Hei?

Discussion in ''Da Nailhead' started by Keith Conkle, May 30, 2002.

  1. Keith Conkle

    Keith Conkle Once you go Black........

    Is there any way possible to get a GM HEI dist. to work on a 401/425?
     
  2. NailheadinCA

    NailheadinCA Buick Nut

    HEI in my Nailhead!!!

    Keith,

    I have a 1965 Nailhead in my Skylark. I wanted to get rid of the points and found a guy at the Long Beach, California hot rod swap meet who takes your stock nailhead distributor and installs over the counter GM HEI parts into it. When it is done you have a stock looking distributor with GM HEI. The conversion cost me $175.00 but it works perfect and it looks like a standard point distributor. His Web site is WWW.Davessmallbodyheis.com. Check it out and E-mail me with any questions I can answer at RNatUNITEK@aol.com. Good Luck.

    Ralph
    64 Skylark
    401 CID Nailhead
    :TU:
     
  3. BuickStreet

    BuickStreet Well-Known Member

    I too have met Dave from Dave's small body HEI's and can vouch that he does know what he's doing and is a great guy to boot.

    Use him for all your distributor needs.

    Dave Ray - "Dave's Small-Body HEIs"

    (562) 699-6949
    (562) 695-9199 Fax
    sparkman451@earthlink.net
    11605 Waddell Street
    Whittier, California 90606
    http://www.DavesSmallBodyHEIs.com/

    Bill S.
     
  4. IgnitionMan

    IgnitionMan Guest

    Hey, BuickStreet, had a great time when you visited that day, and your web site is great! And, thanks, Nailhead, all of you, for the blatant plug.

    Just FYI, I do do two different conversions to the stock cast iron Nailhead dists, a full HEI that uses remote mounted coil, and MSD trigger, plugs directly into the 6 series MSD boxes and can run other manufacturer's boxes.
     
  5. BuickStreet

    BuickStreet Well-Known Member

    You're welcome Dave.

    When we find a craftsman like yourself who understand Buicks we let everyone know. Most speed shops and mechanics I've met have looked to me for guidance as to what to do - big mistake. What do I know? Not much, but it's more than they know which is scary.

    It's a load off my mind that all I have to do is give you mechanical specs of the car and my driving style (leadfoot) and you can custom build a curve for my situation. That's neat and a big relief too.

    While we have you, Could you briefly touch on the benefits of each type of build (remote coil HEI and MSD trigger type) and which one you would recommend? I currently have a Crane PS40 coil ( http://www.cranecams.com/import/coils.htm ) will this coil be suitable for my application or do you have a favorite coil that you like to recommend?

    Bill S.
     
  6. IgnitionMan

    IgnitionMan Guest

    Bill, I'd go for the oil filled coils over ANY epoxy design and ESPECIALLY for the large, coil-in- cap HEI, ALWAYS over the in-cap mightmares, both stock and aftermarket. Epoxy doesn't transfer heat well, and although the outside temp feels cooler to the touch with them, the core temps stay higher than oil filled coils. An oil filled coil will show the heat it is transfering in the jacket temperarture a lot more than an epoxy coil will.

    Racers use resin type carb spacers to reject heat back into the intake manifold and off the carb base, as the resin is a good heat barrier, not a transfer medium, it works the same when resins (epoxies) are used on heat producing coil windings.

    Since heat is resistance, and resistance is lower spark energy output, I'd say you want the cooilest core temps you can get to keep the spark at peak efficiency, and oil filled coils, like the PS 20 thru PS 60 would be the ones to use. Although I haven't tested the Crane coils yet (I have two of each here for evaluation), I can say the Accel 8140 and 8140C coils work exellent with an HEI system, and are oil filled, mount off the cap of the large HEI, just better all the way around. The Accel 8140 was the coil you viewed make spark when you were here.

    With any oil filled coil, the nose (end where the coil wire connects into) needs to be placed as upright as possible to ensure the coil has the windings submerged in the oil filling. As much as 25 degrees tilt is OK, but they should never be placed upside down or on their sides, as they may not have the windings properly submerged in the oil and that situation can cause overheating of the windings.

    Differences in the full HEI and MSD Trigger only are the full HEI only needs the Accel coil, good magnetic suppression wire set, a full 12 volt power input to make a complete ignition system. The MSD trigger only is simply a trigger distributor to run the MSD and other ignition boxes available. With the MSD trigger distributor, one would need an aftermarket ignition control box, coil and wires to make a complete system.

    Thank you for the questions, sir.
     
  7. BuickStreet

    BuickStreet Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the lowdown Dave.

    Interesting point about the coil laying on it's side as that's the way my coil is sitting right now. I'll have to correct that soon I think.

    Bill S.
     
  8. IgnitionMan

    IgnitionMan Guest

    Bill,

    Yes. The coil needs to be upright, to ensure that the oil covers the windings, so they completely cool. On its side, the oil can expose part of the windings and allow them to overheat.

    Still, this is much better than having an epoxy coil overheat no matter what way/angle it is mounted.
     

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