Inliners International Forums General Discussion Electrical HEI question

On page 129 of Santucci's Power Manual, the top photo shows an early HEI with separate coil. The coil doesn't look like any Chevy coil I have ever seen, does anyone know what it is or where it came from? I like the look of the separate coil, but I may just go with the more normal coil-in-cap version.

On a related question, my 250 has a 1977 sticker on it, and it doesn't look like anyone before me tore into it. The weird thing is, it has a non-integrated head and the separate coil. I have no idea what it came from, it was with my 1954 GMC when I bought it. Could this possibly be a factory configuration?

I don't have the Santucci book, but I can tell you that GM used the separate-coil arrangement in both the cars and trucks from the first electronic years on 6-cyl's up until they went with the integral head. The most common applications that you will find these in were Novas and the Buick/Olds/Pontiac clones. One of those is a very good possibility for your donor vehicle.

There is no real difference in reliability between the two systems. GM went with the new configuration most likely due to the lower cost of using bent8-compatible parts. Let's face it, if the only top-of-the-distributor piece they had to change from a 6 to an 8 was the cap, it's cheaper for inventory.

In '78 they went with the integral head and all sorts of "corporate" engines and components, did away with the big-block Buick and Poncho motors and painted everything blue! What a sad time.....

Oh well, enough whining about the past. Give a holler if you have any more questions.

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David

Interesting. I had heard that the coil-in-cap and integrated head started in '76, that's why I was confused. If they started in '78, then my engine makes a lot more sense.

No one has an ID on that HEI coil?

Try looking at a Wells catalog. Identify the part numbers for the two different caps, then see which applications use which cap.