Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Chevy 250

First off, thanks for approval, This is my first I6 vehicle and despite everybody trying to convince me to run a V8 or sbc swap i've kept my 250. After suffering a fire on the drive home with it I have upgraded to a Holley 350 2-barrel and new wires + ignition rotor (may replace entire dist. soon), and have a MSD Blaster + Ballast waiting to be installed. Mainly building this to be a reliable engine as I restore the truck.

any suggestions on parts or need-to-know Info?

Thanks!

Currently working on fixing my idle issue, Idle seems to be too high, when I lower it, it dies. Attempting to re-route vacuum lines (properly) and see if that fixes the issue.

I would suggest upgrading the guts of the distributor to a Pertronix ignitor electronic conversion. It's easy and efficient.

There's GM HEI's on Ebay for Way cheaper than the cost of the pertronix and run better imop. I got mine for $65 shipped and it ran perfectly. If you like the stock style dizzy than the pertronix will be the way to go, but the HEI's on ebay are hard to beat for the price. You just type in 292 chevy 6 hei and a ton will come up.

Thanks! i've been thinking about pertronix, i'd like it to look stock if possible, but I'm not sure yet what my end-game is, I've been removing body panels today and sanding / filler priming getting ready for paint. My biggest issue has been getting the passenger door off so far with that. the door panel screws are so rusted in that I broke a handful of screwdrivers (and bits) trying to remove them before I gave up. May have to just remove the rivets on the extension that controls how far you can open it and call it good.

I think the very first HEIs were small caps. I know some big caps used a remote coil. There was something about a California only early emission distributer. Years ago I had to order one for a customer.

The bigger caps had the coil in them the smaller/shorter caps used the remote coil mounted on the block or head area .

Another way to get around the big ugly HEI and keep a more stock in to use the stock points as a trigger for a MSD unit. We did that on my son's Stude.

I used langdon sovebolt for a closer to original look. Distributor is from a 1980s six, coil from a ford.

You can also keep the Point dist. by installing a crane Or a pentronic Unit.

I've been running the 270 GMC in my pickup since '78. I have used points,Petronix (2 varieties), and a Mallory Unilite. The only one that has not left me by the side of the road far from home is the points distributer. When working right the electronic units are great. When they don't work right they don't work at all. I took to carrying a spare distributer and coil on trips. If you want a free Mallory Unilite there is one laying in the sagebrush about halfway between Tonopah and Hawthorne Nevada. It's on the East side of the road. A good friend who was working on the Alaska Pipeline left one in Prudhoe Bay but it's for a small block V8 probably not worth looking for.

I'm with you, Beater. I have carried spare ignition parts with me on occasion as well.

HEI is my preference. With a spare module, coil and pickup if not a whole distributor. Plus, stock parts are easy to come by compared to aftermarket.