converting to hei...87'

[TireSmoke420]

so i got a newsed engien from my local junk yard been told its from a 90' anyways has center bolt valve covers and all its sposed to but the guy bfore me put a 2 barrel intake and carb on it with a HEI distributer. now ive been led to believe that the coil in cap heis are better then what came in my 87'. now after i put my old throttle boddie intake on i put the hei dist in but the vac. advance on it gets in the way of EGR and water line on the manifold. what am i doing wrong here i am putting dist. in the same ways it came out and all i dunno what should i do

[Blackstone]

Your '87 should have already been equipped with a "coil in cap" HEI unit. As far as I know, there hadn't been any significant design changes in these distributors since the 70's. That being said, I guess I'd use the old one if the fit is better.

[Jim85IROC]

I've used both style HEIs and never found one to be any better than the other. I converted my IROC to a small-cap distributer with no problems whatsoever. But, there's no reason not to use the large-cap style if that's your preference either. Just make sure that you use the appropriate gear for the distributer. Whether your new motor has a roller cam or not will determine whether you use a bronze gear or a regular steel one.

[Srubydo1986]

id say use the one that stock from your truck it should be like the one from my 89 that had tbi. using it and your stock intake is it was before wont hart the engine unless like jim said it had a rollers or not ur engine the factory one was not the 90 i dont know, it might have been a vortec engine and i think those did have rollers.