!972 455 Unitized to HEI Conversion Question
 

Really appreciate this forum. Really, really appreciate those members on here who take time to share their expertise with the out-of-practice less experienced members such as myself. I recently converted from a unitized distributor to a modern HEI coil-in-cap unit. Huge improvement in cold start cranking time - fires now at the touch of the key instead of cranking 5 - 10 seconds. And, it completely eliminated the intermittent high speed miss. Unitized to HEI is plug-and-play as the factory wiring to the distributor is 12v. I was watching a popular You-Tube series do an HEI conversion, albeit from a points and condenser distributor. He obviously had to bypass the resistor, but his point was that the switched 12V wire feeding current to the HEI unit needed to be upgraded to 12-14 gauge. He suggested using the factory 18 gauge wire to feed a relay which was wired in from a battery source and then through the relay to the HEI unit. On the Unitized distributor the original wire is 18 gauge. As stated, it works just fine, but don't want to set myself up for disappointment if the 18 gauge wire should prove not to be up to the task of multiple hours at highway speed. So, if you're still with me on this...is the way it's wired and working now good for long term or does it, in fact, need a relay to increase the gauge of the wire feeding the HEI? Thanks for any advice!

My 72 SJ GP was also converted from Untiized to HEI. Came to me that way. Is directly wired like yours. I have never had a problem but interested in what others have to say.