Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines mercruiser 165 hp 250 ci gm

i would like to change out my old points dist. for a hei...anyone see any problems with an automotive one..or stick to a marine version?

I removed a HEI in order to install a AC compressor and replaced it with a Marine centrifugal advance dist. with a Protronics 2 kit and it runs by far better than the HEI. I think the motor likes the advance curve better than the HEI curve.

Scrapiron is right, HEI are smog distributors. The HEI needs to be recurved for performance. Looking at the numbers for distr in the factory manuals, there is as much as 8 degrees removed from centrifugal advance and 6 degrees from the vac advance.

A Pertronics get around this, by using the original distr..

Larry

i have issues every spring with the points getting fouled up,,the boat does'nt see much use..so it always a battle to get it running good..i have seen marine hei for about 400 bucks on internet..but if a Pertronics kit will do same thing i am all for it..this is a mech adv dist..too

Stovebolt engineering sells the Pertronics. Talk to Tom Langdon at Stovebolt Engineering he work at GM for 30 years. He is a great guy to talk to, and if we left out any details he'll straighten it out.

Larry

anothere quick question engine bog..or heisitation !what are the solutions for this what should i be looking for to fix this problem

Check to see if the advance is stuck. Its not uncommon in applications where a lot of moisture is present for the advance to stick. With the engine running, put a timing light on the engine and see if the timing mark moves when the engine revs up. Also go ahead and check/set the timing while your at it.

just an update...installed pertronics 2 kit and new coil.plugs and wires, cap, rotor, it purrs like a cat now..also added a few degrees of timing and opened up the plug gap a bit..very nice throttle response

So-is this in a boat? I don't think HEI is legal in a boat. The company I work for, the owners have a big houseboat that they keep on Lake Powell in the summer, About every 3 years they haul it up to the yard in Salt Lake for a re-fit and one year they up-graded to HEI (this was a Mercruiser Chev 350) and when they got it back to Powell the Rangers inspected it and reg flagged the HEI-wouldn't let it on the water until they changed back to points. I don't know why HEI is/was banned from boats.

hei have been in boats for years...mine was an older boat with points 1976 year..you can buy an hei distributor for marine use..i used a pertronics kit and a new coil..so its pretty much the same..your just using the original distributor...maybe it was an automotive distributor that was put it the boat your boss had. in which case it would fail an inspection. anyways all the sites i checked offered hei distributors for marine use