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Old 07-27-2021, 11:16 AM
dreamta1972 dreamta1972 is offline
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Smile HEI

Looking for the most seamless transition from points distributor to electronic ignition on a '68 LeMans. It's a street car not HP.

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Old 07-27-2021, 02:00 PM
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HEI is probably the simplest, most reliable. Get a unit from a 74-up Pontiac V8 and drop it in. You will need to bypass the resistor wire in the coil harness for proper operation. Plenty of info on that in this forum or in MADelectric.com. To tweak performance you may want to adjust the advance curve, but should not be necessary.

George

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Old 07-27-2021, 02:32 PM
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May need to rewire a tach.

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Old 07-27-2021, 02:36 PM
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FWIW.
My 68 Rally cluster tach works with HEI, no issues.

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Old 07-27-2021, 03:05 PM
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Most seamless for me, is splicing IGN-1 and IGN-2 together on the back of the ignition switch. Then replace the factory coil (+) terminal with a 1/4" female spade terminal.

Plug the 1/4" female spade to the BAT terminal on the HEI cap.

done deal
Clay

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Old 07-27-2021, 03:45 PM
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No need to cut into original harness.
Just disconnect the black single pink wire at points ignition coil + and use it to control a regular single relay for HEI voltage supply.

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Old 08-12-2021, 05:46 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by george kujanski View Post
HEI is probably the simplest, most reliable. Get a unit from a 74-up Pontiac V8 and drop it in. You will need to bypass the resistor wire in the coil harness for proper operation. Plenty of info on that in this forum or in MADelectric.com. To tweak performance you may want to adjust the advance curve, but should not be necessary.

George
This answers my question too but these days with no supply of these in my local junk yards - using Ebay is Olds and Buick also the same (same rotation?) and 74 and up - what is the max year before they went computerized? 79? Thanks!

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Old 08-12-2021, 07:42 PM
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One more question - are these cheap $50 HEI's on Ebay any good? They range new from 108 down to 48.. Interesting...

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Old 08-12-2021, 11:19 PM
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I bought one of those, I forgot where i bought it, a place called White something probably 15 years ago to temporarily use while I got the original from the car rebuilt.

it's still on the car and working, I probably don't put on more than a few hundred miles a year, but it's still working. I read the lubrication of the upper bushing is sub par on these, otherwise the quality looked ok.

george

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Old 08-13-2021, 04:04 AM
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I use the cheap [ $100 ] Chinese HEIs here all the time. Never had a problem. They are well made, the weights etc are chromed against rust & they are lubricated.

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Old 08-13-2021, 01:18 PM
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It's anecdotal, but I have heard of the cheapo HEIs failing. I spent the big bucks and got a Davis Unified Ignition HEI from Performance Distributors to hopefully avoid issues. Nothing is infallible, though.

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Old 08-13-2021, 01:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam View Post
I spent the big bucks and got a Davis Unified Ignition HEI from Performance Distributors to hopefully avoid issues. Nothing is infallible, though.
Same here.

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Old 08-14-2021, 04:44 AM
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Aaaaaaaah yes.

Davis Unified Ign.

I have one of their catalogs. In more than one place it talks about the 'explosion' of the A/F mixture........

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Old 08-14-2021, 12:19 PM
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^^^ this does make you wonder........

george

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Old 08-14-2021, 01:00 PM
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If they're good enough for Rocky Rotella, they're good enough for me.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/dui-ignition-need/

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Old 08-15-2021, 04:32 AM
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My comments about DUI in post #13.
Below are excerpts from their 2001 catalog.
You be the judge.....

[1] Page 3 has a dyno comparison using a 350 Chev RHS engine. Two dist were used, a "blueprinted" Accel dist [ quotation marks in original ] & a street/strip perf DUI HEI dist.
At 2500 rpm, the DUI made 61 ftlbs & 29 hp more than the Accel. Not misprints!! Tested at 500 rpm increments, the DUI made more tq & HP at each level.. The 'worst' was a paltry increase at 5000 rpm of 30 ft/lbs & 29 hp.

[2] Pages 10 & 11. Same words used on each page. '....a whopping 0.055" spark plug gap, providing a more powerful explosion of the fuel mixture.'

[3] Page 24. 'This will provide you with an extra powerful explosion on each piston stroke,'

Sorry, I have to leave now, fairies at the bottom of the garden are beckoning....

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Old 08-15-2021, 12:25 PM
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Help me understand here, are you taking issue with the choice of words in a 20 year old catalogue rather than the measured effectiveness and reputation of the product?

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Old 08-15-2021, 03:42 PM
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It indicates a lack of knowledge in the subject if one describes the ignition of the air / fuel mixture in an internal combustion engine as an explosion.

And, any new ignition system that replaces a poorly maintained one works better, at least for a while.

JMHO

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Old 08-15-2021, 03:59 PM
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All it indicates is that someone didn't use the best choice of words in a catalogue 20 years ago. Regardless of whether they used the word "explosion" or "combustion", a 47 year reputation of quality and endorsement by Rocky Rotella are what you should be paying attention to. If you want to quibble over word choice rather than the actual product quality and performance found in the real world, perhaps we should look into the copy included with the Chinesium distributors recommended by Geoff.

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  #20  
Old 08-16-2021, 04:25 AM
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German,
What I am saying is I have serious doubts about claims made by an ign company......that doesn't even understand the basic theory of how combustion works. The age of the catalog is immaterial, it is still a 'modern' age catalog, ie printed at a time when combustion was known and understood. There is no excuse.

And if you want to believe that 'their' [ DUI ] dist increased torque 61 ft/lbs, from 283 to 344 ft/lbs, go right ahead!!! The 'test' was against an Accel dist, same type, HEI. Accel is a respected name in ign.
The only genuine conclusion you could reach from these ridiculous numbers is that [a] the test was rigged or [b] there was a problem with the Accel dist.
I have great respect for R. Rotella, but so what if he endorses DUI? Doesn't change the above.
I see some of their HEI dist are over $300 at Summit. That would cost me $400 at the current exchange rate [ + shipping ]. I don't see that a DUI HEI would do one thing better than the Chinese HEIs I can buy here for $100. And I have used heaps of them, plus they come with adj vac adv. They also come with a heat treated steel gear, compatible with steel roller cams. Pretty good value.

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