacuum-advance leaks !!! I asked if they would just send me a replacement vac-pot , but no - I had to send my dizzy back and they sent me a new one. They do have lifetime guarantee (as long as White Performance is in business !!)

Richbo

Posted 2016-07-31 2:22 AM (#518040 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

Veteran

Posts: 242
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Location: 33844

PS - I asked for the blue cap - is standard female connectors.

Old Ray

Posted 2016-07-31 9:58 AM (#518054 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: RE: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Posts: 507
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Location: Invermere B.C. Canada - Rocky Mountains

For what it is worth (not much) I have used HEI conversions in many vehicles and there is a weak point. The ignition control module being solid state is very sensitive to over heating, especially on hot soak after engine shut off and requires air flow during cool down. I have been left walking twice so a high quality spare is a good idea.

BigBlockMopar

Posted 2016-07-31 3:40 PM (#518074 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Location: Netherlands

Just mount the HEI module on a computer CPU copper cooling block, use some heat transfer paste in between and nothing will get hot.

Old Ray

Posted 2016-08-01 5:52 PM (#518149 - in reply to #518074)
Subject: Re: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

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Posts: 507
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Location: Invermere B.C. Canada - Rocky Mountains

BigBlockMopar - 2016-07-31 1:40 PM

Just mount the HEI module on a computer CPU copper cooling block, use some heat transfer paste in between and nothing will get hot.

Thanks for posting, I had not thought of that, and I was aware of the Ford TFI relocation change, although it seems kind of a inconvenience to have to redesign the original compact design, but that happens with high performance modifications. I will over-think it as usual and also install a cooling fan.

udoittwo

Posted 2016-08-06 6:04 PM (#518480 - in reply to #515063)
Subject: RE: well, I'm going the the H.E.I.

Expert

Posts: 1348
1000

Location: Valley Forge, Pa.

Everything ran nice on my long haul but I did find that my milage dropped off a LOT sence I installed this HEI. I was getting 15+ towing my boat and now it is at 13-.

I've always timed my cars by leaving the dist. a little loose and slightly turning it right or left until it seemd to run best and that has worked great. Now I find that with this HEI, turning it a lot either direction didn't seem to have any affect is how it ran.

Always wondered, how much is the timing affected by todays fuels and "lower" octanes? I believe my shop manual says a 1960 318/auto/2 BBL should be timed at 10 BTC?

Years ago, I timed my stock 1967 GTO to factory specs and it ran poorly and overheated. I manually tuned it and it performed so much better with no overheating but I was several degrees off the "correct" timing.

In other words, with todays fuels, will the timing always be what the 1960 book says?

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