Yea that would have been a as said he would have just needed to plug it in.
Even if the 302 did not come with a DSII dist he had to buy the HEI so why not a DSII dist.?
Dave ----

 

I'm of mixed opinion about these HEI conversions. I too, do not see any advantage to using the GM style distributor. Still, the OP had already obtained it and was asking for info on hooking it up. It's his choice and none of our business.

The HEI distributor is dirt simple and it works. Problem is, nobody realizes the power demand and the fact that Ford built ballast resistance into the engine bay wiring harness. Suddenly, that 1 wire hookup is not so simple. These things are very available and the Chevy mechanics are more than happy to crossbreed. That sounds as wrong as it probably is.

As a Ford enthusiast, I think HEI distributors, 1 wire alternators, electric fuel pumps on carburetors and EFI to carb conversions are all indicators of the decline of modern civilization. Nuff said, I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

I think the HEI has its place like on a 300 six to replace the feed back dist. unless the person can find or make the harness between the trucks main harness and the dist.
I said make as it is getting hard to find them in junk yards and the Painless is big bucks.
But in the OP the truck should of had the wiring needed to plug into the 302 DSII dist.

To tell you how much I am on the HEI side I had a 73 Toyota Land Cruiser with a 238 straight six.
The dist. used a vacuum retard on the dist. not good for power when racing off road.
The fix get a Chevy 250 six dist. and coil, they were not in the cap back then.
It was a drop in no other work needed and the motor ran great.
So yes HEI has its place.

Also for others that may read this they will now know if they do this same swap the 302 motor just needs a DSII dist and it will plug right in.
No rewiring and relays needed.
Dave ----

 

I have read about the power demand of the HEI and the need for relays and such. But in reality I have not seen a problem. On the 300 sixes with the Ford TFI system, they are powered by the white/lightblue wire that goes to the TFI coil. You just cut that wire and hook it to the HEI. It works. I do not think the GM HEI had that much more spark power than the Ford TFI. So not sure where the "power demand" of the HEI came from. I did one conversion where I used a duraspark II distributor, and that was hooked to a GM HEI module mounted on a heatsink on the fenderwell. Powered that too with the white/lightblue wire with no problems.

On a car or truck that was originally duraspark II, all you need to do is find the original red power wire to the DSII module, and use that for your HEI power. That does not have the resistor in it, like the white/lightblue on the TFI systems do not have the resistor.

 

The Chevy guys say about 2 to 3 amps for the module, but you also have to consider the ignition coil which will pull several amps when it is being charged. My experience and I've done a few says the voltage will drop to about 9V should you use the source with the resistor wire. Yes, it will run, but it's not good. I've wired them up with 14 gauge wire which does not seem to be a problem, but I would stay away from that coil wire. Maintaining a solid 12V is important.

Yes, I found you can trigger the GM module with the DS2 distributor. Same goes for Mopar if you feel inclined. You should see how triggered the Mopar guys get when you add a bit of GM hardware to their cars! Anyways, the GM module is a good and versatile design. As far as the complete HEI distributor goes, well it's kind of like carburetors, you can run anything on a Holley. The HEI is not without it's faults. GM took the module and the coil out of the distributor body in the last versions of the HEI system. As I understand, there were failures of these components, possibly heat related? I do know the HEI rotors would fail by arcing through from the center button to the distributor shaft. Makes for an interesting no start condition and I found they made a tremendous amount of radio noise when they failed. ( I was a 2 way radio tech in a past life.)

 

You are correct. The TFI coil wire which is white/lightblue is a solid 12 volt wire, no resistor. And it's already out in the engine compartment.