Mopar HEI Distributor?

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mr.demon

mr.demon

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I just ordered a HEI distibutor for my dart sport 340. Basically my Ignition wiring is fried from old age. This unit has the ECU and Ballast built in to eliminate some of the bad wiring. Just wondering if anyone has ever used one and what was your all's experience with them? I just want to know if they are a good idea vs stock electronic ignition? Oh, the unit is on www.skipwhiteperfomance.com and the part number is 6713-R and the super E coil isn't listed on their website but the part number for ebay or google is 370692732102. Thanks for any input, Jake
 
Some guys run these --- my questions are "just how good" are they for 50 bucks?

Where / what do you use for replacement parts, vacuum, pickup, cap, rotor, and module?

There doesn't seem to be a downloadable instruction/ parts book.
 
I've never used a kit like this before just wanted input. The people I talked to said I could order it with a female cap since the one they had listed was a male cap. The vacuum advance module looks the same on the side of distributor and they said I would still be using the stock starter relay and keyswitch. The stock wiring was fine until I dropped a lifter after trying to crank it back up it quit turning over completely. Coil went bad started seeping and now I can't keep the battery charged even with a good altenator. I haven't got my car back from the shop yet from getting cam and lifters replaced. The guys there said I'm drawing 12 volts from "somewhere" they don't have a wiring diagram but seem to think it's a grounding problem somewhere inside the car and not under the hood and refuse to fix it since they are only responsible for mechanical problems. They wanted me to order this HEI kit just so they could fire my car up to make sure cam lifters, and carb are set right. Then the rest is my problem.
 
replacement cap and rotor is available from jegs..male or female terminals on cap..
 
That guy has a brick and motor store about 35 minutes from my house in Tennessee I am going to go pick up one next spring and try it out.
 
Cool thanks for all the input. I'll have the dart back in a couple weeks I'll let you guys know if it works out or not. I've fried two orange boxes so far but cannot seem to burn the blue one from o'reilly's for some reason lol.
 
I have one of those distributors on my 65 273. I went with a Flame Thrower II coil for a stock appearance. The car seems to run better and my gas mileage went up 2 mpg over the Mopar electronic ignition I had (orange box), although to be fair, I also advanced the timing 5 more degrees when I installed the distributor. With the full 12 volt coil I'm running my plugs with .050" gap.

I did have a failure of the ignition module chip after a few months. Skip White sent me a replacement chip for free. Normally they're $10. Or you could just keep a second distributor in the trunk. When I went to install it, I found that the locating pins on the chip did not line up with the holes in the heat sync. This would prevent the chip from having a good thermal bond with the heat sync and probably led to the early failure. I shaved the locating pins off the new chip with a razor blade and installed the chip with some PC thermal paste. It hasn't failed since although I only drove it maybe three more months before tearing the car down for the restoration.

My advice is to take off the chrome cover and inspect the mounting of the chip to the heat sync. If there's not a tight fit, pull the chip off and shave off the pins. The thermal paste should still be there and as long as it's not hard, you can just reuse it, just don't wipe it off. If it's hard, you can get more at a Best Buy or Radio Shack. It's used in computers between the CPU and the heat sync.
 
I am running this unit on my 318. Been on for a year now, no problems thus far. This in a '72 that had no electronic ignition to begin with.
C
 
67Dart273 said:
Where / what do you use for replacement parts, vacuum, pickup, cap, rotor, and module?
Click to expand...

Procompelectronics sells the same distributor and also has parts. Their part number for the distributor is PC7006.

http://store.procompelectronics.com...0-series-ready-to-run-distributor-vacuum.aspx

The 7000 series parts fit this distributor.

http://store.procompelectronics.com/p-683-7000-series-distributor-vacuum-advance-canister.aspx

http://store.procompelectronics.com/p-578-7000-series-magnetic-pickup.aspx

http://store.procompelectronics.com/p-404-7000-and-8000-series-distributor-rotor-black.aspx

http://store.procompelectronics.com/p-276-7000-and-8000-series-female-distributor-cap-black.aspx

http://store.procompelectronics.com/p-267-7000-and-8000-series-male-distributor-cap-black.aspx

http://store.procompelectronics.com/p-592-7000-series-distributor-igntion-module.aspx


Granted, none of this helps if you're broke down on the side of the road. But for another 45 bucks, you could have a spare distributor in your trunk.
 
Many posts on here about it. Everyone who bought one seems to love it. I bought one but haven't installed yet, but it looks very well made. The main complaints seem to come from those who have never seen one, many just hate anything made in China.
 
Made in China does not automatically equal cheap. Cheap US specs to a Chinese manufacturer does equal crap though. It comes down to this: if the distributor or company accepts the Chinese product prior to marketing, it aint the manufacturers issue, its the distributors issue. Eg. Ipad, slick product made in China to grueling Apple US specs, and about every cell phone out there...
 
I have mine installed by a pushbutton for now it made a huge difference in how fast the car starts and now I don't have to worry about the old dried out wiring that's currently in the car for the ignition. I'm sure I still have my work cut out for me as to what wire I have to splice into to make it start by key again. I used the pushbutton so I could load my car onto the trailer without having to push it on by hand. It also felt like it idled better but that could be the carb also. So far it seems like money well spent. The coil was actually more expensive than the distributor. What does a stock coil put out? The new one says it puts out 50,000 volts.
 
HEI systems will make the car start, run, and idle better along with an increase in fuel economy.
The longer hotter spark lights and burns the fuel better.
 
Skip White's e-core coil is only $20. The spec'ed output voltages for coils are a bit silly. The energy in the spark matters more. With an e-core coil, you should be able to open your spark gap to at least 0.050". That will give better mileage and power.

If you get mis-fire when accelerating hard on a free-way ramp, lower the gap until it goes away. With intake boost, you need less gap. It is harder to throw a spark at high cylinder pressure. You can throw a spark 1" with HEI in the open air, but you need an in-line spark tester to know what is happening in the cylinder.
 
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