Had an issue with truck starting. Turned out to be a bad connection.

While trouble shooting, pulled my distributor, for the first time.........:

WD40??????

Distrib gear

Sooooooo. Went with an HEI conversion. One wire, dropped in today. So far so good.

Question: Anyone have good / bad experience with HEI distributor?

 

Umm, was that distributor pulled from the titanic? I'm running the skip white HEI no issues so far.

I ran a summit branded one (same thing, resold as summit) for about 5 years in a mustang no problems.

 

 

Truck wants to live. Got impressive / disturbing pics of inside my valve cover and what worn suspension looks like as well.

Got mine from Amazon. Looks like same as Summit / Skip White. Good to know. Thanks

 

Why did you decide to put in an aftermarket GM distributor, rather than get a rebuilt Ford distributor that was made for your truck?

 

Bought my truck with the HEI already in it. I noticed while underhood one day that it wobbles a bit as the engine runs. Decided to buy another one to replace it. That was 2 years ago. Still haven't replaced it. Runs strong and starts instantly.

 

There is nothing wrong with an HEI, except for the size of it. It is a HUGE monstrosity of a distributor. At least on a GM vehicle it is hidden in the back.

But it doesn't do anything *better* than a stock Ford DuraSpark ignition system.

 

It is a very large unit, and some things it won't clear. The previous owner put a spacer under the carb, and put on a smaller air filter. And it barely clears the water neck. Haven't had any trouble with it, although I never had trouble with the duraspark units on my 5 previous Ford trucks. But as long as it's in there I will use the heck out of it.

 

On the 300, clearance little tight to the lifter cover. Distributor on side of engine so no concern with anything above. No need for spacer.

It's not actually a GM distributor. It may have been a concept originally employed by GM. It's a good idea. Full disclosure, my seats are the center split bench from a Denali, so I'll sit in high backed leather misery lamenting my decision to integrate stuff not made by Ford while I drive down the road with an HEI distributor. Maybe I should be sitting on an old rotten spring bench with a duraspark that wont fire but, call it a character flaw.

Every couple of years I end up checking / replacing coil / ignition / cap & rotor etc. This last time each part checked ok so I assume I have a wire issue somewhere. If the HEI can be expected to go at least 3 years great. I'll keep a spare in the tool box and can change the whole thing in about the same time as any single piece from original setup. Took a total of 30 minutes to drop in distributor, hook up a single 12V wire from ignition and fire up truck (20 of those were swapping plug wires and finding a proper size pin connector).

My only concern is how many of them are made from crap components vs good components. Looks like all I've seen are actually the same just sold by different people and nobody has a tragic experience yet.

 

Looks easier to troubleshoot and replace. No actual performance improvement on stock engine.

 

You could always use the HEI module to control/fire the Duraspark distributor. That gets you the smaller dizzy and gets the Duraspark box out of the way.

HEI dizzies are too prominent on Ford V8s, being up front, top and center, and all.

HEI systems are not immune from failure any more than Duraspark systems are.