Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines 250 6cyl HEI Questions

I've got Langdon's mini HEI installed with the round coil. Fools lots of people into thinking I still have points. I nod politely when they suggest I should go HEI.

But I've never liked the round coil. The low voltage wires are really hard to keep on the coil and twice now the high voltage boot wire has popped off (today was on the interstate!). There's a bit of a taper to the coil. So it's gotta go.

I could change to the square coil Langdon sells. But I've also got another HEI from my "spare" 250. It looks like it might work fine if I put in a new cap and rotor. Haven't looked to see if the plug wires from Langdon would also work.

But I have questions.
- How does one connect the wires to the distributor? Is there a special clip I can buy? Assume the wires are 12V and ground?
- Are there other things I should do and be aware of when using this?
- Is it worth trying the other HEI?

I'd post a photo, but photobucket is charging money now...

Thanks!

I've ordered a new coil, FAST PS20.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/fst-730-0020

The DC ohms of the existing coil are 1.3-1.4 ohms primary and 10k ohms secondary. The FAST is listed as 1.4 ohm primary, 5.2k ohms secondary. I don't have a tool for measuring inductance.

I guess if this doesn't work out, I'll go the route of either Pertronix or the Davis Racing distributor looks nice since it's low current, but it's shorter spark for high RPM I guess.

Guys tell me about changing the springs and weights to adjust the mechanical advance and how that makes a huge difference. Does anybody have a table of their advance at different RPMs? When I have some time in the next few weeks, I'll take mine and post.

Thanks!

I was trying to use a timing tape and my timing light to set my mechanical and vacuum timing curve last spring, but my timing light died and I haven't gotten back Camaro since then. I got cooling, trans fluid, and axle fluid to get to first before I look at my timing light again and decide if I can fix it, get a new one, or upgrade to a setback. Can't get to it till then.

I swapped out the coil yesterday, cleaned my wiring up. Seems to run well enough.

The real issue was that the wires I got with the iginition kit were the wrong wires. It was set up for two male connectors, but it's one male and one female. After a while the female loosens up. I was able to hack it up. A new wire coil set on backordered, will see what they look like.

Maybe next weekend I'll get the spark advance table logged.