Technical whats the best hei aftermarket distributor?

best hei for sbc???

 

Do you really mean the best distributor? Or the best of the bad distributors? 8^)

 

The one not seen....

 

The OE is hard to beat for a daily, I’d prefer them over a chineesium one.
Ive had 5 trouble free years out of a MSD ready to run

 

The one with the points in it....

 

The one you don't buy

 

GM factory replacement.

 

I bought one of these for the sbc in my '51 Merc and am in love with it, and every part is MADE IN AMERICA!!!


Progression Ignition - Ignition Distributor, Ignition Timing

 

I've built several cars with the OEM GM version and had no problems.

 

15 years ago, I bought an Accel ready to run HEI for my El Camino. Then, it and the engine got put into my old Suburban. Now, the engine and distributor are installed in Little Truckdoctor’s C-10. I would guess that distributor has 30,000 miles on it now. It’s been trouble free, but I would be afraid the same distributor today is made off shore.

 

The aftermarket point distributors made today aren't very good either...friend put a new one in his OT ford about a year ago. A couple days ago he asked for help figuring out why it was running bad....we tried a different condenser, that fixed it. That's the only "electronic" part in a point distributor, and it failed early. Good luck...

 

I've had the best run from swap meet GM HEI's
For racing ........I lock out the vacuum advance and fit an MSD Module a decent coil and plug leads.

 

Do not buy the Chinese $69 special, I made this mistake one time, POS IMO, find a good stock GM HEI, not one with 100 K+ miles on it, all kinds of rebuild kits available with higher output coils etc. I've used Accel, no problems, MSD very popular, had some Mallory products, junk IMO, pertronixs is popular. Good Luck

 

Being a Mopar owner... Have always used the factory stuff....My early hemi uses a smallblock distributer with 6AL MSD box....

 

There's a reason that the distributors from the Shanghai speed shop only cost $59.00.

 

general use around town--OEM Delco
Power, drags, hard street--MSD ready to run

 

In the 1969 era, the Mallory dual point cost something like $29.95 and had decent balance so you could throw it a long ways when it crapped out... which it usually did. For a points distributor, the GM window cap was a good piece, it went to 7000+ in my 70 Z28 several times. HEI stuff (stock GM) is pretty darned good if you can clear the fat cap diameter. MSD good too.

 

I've read good things about DUI

 

bodyman may be looking for aftermarket advice due to size constraints. Some installations can’t use the large diameter. If it is he should say this up front.

 

A customer bought a DUI HEI for his 66 El Camino project when I rewired it and they tuned the weights and advance to his car and weight ,gear,tire size specs as close they could. The car ran great and definitely had a little bit more pickup as I set it to the same degree of advance as the old distributor just so I had a Baseline.

 

Had a Mallory Unilite on my last car and it was trouble free. But I'd heard stories of various failures and a friend told me to pair it with a MSD6AL box and the MSD would protect the Unilite from spikes that could damage them. So that might be why my Mallory never gave me issues.
Have a stock points distributor with Pertronix kit, and MSD6AL in one car, and the other has a stock points distributor still with points, and an MSD6AL. The MSD6AL allows me to delete the ballast resistor, and keeps the points lasting almost forever. I think that's the best of both worlds.

 

I have MSD distributers in my flathead roadster, my hemi PU, my 442 and even my VW dune buggy. No issues on any of them. I am glad they offer black caps. BTW, anyone need a few red caps? Brand new.

 

The guys that have failures with GM hei distributors must really be screwing something up. I have worn a few completely out with hundreds of thousands of miles. In all that time only had one module fail at 200,000 miles. When I worked for Buick we rarely had hei problems. Maybe a failed coil every now and then or wire broken from the pick up coil. Points however were a pain in the ass. Failed condensers, bad coils, worn ramps for the points, bad points and cars not starting in cold weather. Way more cars came back on a hook because of points then ever the cars with hei. If a hei goes out your doing something wrong like a bad ground. Modules do fail but rarely.

 

Right. I bought a Chevy pickup with 100,000 miles on it and put another 155,000 on it myself. Put a spare module for the H.E.I. in the glovebox for insurance, and never had to use it.

 

Years ago my dad had a big Olds with a 455 and a stock GM HEI distributor. He and my mom drove it from SoCal to the east coast and back. They stopped in Pasadena for dinner before driving the last 60 miles home. When they got home my dad parked in front of the house to unload the car and then drove it into the garage. The next morning it wouldn't start. I went over and put in the spare rotor I carried for my '78 GMC p/u. The Olds fired right up. Never understood how a rotor could just quit like that but I had the same issue on my p/u which is why I carried a spare rotor.

 

PERFORMANCE DISTRIBUTORS DUI.big fat sparks.had it for years

 

The OEM GM distributors are the only ones that are good.

 

Bodyman, would I be correct in assuming the SBC points distributor is a Delco?
If so it can probably be modified with the GM magnetic pickup inside and the module mounted externally. I did on my Buick. Some years back a member here shared that his is mounted inside. Under the dash.
WAY cheaper than anything new that is any good.

Ben

 

Yep, HEI from GM. I even retrofitted an HEI module on an old Honda 110 ATC three wheeler using the original Honda magnetic pickup.

 

Not many know that the distributer point cams in those Z28 distributers were specially ground with a high RPM profile to help eliminate point float without using super heavy point springs.