HEI vs Stock Distributor

[Super-Dave]

It's time to get a distributor for this truck. Don't really want to use a control box if I don't have to, as Im not using fender wells. Can I run a HEI with out the box? Or is a stock distributor with a Pertronix Ignitor 2 enough? The engine is a 350 30over with performance cam. Im thinking about spending around $300 to $400.

[Boog]

Dave you won't need any box with the HEI dist. Just a 12volt power supply and it's ready. You can pickup a stock one at most salvage yards for a few bucks or buy one on the bay easily enough. Many of us have bought new ones from Skip White listings for around $50. I bought one with 65,000 volt coil a while back.

[Rack Man]

Go with the pertronix....Ignitor II....simple & cheap upgrade and works awesome !

[bigbadchev72]

I agree with the skip white hei, just a 12v wire to it and its happy, you will need new plug wires as well. Forget the points crap, hei is super simple and a great upgrade

[Longhorn Man]

the thing I like about an HEI over an under cap converson, the HEI parts can be had in any town in america if something in there craps out.
They are also cheaper than an under cap converson

[leddzepp]

HEI all the way

[Rack Man]

HEI for sure is the better of the two unless you want more of an original look...then its an under cap conversion or maybe even Dave's small bodied HEI's...where he uses all standard HEI parts and then mounts them in your stock dizzy....

One plus to the under cap conversions is that you can carry an $8.00 set of points and condensor in the glovebox to get you home in an emergency!...

[ChevLoRay]

HEI and no regrets. Mine is from ACCEL and has their super coil. Still one wire to hook it up and go.

[mclairmo]

I have a Pertronix in my 396 Camaro and it works fine. It's good to use if you want/need the small cap and your distributor is in very good shape. I also have the Skip White HEI for my truck and I think it is better, assuming it will fit in your application.

[dwcsr]

The advantages of HEI over Stock are that you can open up you spark gap to get better idle and performance.

The reliability is better and you nolonger have to worry about he dwell changing every 3k miles.

[Daves72'GMC]

I got an origional rebuilt GM dist. from Napa . Was about $125 probably more now.but works great

[BCOWANWHEELS]

Just put a rebuilt factory gm hei in it. You can put a msd coil in it if your pickey but stock will be super. No need to spend so much $$$$

[Deenice21]

+ 1 for skip white bets bang for bunk imho

[don t. - 72gmc]

I am another happy customer of Skip White's HEI dizzys.
IIRC, the dizzy was $45.00 plus plug wires. Run a 12v wire, gap your plugs to .045 and your done. Shoulda done it sooner.
Have fun.....don t. ....

[texanidiot25]

HEI all day. Cheaper, far more reliable, and resistant to a lot of water. Trust me. Plus, if you ever have to open your hood when it's wet, you'll thank me too.

Jalopnik just did a humorous article about points:

Points Ignition Lovers: Are They Misinformed... or Minions Of Satan?


There's a sequence in the 1991 movie Slacker in which a couple of Texas gearheads score a GM electronic-ignition distributor in the junkyard.

At the time, HEI distributors were pretty rare in the self-service yards; inventory in high-turnover wrecking yards tends to be comprised mostly of cars in the 15- to 20-year-old age range, so the mid-70s machines with electronic ignitions were still uncommon. I had just put an HEI in my Chevy's 350 when I saw Slacker for the first, so I was still bathed in the warm glow that comes with the knowledge that I would never have to deal with ignition points again. These days, vehicles from the 1985-1995 period make up a good 75% of junked cars (you see a distressing number of 21st-century GM and Ford vehicles as well, I'm sorry to report), which means that most engines from the modern era have some sort of bolt-in electronic-ignition option available. Chrysler small-blocks, Toyota Rs, whatever, you've probably got a cheap junkyard ignition option available, and you can get aftermarket electronic conversion kits for damn near everything else. In spite of that, you'll still find plenty of otherwise sane individuals who not only think points are better, they believe that points are morally superior.

For those of you too young to remember when points ignitions ruled the roads, just imagine broken-down cars with their hoods up every few hundred yards on the highway. Imagine parking lots echoing with the sound of engines farting, sputtering, and ultimately failing to start, and the associated screamfests among the stressed-out victims. Imagine getting 4 MPG a few thousand miles after your last tuneup; in fact, imagine having to do tuneups every few months. For all these nightmares and more, what was the culprit damn near every time? Ignition points!
We're talking about a simple little device here, basically just a spring-loaded switch inside the distributor that opens and closes to fire the spark plugs, via a little cam on the distributor shaft. It's a low-grade pain in the ass to get a new set adjusted right, involving feeler gauges and a bit of back pain, but anyone can learn how to install and adjust ignition points… and therein lies the deadly allure of the cursed things: when a car with a points ignition system is running like crap, most of the time you know right where to look for the problem, and you can fix it for cheap with a couple of hand tools and 15 minutes. You are a hero! A problem solver!

Meanwhile, electronic ignitions, which generally operate on a magnetic-sensor principle, just keep working forever (yeah, yeah, all you points lovers have harrowing tales of electronic ignitions that failed, and such stories always end up with the victims being dismembered and eaten by Sendoro Luminoso guerillas in Philadelphia, their final cries for mercy mixed with self-recriminations over their foolish spurning of good ol' ignition points in favor of them newfangledy eee-lectronic whatsits).

Basically, the logic of the points lovers boils down to this: electronic ignition systems are mysterious black boxes, fit only for the foolish and the weak, while a real man can always coax some more life out of garbooned points. Not only that, mechanical points are invulnerable to the the EMP from an airburst nuclear weapon. What if the North Koreans start raining Taepodong-2s down on your subdivision, and you've gathered up the family into the Econoline (along with a crate of SKS rifles, a sack of Krugerrands, and some not-very-expired MREs)? Do you want to trust the lives of your family to a black box? Actually, chances are good that your ignition coil will be fried by the EMP anyway, but you'll have a spare stashed in a Faraday-shielded box buried in the back yard… right?

For those of you driving vehicles made in the last decade or so (or much earlier, if you've got a high-end German or Japanese car), this is all moot; you've got some flavor of crank-sensor-triggered ignition and don't even have a points option, and thus the Trilateral Commission will simply haul you off to a labor camp in the Utah desert when The Clampdown happens. For those of us that do our shopping in the junkyard, a choice must be made!

http://jalopnik.com/5343502/points-i...nions-of-satan

[hayhauler71]

I use a HEI with a msd ignition module with adjustable rev limiter and have no problems at 6500 rpm. Most gm modules start to cut out at 4800 rpms.

[Longhorn Man]

tex idiot... THAT ny friend, was funny!

[Bert W]

Not trying to steal Super-Dave's post here, but you guys talked me into buying one of skip's HEI's. Great price and fast shipping. It looks great on the front of the box. I haven't opened it yet, so I don't know if there are any instructions or not. What are most of you using for the power wire? Is it hot all of the time or with the ignition? I'm weak in some aspects of automotive wiring, this being one of them.

Sorry again Dave, I just thought while we were on the subject...

[mclairmo]

I keep a set of points ready to go just in case EMP takes out my Petronix. I have MREs, too. I think I'm all set now.

[texanidiot25]

It's ignition only. Plug the ignition wire into the forward facing tab on the side of the Dizzy. Think it's labed for ignition. The other lead (firewall side) is for a tach, or if you want a nice ignition cut-off or kill switch, run the tach lead to ground threw a switch.

[BCOWANWHEELS]

I,ve run points for almost 40 yrs and they have never let me down. I change them every 6-10 k miles. But gm's hei is nice and is not infalable. I carry a module and coil always. And as for points i carry a set of them too. Better to have and not need as opposed to need and not have......
Jmo
bob

[mclairmo]

Originally Posted by BCOWANWHEELS

I,ve run points for almost 40 yrs and they have never let me down. I change them every 6-10 k miles. But gm's hei is nice and is not infalable. I carry a module and coil always. And as for points i carry a set of them too. Better to have and not need as opposed to need and not have......
Jmo
bob

Yeah, my 71 Mustang had points and I ran that thing for 2 years through highschool with no problems. You just have to use good high quality points. My buddy had points in his 66 Mustang but was running a full 12 volts to it (no resistor) and he burnt them up every few weeks until he added a ballast resistor to the ignition wire.

[mclairmo]

Originally Posted by texanidiot25

It's ignition only. Plug the ignition wire into the forward facing tab on the side of the Dizzy. Think it's labed for ignition. The other lead (firewall side) is for a tach, or if you want a nice ignition cut-off or kill switch, run the tach lead to ground threw a switch.

Don't you have to be sure that the ignition wire going to the HEI is 12 volts with NO resistor?

[texanidiot25]

Originally Posted by mclairmo

Don't you have to be sure that the ignition wire going to the HEI is 12 volts with NO resistor?

That's how mine is set up, and with thicker gauge wire as well (can't recall what size though)

[capev86]

as one of the many little things to get my 72 burb running better than when i took delivery, i got a petronix kit for the 307. i have an HEI setup on my 406sbc that will go in eventually, but i didn't want to buy a whole extra distributor and lose that stock look in the short run when the points are the only bad "point" to the stock unit. an electronic ignition conversion is the same route i took on my 72 cb350 and i haven't had any problems with it since i installed it a few years ago. i had to change/adjust the points several times and frankly it is junk, regardless of what some people say. it served its purpose when technology could not come up with something better, but that end came 30 years ago. points are a consumable part.....why not a bolt in upgrade that has no bearing on the styling and can be converted back to stock......something that irons out the little annoyances and allows you to appreciate the beauty of the vehicle. disc brake kits, poly bushings and roller rockers are other upgrades i like to do, even on mostly stock vehicle. E.I. usually lasts at least 100,000 miles, rarely needs tuneups (just plugs, wires, cap, etc every few years as you would do anyway) and does not lose precision at higher rpms....exactly why i spent $350 on a custom race/street kit for my honda 350. i kept the almost new points set as backup but this is a quality unit that works awesome. also, i will be driving my suburban fairly regularly and towing with it, so i want every last bit of precision i can get. a petronix kit is a really stealthy upgrade and available for many different cars....and its easy to change it back to stock for judging....if you have stupid judges. if you put new points in....they are no longer the original points. realistically, americans have more to worry about than their cars in the event of an EM pulse attack....more like take cover 'cause here comes WWIII!

oh yeah....my dad put HEI on his 72 burb back in the early 80's, shortly after buying it. goes to show you how quickly people caught on to the many advantages. i recently replaced the external (alternator) regulator on my burb and the new unit is electronic instead of mechanical........lower profile and completely enclosed for better protection. there have been evolutionary changes like distributor-less ignition, but the basic principles of electronic ignition don't need improvement and are for most purposes superior to points.