It’s a combination HEI battery/tach pigtail that has a connector for both power to the HEI and the connection for the tach, molded together. some 1987/88 B and G-body passenger cars with 305s (or 9C1 Caprices with 350s) with the EST (electronic spark timing) small cap/external coil distributor associated with TBI (throttle body injection) induction) used the ECM and had no mechanical advance provisions (these distributors have a 7 pin module), although early computer-controlled HEI distributors retained vacuum advance in some cases. It is hard on the secondary ignition components in general and just isn't needed in the vast majority of cases. Use dielectric grease on both sides of the rubber insulator. The drawing on the left shows an overexposed transition slot. Customer service hours: 9.30AM – 10PM, Daily Technician service hours: Mon-Sat, 9.30AM-10PM (Last job 8PM) Telephone: 9067 4867 Price: From $250/unit for ChemJET service Aircon Astiquer website Ignition Coil Problems Ignition coils may be the cause of problems, or problems may be caused by failing spark plug wires. This is adjusted by changing the centrifugal advance weights and/or springs to tailor the rate. The button has to be assembled into the cap first, then the rubber insulator. If you are in the 45-55 degree range (about 50 degrees is fine in most cases) of advance including 10-12 degrees from the vacuum advance, you’re in the ballpark. Depending on the cam specs, adding initial timing in addition to or instead of tipping the secondary throttle blades open more may give the best results. Note: Portions of this page appears to have been cut/pasted from a thread located at 72chevytrucks.com. Removal and replacement of the gear is covered in the link, Description of an HEI rebuild. To make sure it is not the hot wire, run a temporary jumper wire directly from the positive side of the battery to the distributor. We'll send you the most interesting Chevy Hardcore articles, news, car features, and videos every week. the pigtail from the distributor is attached to the three terminals closest to the coil (arrow). This in turn causes the cap to fill with ionized air, and this can cause erosion/degradation to the components along with spark scatter and/or voltage bypassing to the distributor advance mechanism, shaft, etc. P0741: TCC System Improper Mechanical Performance. There's a fairly wide tolerance, but it should not be infinite and it should not vary as the wires are flexed and moved around to simulate it in use. The difference is the MSD part doesn't "preload" the vacuum advance can like the Crane limiter plate. To run the engine efficiently without the ECM, sensors, and related equipment fully functional, the distributor and carb need to be replaced at the least. Holley’s Terminator Stealth EFI systems have the same great … What vehicles came stock with a non-computer controlled HEI? insulating the hold down clamp and bolt from grounding the distributor to the engine. Comes with instructions and an allen wrench to adjust it. In these cases an aftermarket vacuum advance cam is required. A lightly loaded engine can tolerate more spark advance than a heavily loaded engine, all else being equal. Other than buying an aftermarket performance chip for the ECM (or buying hardware and software to burn/tune a new chip), there is no way to change the advance curve of a computer-controlled HEI distributor. Find part numbers from the Wells parts catalog PDF above. New replacement HEI power and tach hook-up pigtails are available. The NON-computer controlled HEI can be made into a great distributor for a street or street/strip car. Often a stock distributor is set up to rely on the vacuum advance for a large proportion of ignition advance. I refuse to drive a car that only a computer geek can fix. The only external difference is that one has red and white power leads, the other has red and yellow power leads. The module is the electronic controller that takes the place of breaker points. Generally the vacuum advance can be tailored to suit the conditions after the initial and mechanical advance is worked out. The coil cover has the wiring positions marked on it: If converting to an HEI from a points-type distributor, the wire that was used to supply current to the point-type coil will be a resistor wire. Installation is a simple one-wire hookup. So say the mechanical advance at 2000 rpm is 12 degrees. This is a generic setting for a performance vehicle, and that usually means a rear gear ratio of at least 3.73:1 and w/o OD. On a Chevy V8, the vacuum advance can should be pointing roughly at the passenger side front tire. Build your own custom newsletter with the content you love from Chevy Hardcore, directly to your inbox, absolutely FREE! However, the scope of this article at this juncture doesn't include a full run-down of modified computer-controlled or aftermarket HEI distributors, but is instead primarily aimed at reworking a stock-type HEI for performance duty. His passion for performance got him noticed by many locals, and he began helping them modify their vehicles. Put the probes between the Ground terminal of the coil and the carbon pickup inside the distributor cap. Wells catalog to be used for looking up representative part numbers to find specs for testing. As long as the shaft has up and down movement, you may proceed with the rest of the distributor installation: If there is no up and down movement in the shaft, nylon distributor shims (shown above) need to be added until there is 0.030"-0.060" play. To check the secondary resistance, remove the screws that hold the coil in the cap, remove the coil and touch the negative meter lead to the ring terminal on the black wire (between the red and yellow) and touch the positive lead to the bottom of the coil where the rotor bushing makes contact. The centrifugal advance is used to advance engine ignition timing relative to an engine’s RPM. That's the maximum amount of advance under light throttle cruise conditions some tuners would want to see, and some recommend using less- somewhere around 46 degrees combined advance would be perfectly acceptable in many cases. The other end of the brace attaches directly to a threaded boss on the engine block, just below where the block deck and head meet. If you have disconnected the 4-wire ECM connector going in the side of the distributor or the wiring between the ECM and the distributor is damaged there will, again, be no advance (and the check engine light will come on). MSD and Crane have limiter plates (shown below) that do the same basic thing. Find part numbers from the Wells parts catalog PDF above. Also, the centrifugal advance plate (that rotates on the main distributor shaft as the centrifugal advance moves it), near the top of the distributor shaft sometimes gets gummed up and "sticky," slowing the advance curve and generally preventing the centrifugal advance assembly from working correctly. Another neat wiring aid is the Accel p/n 170072. In addition to the interrupter switch, a starter brace should be used to help prevent broken starter noses or damage to the mounting ear of the block. Stock advance cans may provide as much as 22°-24° of advance. If looking for an HEI, choose one that has the 4-pin module seen at upper left, above. The first area they suggest you check is to make sure all the wire connections on the cap or solid. Don't try to use a computer controlled HEI unless there is an ECM. To test the resistance of the coil, remove the coil cover so you can see the red and yellow wire. Using an adjustable vacuum advance unit allows the vacuum advance to be adjusted for what vacuum the vacuum advance falls out and tips in. This is done by measuring the amount of play between the distributor gear and the thrust washer. A performance cam having excessive duration/overlap/tight LSA specs could require more initial and less mechanical advance. If a connection is loose, current cannot travel to where it needs to go. This is too much vacuum advance if the centrifugal and initial advance has been recurved the as described here. The engine will run, although will have a miss and will detonate, with the #5 and #7 wires swapped. Set it so the vacuum advance starts to drop out at about the same point that the carb power enrichment circuit (Holley power valve, Edelbrock step up spring, or Q-jet power piston) starts to come in. What has to be avoided is too much timing under load; too much timing under load can cause engine-damaging detonation. These recommendations can be considered to be a safe starting point. dual coil units. Number 1 plug wire should be at the front of the distributor just to the driver’s side of centerline. Performance cams will require more initial advance, all the way up to the point where- in extreme cases- the ignition advance is locked in at the total advance amount and there's no curve. The module will have four wires going into it (two per side). The statement of having about 50 degrees combined advance (initial, mechanical, and vacuum) at cruise rpm needs some clarification. Wells has information on what the various pick up coils should read for resistance. Plug it back in when the timing has been set. Manifold vacuum is a good indicator of engine load. They are not expensive, however, they require a small special tool to remove the torx screws in the module housing. They will soak with oil and compress more than when dry. Take the measurements with feeler gauges. You want the mechanical advance in as soon as the combination will allow, without causing pinging. But, if the ground from the engine to the battery is making a good connection, ignition spark will be none existent. Also the amount of advance supplied by the mechanical advance was set up for the specific application it was used on, and this is seldom what's needed for a performance application. That also means that a fingernail file is no longer the repair tool for roadside fixes. … Note: See the articles on rebuilding the HEI below. If this is the case, the engine will idle high when out of gear and then the idle speed will drop down once it's put in gear, and the off-idle response will be poor. This will be covering the 4-pin HEI module. Other cams require a mellonized distributor gear. Disconnect the green and white wires from the module and touch the positive meter lead to the green wire and the negative lead to the white wire. And your plugs can develop carbon deposits within just a few thousand miles. Make sure your 12-volt wire is connected to the spade connector labeled BAT. Put the switch in series with the power wire and route the wires inside the vehicle so the switch is within easy reach of the driver. P0736: Improper Ratio for Reverse Gear. This ground may be a wire or a solid strap, as shown below. In many cases, the mechanical advance has to be modified to shorten the amount of advance it can give. If you try to set your initial timing with the engine idling ABOVE the RPM that the mechanical advance has started to come in, getting a correct reading will be all but impossible. This is not needed or wanted for the HEI- it needs to be supplied with full system voltage without any resistor wire or ballast in the circuit for best performance. Because of this, the pre computer-controlled type HEI distributor is often used; it is a relatively cheap, stand-alone unit with good to very good performance potential, and has a good track record for durability and reliability. It's fine for a naturally aspirated street engine that uses a 0.035"-0.040" plug gap and has a compression ratio compatible with pump gasoline (= ~10:1), and has a redline of around 5500 RPM. Right is the 12V switched power source (circled). Shim kits are available from Summit, Jegs and probably the local parts store. See How to install a distributor for more on how to install a Chevy V8 distributor. The large diameter of the cap helps to prevent this and it works well enough in a passenger car, even with the wider gaps that were used for some applications. Your secondary reading should be between 6.0k – 10k ohms. A relay that delays the ignition from being energized- giving the starter time to get the engine turning over- can be wired into the ignition feed wire. The HEI centrifugal advance is susceptible to wear. On low budget builds, a replacement coil and module may give adequate performance, depending on the application. Engine issues may be caused by failed coils or spark plug cables. In these extreme cases, vacuum advance can still be used to provide additional advance under light throttle cruise conditions providing the cam makes enough vacuum to let the vacuum advance function. It will also cause a poor quality idle, nozzle drip and poor transition off-idle. © 2017 Power Automedia. Depending on the application this could mean rewiring or replacing the resistor wire for a 12-14 gauge supply wire. Many times, a low-voltage issue can cause a myriad of problems. It should read less than 1Ω, but more than 000Ω. Check a repair manual/GM service manual for the correct way to set the base timing for your particular engine/year (this usually requires disconnecting a spark control wire before the timing is set to TDC). There were also 5- and 7-pin modules used on computer-controlled applications, however they do not generally lend themselves to non-computer-controlled high performance applications. Take the measurement of the gap and subtract 0.020" from it, the result is the shim thickness needed. The resistance should be somewhere around 600Ω to 1000Ω. The primary resistance value should be between 0.6 – 1.5 ohms. Well, those days are gone, and the HEI-style distributor is a mainstay with hot rodders. from Moroso, Mr. Gasket, Jegs brand, and others as well. There are times where the engine requires so much initial timing that the engine can be hard to start without kicking back against the starter. All rights reserved. Newer ignition systems tend to use an individual coil-on-plug or coil pack, which assigns one coil to each engine cylinder or pair of cylinders. The pick up is located underneath the top plate of the shaft, and has a green and white wire coming that plugs into the module. If, for some reason you have no spark coming from your distributor, the following will help you check and test the installation, connections, and components, of the unit so that you can get your engine running. Note: See link HEI vacuum advance specs, below. An adjustable vacuum advance can lets the tip-in point be tailored to the engine vacuum, so the vacuum advance will start and stop at the right amount of vacuum. The other modules all require an ECM to function correctly. Any time during the adjustment procedure that the curb idle becomes too high or low, readjust the curb idle for proper idle speed. The correct gear material/treatment has to match the type of camshaft being used. There are new HEI distributors sold on eBay that go for <$50, complete with a brass terminal-equipped cap, rotor and module, all the way up to the top-shelf, polished billet, ball bearing-equipped full zoot, double throw-down versions costing several hundreds of dollars. If that's not your #1 plug wire, or your vacuum can is pointed in another direction, the distributor may be installed one or more teeth off. Return to: Distributor shaft end play adjustment, above. If you have a computer controlled distributor in your car right now you can’t do much to increase performance other than to make sure it is correctly communicating with your car’s ECM and upgrade the coil to a better unit. A bad distributor will normally present a variety of symptoms, which can oftentimes be recognizable as distributor related. Once the springs have been changed, check the advance curve with a dial-back timing light or use a "timing tape" wrapped around your harmonic balancer along with a tachometer. A gasket can be used under the shims. The heat sink compound (not dielectric grease) helps transfer the module heat into the distributor body which acts as the heat sink. Baseline the throttle blades to give a transfer slot that looks like the image below, right (approximately as long as it is wide, or about 0.020", up to 0.040"): From this point the idle speed can be increased to the point where the transfer slot becomes over exposed. This can cause the vacuum advance to add advance when it's not wanted. Each engine is different and what works for one engine might be a little different than what works for another engine. You want to end up with ~0.020" (no less than 0.015") on a Chevy distributor; some engines like the Olds need to have the end play adjusted differently. Once the engine is turning over, the switch is released. It should read between 6000Ω and 30,000Ω. Without the ECM there will be no mechanical ignition timing advance AT ALL from the computer-controlled distributor (and only a few early HEIs used a vacuum advance along with an ECM), plus a computer controlled distributor without the ECM will give lousy performance and mileage. Besides using moly break in lube on the cam and distributor gears, a small groove on the lower band on a Chevy distributor body will allow pressurized oil to reach the gears. More on how ported may be preferable to manifold vacuum is here, by noted carb tuner, Cliff Ruggles. You may find as much as 16 degrees of vacuum advance is needed with a relatively mild cam if an EGR system is used. Ignition Coil Primary circuit fault. Total timing is not affected as much by the cam timing; that's more a function of the compression ratio, fuel octane, quench, engine temperature, air/fuel mixture, cylinder head design and material, etc. On the coil-in-cap GM HEI, the coil is located on top of the distributor between the plug wire towers under a plastic cover. The max mechanical at 3000 rpm is 18 degrees. On almost any carb, there are vacuum ports that provide manifold and ported vacuum. Another thing that is often overlooked, is if the cruise rpm is less than the rpm where the mechanical advance is all in by, the vacuum advance has to make up the difference to get the best mileage and drivability. So don't be surprised or alarmed if you end up with a curve that is different from what is presented in this article. To be sure this isn't happening, a vacuum gauge can be duct taped to the base of the windshield so it can be viewed (preferably by a passenger) while the vehicle is put through various driving conditions. The nylon distributor shim kits are sold through Summit and Jegs, etc. This is not a bad thing, it leaves funds available for parts that WILL make the car faster! After determining how much mechanical advance your HEI is giving you, and it's determined it's too much for the amount of initial advance you want to run, the mods to the mechanical advance are shown in the image below (thanks to 69-CHVL of Team Chevelle).
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