Pertronix ignition I just put in is faulty..no warranty on it, thinking about switching over to something different.

Was thinking about buying one of those HEI Distributors for the ford 302, that eliminates the coil all together.. What do you guys think? Does anyone have experience with these, or know anything about them (good or bad)?

 

Simple, efficient, cheap, and dependable,,,,

Other than these characteristics, HEI setups really ain't that great.


Some people don't think much of HEI, I am a huge fan. Besides the above benifits they perform quite well in performance applications.

They don't often fail but when they do service parts are cheap and in stock in every parts store nationwide...

They do have a coil in that oversize cap of course, and the big cap can get in the way sometimes, but HEI fit in the 66 pretty good albeit close to the manifold, we had to grind a little bit to clear the RPM Air Gap..

 

Yea that was a typo on my part, I meant to say Eliminates an EXTERNAL coil all together.

 

Do you think it will fit without any modification for me, 67 mustang, 68 302 with Performer RPM intake..

 

I think it will fit no problem...

The Mallory HEI distributor we bought had a sharp "square" bottom edge that just touched our intake. I simply removed a little of the edge/corner to provide the clearance I thought we might need.. once it was clamped down I realized that all of the clearancing I did was probably unnecessary. (clearancing was like 1/16th" to 1/8" off of the corner)

I think the Air Gap sits higher, and I think the manifold is naturally higher on a 351 than a 302 to boot. If it were my 302 I would have little orno fear that it would not fit.

If you have a straight Monte Carlo bar I could see some clearance issues, it cleared our curved bar by a mile.

 

I was going to install one in my 69 302 but it got in the way of my heater hose outlet on the intake manifold.. That and clearance with the air cleaner.

I do have one ..never used if you are interested. $75.00 + shipping. It was installed but never used. Neverbeen fired up or even connected to an electrical current.

 

i got a MSD pro billet with no miles on it if u want it just pm me

 

I love the HEI, when its on a CHEVY. Dude, the HEI is big and bulky and gets in the way of a lot ot things. Not to mention they just don't look good. I'd go with an MSD ready to run pro billet if I were you. I have one and absolutely love it. It looks greak and performs even better.

JMD, your engine looks reallynice, but I must say I don't care for Chevy parts on a Ford, I noticed you are running a Delco Alternator as well as the HEI Dizzy. By the way, which Demon do you have? Its a mighty correct? Do you like it?

 

Bulky is a good thing where high voltage is concerned, so it actually does look good when you know why it"s big. HEI was originally an emissions-driven development, and keeping a hotter spark going to the right place better is always a good thing for both that and power (IOW, it"s a win-win solution). There are better HEI internals available as aftermarket race items than as either OE GM or standard aftermarket replacement, so it doesn"t even need to stay "all-GM" or "OE GM replacement". Sort of like the Pertonix (sp?) distributor conversions not really being Blue Oval pieces. Actually, I think the HEI is starting to creep into more than just the SBF motors, so it"s starting to become more of a universal aftermarket ignition component than a GM-only part. I"m not sure that GM even uses a conventional distributor-based HEI themselves any more.

Unless the car is being developed specifically for entering car shows where originality or at least original appearance really does count for something measurable, I would not think twice about swapping one in.


Norm

 

I have one for sale too, $50 and it's yours. The only problem I see with an HEI is if you have a high rise manifold, it won't clear. That's why I'm selling mine.