HEI style distributor in '80 5.0
 

Does anyone have any experience with replacing the Duraspark system in their truck with one of these after market All-In-One distributors that contain the control module, coil, and distributor in one? It's an HEI-style, like what that other truck company pioneered, but if its easier and an improvement then I'm all in.

Guess this comes in waves. Just 1 short day ago.........

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-on-302-a.html

It's not "like what that other truck company pioneered." It is what Chevy made. It's GM parts on a custom-made base and shaft that adapts the GM parts to a Ford (or Toyota, or Jeep, or whatever) engine.

The GM parts are as good on a Ford engine as they are on a GM engine. The custom adapter parts as as good as the company that made them. I heard good things about DUI so I went with that. In the other thread there seems to be some different experience with another brand.

Is GMs HEI an upgrade from Duraspark? Not that I know. I liked that it was simple to add to an engine that didn't have electronic ignition to start with. Not sure I'd have gone from a good factory system from Ford to a good factory system from GM with weird custom parts.

And the HEI distributor is big and looks like a GM distributor. I'm no purist, so it doesn't bother me much, but it does look a little out of place.

Great information guys. Thanks for the link to the HEI page from the other day. I think I'm going to go with the HEI dist. I'm gonna have to replace mine anyway (seized) and my coil (gone) and my module (1980 original)... by the time I do that I've replaced the whole system anyway. And as inexpensive as those "off-shore crap" distributors are I can buy a lot of them for the same price as replacing all that factory stuff reproduction stuff.

Just did this on my 351, simple to wire, no Computer/module/anything else needed. Two wires, Power and Tac.....
Runs great.