i know nothing about my ig nition system. i have a bone stock 79 Elky, minus some exhaust mods, but i was wondering( cause some car shop guy told me to) what advantages there are to A HEI? i think its called ignition from my stock poibnt distributor?
Thanks
Steven

Your '79 Elky came stock with an HEI and for that matter all 1979 GM cars had HEIs. It's a very good ignition for a stock engine, but if you plan on spinning your motor much beyond 5000rpms you have to upgrade or replace it.

Thats strange.. I had some work done to get the Elky running a bit better, and my mechanic told me he changed out the "points" on the distributor... So does that mean that he lied, since i already had an HEI distributor?
Thanks
Steven http://estaban87.tripod.com

Well it originally had an HEI but being over 25 years old who knows what you have now...unless you look at the distributor. A points type distributor will have 8 spark plug wires out of the cap plus 1 more in the center that goes to the coil. An HEI distributor cap will only have 8 sparkplug wires. HEI ignitions don't have points and it's strange that the mechanic didn't tell you that you no longer have an HEI.

There are a few HEI distributors that don't have a coil in the center of the cap but they are a bit rarer than the ones that do. They mostly showed up in 76-77 chevys and some early 80's trucks. They showed up here and there in the 90's too. Whatever the case they look a bit different from the standard "soda can" stock coil or the Big "super coils. Usually have the coil wire tower and a spot to hook up the leads from an emissions computer or just the feeds for earlier models.

Chances are you got the big cap HEI coil stock with your 79 like Mrapii said. Someone might have changed it along the line but I can't imagine someone going back to a points igintion.

If someone did the conversion back to points from a car that originally had HEI chances are there is a ballast resisitor block bolted the firewall that the igntion wires pass through before they get to the coil itself. HEI needs a full 12 volts to feed it whereas points only takes 9 and usually relies on a resistance wire in GM vehicles instead of a separate ballast resistor block. Because your car came out when HEI was standard equipment (was since 75) someone would have had to put some kind of resistor block inline to drop the voltage.

It's possible that along the line someone might have dropped in a dual point distributor or something like that but it was kind of a waste for a non-race vehicle compared to the standard HEI.

I think the mechanic has some explaining to do. If he stands by his points argument then ask him what the "dwell" setting is. Number should be somewhere between 28 and 31 degrees in an emissions era chevy. Also ask him what the "point gap" came out to. Should be a number like .01xx where xx is whatever the point gap value should be in that position for that distributor.

If he doesn't know, he's probably not being straight with you. 8)

If he is a good mechanic and knows cars, he can still make that stuff up. Anyone that worked on cars in the early 70s or earlier has experience with points and dwell meters etc... they should also know the same numbers that elcamino74guy mentioned. It really is no secret.

Look for your self. HEI, like everyone else has pointed out has a great big cap and the posts are exposed, all that I have seen are, so the plug wires are female and the cap is male posts. If you have points then the cap will be moderately small and will have a small metal door like on the bottom that you lift to get at the points so you can set the dwell with the motor running.

HEI Will only have one "Pink" wire and One Black wire going to a square protrusion on the driver side of the cap (Right side looking at the engine from the front of the truck. If you don't have an HEI go to a junk yard and pick up one. If your going to expect high performance from the engine then I'd get a New Distributor from ACCEL or MSD, Accel is the cheapest as far as Blueprinted distributors go but my opinion MSD makes the best Billet Distributors and with the MSD 6al ignition your set for what ever you need it for. Those ignitions make better spark, it fires as many as 3 times below 3000 RPM for each cylinder and extends the spark energy above 3000 RPM for a better burn and it does improve the fuel economy in stock to wild engine. A good Pentrox or Accel will work also. Most things are better then HEI and HEI is better than points for a Street car.

Just a thought.

Thanks guys, so all i have to do is look for a pink and black wire under the cap to see?... Anything else to look for, and how much would it cost to go back to HEI- and just as a thought\question of curiosity what does HEI stand for?
Thanks a bunch
Steven

HEI stands for "High Energy Ignition".

Don't look under the cap, just count the thick secondary wires out of the top of the cap--8=HEI, 9=points. I've seen used HEI distributors for $20 but a good rebuilt or brand new one will cost over $100. DUI, which is an advertiser on this site makes a very good HEI on "steroids" and I would certainly consider buying one of those.

U mean like spark plug wires.. Sorry, im kinda lame on cars.. 8O but i do thank u guys for your help!
Steven

Yes, secondary ignition (spark-plug) wires; usually black in color (although yellow, red and blue are fairly common) and about 1/4" in diameter.

Thanks Mrapii-- i really do appriciate it. Have a good night
Steven

Ok i looked under the hood. I have 8 black sparkplug wires running to the distributor. i have a small square plastic piece that says "Tach Bat" On it with 4 smaller wires running to that (also, i have no tach)... I didnt see any other wires, would there be 9 sparkplug wires even though its an 8 Cylinder? Or am i looking at the wrong thing?
Help Again!
Steven

Steven, You have a HEI distributor (no points). I would be very wary of your mechanic. Jon

Thanks. Appreciate it....
Steven and i will beware of him... Bummer though he was the most credable mech. up here, ya know small towns...
Steven

dont shoot the guy yet.

he may have just changed your cap and rotor

(which take the spark from the mounted coil to the plug wires via the tab on the spinning rotor and the 8 tabs on the cap).

this would clear up oxidation and overall crud on your 25 year old ignition.

he's probably old school and said "points" out of habit for things dealing with spark distribution.

0or he screwed you...

i recommend becoming your own mechanic for everything. including electronics. if you can turn a wrench and read english, you can do the job. get ahold of tools and a book for everything you are attemting to do. it is time consuming, but you will save money and youll know EXACTLY what went into your car, and how it goes. :-D

theres a lot of good material out there that can guide you through everything. many such books are geared toward performance, always a plus. and believe me, theres a book for everything. manufacturers usually have the best books for a certian part/product (ie Holley, Edelbrock), but often only cover their own, while others cover a wide variety of products more generally, and work just fine.

HPBooks has great stuff for everything. i highly reccommend them. once you buy an HPBook youll never need any other book on that same subject. period. they even go over troubleshooting specific symptoms. good luck with your car.

ok i lied, carburetors are very complex. for anthing other than cleaning and idle mixture i suggest finding a mechanic/family member/friend, usually an older more experienced guy who knows his stuff, to tune it with you. they usually dont mind teaching yougsters like us how to do stuff if youre interested and make an appointment with them at their shop and pay them as usual. you can learn a lot that way. still get a book, though.

again, good luck! :cool:

Ha! Yea im trying to learn just more of a time constraint then anything is stopping me... I have school, and im a Varsity basketball player.. and i have homework, so weekends are the only time i have off and then I have church.. and only about a day or less to tackle whatever new problem the elky throws at me. but i have done little things that i never thought that i could do, like change the water pump, radiator hoses,brakes, replaced valve covers. S im slowly getting around to learning but i do want a book. Even something like a Hanes for the Elky, i think that would help alot...!!!!
Thanks for chatting you guys
Steven http://estaban87.tripod.com