Technical Lost my spark

They're great, if you're not into traditional stuff from before the 70s.

 

^^^^
I agree about the era,
I would say 90% of vehicle on here are full of Post 64 parts, I could build a pre 64 & parts but I want to go fast & 1/2 way safe in 2,800 pd vehicle mid low 8s in1/4 less effort on engine combo & street reliability.

 

Some guys set their expectations back to 60 years ago, and do just fine with old technology. But most folks can't seem to do that, or don't want to do that.

 

i am just changed out a big ugly dist for a points dist because it did not look right on a 327 in a 39 ford street rod. Maybe i did the right thing.

 

If there ever was an engine part that ruins the vintage vibe like a big sore thumb, it's a GM HEI. They even look like a swollen up thumb.

 

I think the Dodge is just rejecting the GM parts in it. Judging from the picture, its probably just getting started at rejecting those parts.

GM put the HEI into the 1973 model year vehicles. I was in HS and worked at a gas station nights and weekends doing tune ups and brake jobs. We had a guy that carried the US Mail from the local hub to the small towns in our area. The guy bought a new truck every other year because his route covered nearly 200 miles, two times a day, Monday through Friday and once a day Saturday and Sunday. He put 150,000 miles on the truck every year. One day his new 1973 Chevy 1 ton with around 100,000 miles on it came in on the tow truck. Mind you this truck was only about 8 or 9 months old. Just quit running. My boss taught night auto classes at the local college, and the two other guy working as full time mechanics were pretty sharp too. The all new HEI had them stumped, no spark but they couldn't figure out why. A call was made to the local GM dealer, very soon it got GM corporate's attention. This truck was the first HEI failure. Because it was a contracted US Mail truck, a rental truck had to be arranged, and GM was footing the bill! We had a lot of GM people at that little gas station. Replacement parts pretty much did not exist at the time. We were about a week into the mess trying to determine what was wrong. All the tests showed the system should work, but it didn't. As a high school auto mechanics student, watching the entire process was an amazing thing to watch. By this time, it was pretty much GM people doing everything.

They were testing and swapping parts into the distributor, and it still didn't work. As I watched I asked if anyone tried to swap the rotor, I saw it removed a lot of times, but got reinstalled each time. It was probably the only thing they did not change. Of course, some HS student couldn't possibly understand such things as complicated as this system (at our HS auto shop we had a complete functioning, just installed in VW cars, Bosch EFI system that our instructor was teaching how it functioned, HEI was simple compared to that). A day later my boss demanded they change the rotor, so they finally did. The truck fired right up. From that point on, the first test in the GM procedure for a no fire GM HEI was change the rotor. The spark from the coil burns right through them to ground out on the top of the distributor shaft. If you flip the failed rotor over you can see the spot it arched through as a tiny black dot in an area turned brown right off the center point.

 

Heis are great, reliable, and ugly. The only issues I ever had were the cap and rotor, and module failure. My dad's 65 c10 will get one so he doesn't have to mess with it. Don't buy an accel or spectre recurve kit. For years they were a 15 dollar upgrade, not so common in junkyards anymore.

 

Wive’s tale.

 

I do not understand that a HotRod owner asks a question has a miner OT ear part then there is pointing ,Do not know OP back ground, I would think if not familiar with GM style hei more likely points neither, @ least he seem to be a
Hot Hodder not a S R Der
Not wanting to start issue nor confrontation,
90% of vehicles here are post 64 parts used excluding tires
Poco ,you used Street Rod, its a no no,
Jim ,I think you know what Im referring to, maybe not. If you can recall , I feel I done well on 255 Bridgestone's radials
6,000 rpm sbc aspirated, blown , with
2 barrels, mag ,Hei , no msd, have not tried with points thoe , all ways 6-6:40s
1/8 . My goal to shoot for 5:50 on same tire ,faster on drag slick But sure I will need some modern technology Half time DD & will need @ least 4 point jungle gym

 

Not a Wise tale, Just not appealing ,Big and bulky

 

They break down just like any device can. Sure the distributor is what they call maintenance free. But it does not mean you ignore maintaining cap, rotor, plugs and wires.

 

Before you get too carried away if you have just a female slide on the igniton wire rather than the proper wire end they can and will come just loose enough so you aren't getting good contact.
Before you start following what the bull shit artists say, This link is for the pages of a troubleshooting guide that Napa put out years ago and it works quite well for testing one. Photobucket | Album | Napa hei service info bulletin

While you are at it check the leads on the pickup coil, one of those leads tends to break over time due to it moving with the advance. I need to check one on my OT rig that is acting up on me.

 

Gm should never used that term
"Maintenance free" if so.

 

P. T. Barnum

 

See post #11

 

They were far from maintenance free but I have seen several that went over 50K without even a cap and rotor change.
Loosing the carbon (burned out) having a hole burned in the rotor, Having the pickup coil lead break, are issies. If the module blows it is usually caused by something in the distributor or high resistance in the secondary. Same with blowing coils, there is a reason they are blowing.

As I said in post 44 I had a hell of a time with mine quitting because I had a regular female slide on the power wire to the coil instead of the correct connector. That bugger would come just loose enough for it to quit and usually at 3:30 AM on the way to work in the rain.

 

I didn’t read the full thread but...I posted a thread here other day about Christmas music in my shop and posted a pic of the Beach Boys album cover with a ‘32 and it got deleted in a nano second! Now I’m reading about HEI that I’m pretty sure wasn’t around in ‘65 or earlier...?

 

This was when they bumped up the spark plug gap to 0.060" or something like that, right?
Mid 70s was when the exhaust emissions started being regulated. The electronic ignitions were a help, as a big, strong spark increases the chance of actually lighting the fuel-air mix, any time that fails you get a huge amount of hydrocarbons going out the exhaust.
The electronics and beefier ignition coils provided the extra spark energy, and to actually get a big, hot spark the spark plug gap was increased. The upside is more spark able to light the fuel, the downside is that the spark voltage goes up too, and higher voltages can jump further and break through insulation easier.
The bigger diameter of the HEI cap is to move the eight posts further from each other, to reduce the risk of the spark jumping to the wrong post, going to the wrong cylinder (as that cylinder is not under compression less voltage will be required there). Aaaaanyway. Ridiculously large plug gaps = ridiculous voltage = may punch through the insulation in the rotor far easier than the voltages that were common with small spark gaps common for points ignitions, or break through the insulation in other places. On top of that spark plugs wear over time and the gaps goes even larger.
As far as I know they came to their senses and reduced plug gaps later. Gives a lower voltage spark, but instead it lasts a longer time.

 

I had one issue with a GM HEI. I bought the car with 40k on it, drove it until around 130k when I sold it. Only “issue” was it didn’t start once, well didn’t want to start, with erratic spark.
Knowing nothing about HEI, I started taking the coil off to get a new one to try. One of the little wire had worn through, was mostly grounding out.
Pulled the coil out, black taped it up and off it went.
I’m sure I changed the cap and rotor while owning it during the 90k or so I had it. Changed the plugs a few times too. I bought the car from a friend who bought it when it was a year old. I know he never touched a thing.
Maybe GM was making better stuff in ‘78? I dunno.
To be honest, years back I sure wanted to put one in my truck, but would have had to knock the firewall back a bit for the clearance.
Yes they are not pretty, but work very well for a very long time.
If you are not building an engine compartment to please others, then just keep the hood closed.
Also, I think the “maintenance free” thing is compared to points. Other than setting the timing from chain wear over time, for the most part you’re not changing/cleaning and adjusting anything.

 

Lost my spark along time ago, thank god for the blue pills.

 

I recall years back about the ads. After 4 hours call a doctor. I always thought, Doctor is the last person I’d be calling.
So glad I’m poor and sleep with my dog now

 

Two words, vacuum pump.

 

If they started a thread called the thread of Explanations and Understanding, I hope this finds it way there.

With some distraction, my money is on the module.

 

^^^ above is later small cap module,

 

Okay, if you say so

 

Not dialectic grease , but thermal paste



the electrician’s version of Anti-seize !!! One drop and next thing you know everything is covered in this crap !!

 

Especially when installed on a Ford or any non GM engine! If you do that you're a certified hack.

 

I'm in the line of how ugly they are. They're like yoga pants on an oversized hail damaged ass.


Sorry for the visual, or not...