Hi guys, I have a belly button... I mean sbc that I want to fire up, and see how it runs. It happens to have an HEI distributor on it. What is the bare minimum wiring I need to fire it up? I would prefer to just grab a battery, and run ten feet of wire, with a button for starting it or something, than to get a whole wiring harness, 90% of which I won't need for this test run. Thanks in advance, Ben
Wire up an ignition swich to your 10 ft of wire and run it from the switch to the hei and the starter. Id at least have an oil gage hooked up for a test fire.
Right on. All you need is the starter and the distributor, but remember the starter is momentary, leave it hot and you'll cook it. Just give the distributor 12v and hit the starter with a screwdriver until it fires. Like kk1951 said make sure it's got oil pressure, or at least spin the pump before you fire it to pre-lube it.
Ah shit.. go to the local cheap store and get a real ignition switch.. Thats what i did . I have an electric pump too. a couple wires and your good to go.. If you have enuff shit just throw a regualr air gauge in the oil pressure port on top rear and thats enuff to get your pressure reading. 1/8 pipe nipple and coupling with a gauge screwed into the coupling and your good to go.. My roadster is set up that way and ive driven it down the street and back Dave
minimum wiring is a piece of wire with a 1/4" spade female terminal on one end. Stick the other end between the positive battery post and the battery cable terminal. Plug the custom end of the wire into the BAT terminal on the hei, and touch a screwdriver between the battery cable terminal and S terminal on the starter. not much to it....we did this all the time at the junkyard 25-30 years ago.
Thanks guys, I think I've got it. Just so I don't destroy my motor, as I understand it, I run a ground lead from the battery negative to the block. Then from the battery positive to the BATT terminal on the distributor, and another from the battery positive to the Battery terminal (is it marked?) on the starter. Once this is done, just use a screwdriver to jump from the battery terminal on the starter across to the S terminal (I assume 'S' signifies 'Start'?) on the starter. Is that correct, or did I screw something up? Thanks again! Ben
....not to hijack this thread, but along these same lines; ...would it hurt to run an engine (that's just wired up to start/run) every once in awhile for 2-3 minutes at a time without a radiator hooked up with only whatever water/anti-freeze is left in the block? In other words, the engine never gets up to operating temp. Does anyone see a problem doing this?
Ben-- that's right, and the starter has a big 3/8" stud/nut that the battery cable connects to, it should be pretty easy to see how it works. rusty1-- you can run an engine for a few minutes without coolant in it, just long enough for the heads to reach operating temperature. It takes a little while for the iron to heat up to 200 degrees. Be careful though.
Thanks for the help guys! It's tough remembering what terminals are what on the starter, not having looked closely at one for a year... And I've never tried bypassing the wiring harness and going straight to the distributor. Hopefully I'll have some video of it firing on my website this weekend. Ben
Good luck Ben, I hope I'm nnt far behind firing up the 400 in the 29 hopefully by the end of the month...
Make shure that you use a junk screwdriver or it will be once you are done. I use that old 9/16 laying in the toolbox.
Not a whole lot of difference Kurt except you prolly need a resistor between the battery and the coil. Make sure the wire from the coil to the dizzy is the same polarity as the battery ground. (If you wire the battery + to ground, as original, wire the + from the coil to the dizzy) If you use the stock fuel pump a can of gas on the floor with a hose to the pump should do it.
Wouldn't be a bad idea to hook up a dropping resistor to the coil if it doesn't have one internally. I just blew one up when I fired up my flathead because I had the coil hot wired right to the battery with a full 12V on it and forgot about it for a while...
Ok, I'm getting everything put together tonight, and was hoping to fire the truck up for the first time... YEAH!! However, I can't find a "Batt" terminal on the HEI, as described above. I did find a "B" and a "C" marking as shown in the photo, but I'm hesitant to just hook it up. I don't want to wreck it! I labelled the three wires coming out Blue, Black and Red so it's easier to explain what I need to do... do I just trace the wire that goes to the "B" terminal, and hook that directly to the battery positive? Thanks guys! Ben
It's NOT a good idea to spin/run the water pump w/o any coolant in the system to act as a lubricant for the seal....unless you plan on replacing the water pump anyways.
The 3 wires coming out of the distributor you have pictured plug into the distributor cap, right where those wires plug into the cap there is a seperate terminal marked BAT. Run the wire from your battery to the BAT terminal on the distributor cap. That is if you have an HEI with a cap mounted coil. Billy
Wow, after I posted this, I went back into the garage and once I popped the distributor cap on, it all made sense(Batt marking is on the distributor CAP!). I wasn't able to get it fired, something is wrong with my starter, but I have it all ready to go! Thanks guys! Ben
Well, I got it fired up!! Thanks for the help guys! Here's a video of the "event": http://www.henrysrodshop.com/hrs/?p=683 Ben
Hey, thanks Tom! I try to keep it updated from time to time, and I really need to redesign some of it, but it's fun to have a record of what I've done on the truck. (And other projects) Ben
thanks for inspiring me to get off my ass and get to work in the garage on my 48 f-1. i saw you were all bundled up and could see your breath on the video and thought bet he's in mn. i have been itching to work on it lately and just been lazy cuz i get cold. im in le center mn. are you close to the drag strip over there? thats a fun place!
I got one of those,so where does it fit in the scheme of things,what else is needed or not?drawing [/quote]
Yeah, it wasn't too bad this weekend... it was about 40 degrees in the garage. But the weekend before it was -17 degrees when I was working on my motor mounts... ish. At least there isn't a wind chill in the garage! I got one of those started buttons too... it worked slick, and didn't spark (unlike the screwdriver trick which would work fine... but the remote will come in handy). I hooked one lead to the "S" terminal on the solenoid, and the other to the big positive post on the starter, then I had my 12 volts for cranking the motor over. Here, I'll summarize what I did to fire my HEI sbc: 1. get the engine ready... get the distributor installed, connect the wiring correctly (this was my problem ), plugs, plug wires, carb, starter, etc. 2. grab a battery 3. hook a negative(ground) cable from the negative on the battery to one of the transmission bolts. Be sure to wire brush the trans housing good for good contact. 4. hook a positive cable from the positive battery terminal to the big terminal on the start solenoid. 5. hook up your remote starter. One lead on the positive (big) terminal on the starter, the other on the small "S" terminal. 6. run a wire from the positive battery terminal to the "Batt" connector on the distributor CAP (I was looking for it on the three wires coming out of the distributor body). Make sure you have the three wire plug from the distributor body plugged into the distributor cap correctly. 7. spray some starting fluid or a turkey baster of gas into the carb, and hit the remote starter button!! 8. Enjoy the fumes, and hope that you run out of gas before the fire spreads... Hope that helps! Ben
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