I just talked to a buddy of mine today in the shop and he told me about a shop to the south of me that can customize any distributor....He said he had a Chevy HEI distributor made up to plug into his Ford 302....

I'll be visiting the shop in another week or so when the xmas season dies down. I'd like to pick their brains about either a plug in HEI unit or a Ford TPIS unit for future upgrades...anyone have a 'wish' that I could run by these guys to see what rabbits they can pull out of the hat?

I know room next to the block makes putting GM or Ford style distributor into the hole a 'no-go'.....

-D.Idiot

How much would something like this cost? And what do you gain with a different distributor?

You can DIY ignition, even completely distributorless if you want (using a ford edis and coilpack) for relatively cheap and the advance would be completely programable.

I agree with Pierre.

To keep it simple, the later, fixed timing distributors used with the lean burn system do an adequate job of providing a trigger. Use a computer to calculate the timing and a good aftermarket box to fire the coil.

I'm building a system based (loosly) on a MegaSpark now.

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My truck is a Frankenstein creation
Built from the dead carcasses of others
And brought BACK TO LIFE!

The Ford modules are notoriously unreliable, I wouldn't recommend converting to that. The HEI is better than the Ford, but to be honest, what was really so horrible with the factory Mopar setup with an Orange box? Yeah its a little bulky but stone reliable.

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"That thing gotta HEMI in it??"

Err, orange box stone reliable? Maybe brittle stone... there are lots of stories on moparts about failed orange (and other) boxes.

I don't know about edis module reliability... the megajolt lite junior sends signals to the ford ignition module which then fires the coils. I would figure the people behind all the DIY ignitions would use something different if they were that notoriously unreliable....

Nothing is wrong with the orange box, but the quest for better is always continuing. I just don't think hacking up distributors and playing mix n'match is the answer because it doesn't gain you anything you didn't already have. Computer based ignition (wether its distributor triggerd or crank/cam sensor distributorless style) on the other hand does...

Actually, most of the "failed" boxes I've encountered tested out fine. The problem I encounter is usually the ballast resistor failing. Those things get very hot and any slight amount of water running onto it from rain or whatever is what usually kills those. Never many problems with the orange box.

Programmable computer ignition is a huge improvement over the old ways, but I've been a firm believer in KISS (no not the band..... )
I guess it all depends on how much the owner wants to invest in time and money as well as trial and error.

Speaking of computer ignition, can we count lean burn?? My 83 Ram still has its original computer and, get this, actually runs pretty well....who'da thought?........

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"That thing gotta HEMI in it??"

D.I if you dont mind could you find out a price on a g.m dist for my slant? i like the hei,but the wiring that i use now is not so good.but i bet it would be great to have the dist.
thanks D.I

The reason I ask is I'm tying up loose ends on determining what would be the best plug in for the conversion to MPFI.
Most of the systems out there will plug and play with any late GM HEI or Ford EDIS distributor (caps are too large to just do a 'shaft swap'...). If I use the Mopar EI, I'll have to take the distirbutor in anyway to have the pahsing corrected, but two companies said I might not be able to run the prom off that style of distributor due to 'noise/interference'. So then my last look over at electromotive for a crank trigger was more promising....
but if a crank trigger kit costs $279, and I can have a distributor built with and adaptor for say the HEI head, for less, that would help in the long run. I'll have to prod the shop, they say they can make something work...the ford 302 to HEI distributor was $75, 2 years back...so I'm willing to see what they might come up with.

Thanks for the input,

-D.Idiot