That's right I am DONE with HEI. I have had problems every year sometimes two times a year. I even went so far as to buy a matched Pertronix 4 pin module and coil. NO more. I putting the old points distributor back in and enjoy driving agine.
Thank You Mike

Do you feel better?

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Joshua

Yes thank you

For those of you not MikeWilliams I offer the following...

The #1 thing you can do to make HEI work reliably is to use a high quality module and keep it cool with a proper heat sink. No need to go overboard on the heat sink, they live fine in rear mounted distributors after all. I salvage original GM modules from wrecking yards to get good ones. I gave a GM module one to a friend who retrofitted his Packard with a Pontiac HEI distributor and had a misfire problem with the no-name module that came in the distributor. #2 is to make sure your charging system is in good condition. This is not as easy as it sounds.

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Joshua

When I did mine a few years ago I used the mount, coil and module from some model GM SUV and mounted the whole thing to the passenger side inner fender. I wired it up as shown on this site and, knock on wood, it's never missed a beat. Results may vary.

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“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

This is great advice.
It is not wise to run any electronic ignition or other "sensitive" electronic controller(s) with the old single field alternator and points style voltage regulator charging system.
Even the later dual field / electronic regulator charging system can have a "voltage range" that can shorten the life of more complex electronic circuity.
Wiring and connection points also need to be checked to get "clean" / low resistance power.

Many after market electronic ignition "boxes", have in-coming power conditioning to help "clean-up" the "junk" we call 12V power, coming out of most charging systems circuits so doing that is another good addition when swapping to electronic ignition.
DD

Is this the same Mike Williams who used to live on the west coast and worked as a nurse? Just wondering.

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If you didn't drive it there, it's not a street car.

Sorry No.

Quick question: why would you want to use a GM HEI ignition module, etc., rather than the standard, easy to find Mopar electronic ignition distributor and module?

Supposedly they are more dependable than the parts store Mopar-type units you get in the parts store. There do seem to be a lot of failures in the HEI and the Mopar-type units off the "new" shelves. I generally use aftermarket ignitions that cost real money, and they have been reliable for me except for one hiccup/overheat with an MSD 6A.

I have seen the factory stuff (HEI and Mopar) last a long long time, but the quality of new parts store stuff is mostly garbage now because 99% of consumers are unwilling to pay more for quality parts. IMHO, a new ignition module should cost more than $50 for good quality. No one wants to pay that, and so we have crap.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

The answers to your question are in the HEI upgrade article.

Also, the HEI components are no harder to find than the Mopar components.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

HEI or Mopar electronic ignition, either are far more reliable than points, Mike. if you're not experiencing that, then I think it's not the electronic systems. They were designed to supplant points and be more reliable. I have personally experienced points over my many years vs electronic ignition and the latter wins every single time. Sorry you're experiencing otherwise.

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https://tinyurl.com/yynpj4v2

I have had similar crap luck with Echlin style units. They seem to be hit and miss. I'm not exactly ready to give up considering that I also have crap spark plug wires (new Accels on the way), a junkyard coil that forced me to fabricobble a coil wire using electrical tape (1996-2000 era GM HEI coils - AVOID these if you can considering they are a one-off "mini-male/socket" design), and poor heatsink mounting location. Also, the distributor I rebuilt works great apart from the fact that caps do not seat properly on it. When it runs it runs great, but I think I pushed my luck too long running crappy support pieces. With the money I "saved" buying 30 buck echlin ones I could have gotten at least two good name brand ones.

I'm gonna use that. Where do I send the royalty cheque?

(Sad; for many years Echlin parts were top-notch.)

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

That one's free - creative commons license

I'm still not convinced they aren't alright. The most obvious error I had was I think installing the heatsink on in a way that hobbled its cooling ability and not having a solid coil ground.