eBay HEI Distributor - Ignition Module Failure

airgrabber said

Friend bought a chinese HEI for a 351 Windsor Ford. Looks like a Ford distributor from the shaft down but a GM HEI from the base and cap up. Had GM hei style cap with coil in it, GM style advance weights. First one ate itself - something became unhooked from the vac advance unit and the connecting rod spun around and shredded the module, wiring and internals of the distributor. Second chinese one had the advance weights BREAK right at the pivot points, also flinging junk inside the thing and basically self destructing itself.
That chinese knock off garbage? Run away, and fast...

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Do you know the brand name it was sold under. The cheap "ready to run" distributor most have bought recently sounds different. It doesn't have the coil-in-cap, but uses an external coil. I haven't heard of any mechanical failures of those. I have one (haven't installed) and it looks well-made, but sometimes it is only after something breaks that you see it used inferior metal. If the HEI module fails, you can use any HEI module. You don't have to mount the HEI under the chrome cover and could put it anywhere, but the distributor is a convenient location. GM did that on all their HEI's with no overheating problems I know of.