Hei conversion troubleshooting

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Ok, so in a quest to compare my working points with my not working electronic distributors, I found that the rotor phasing is very different.

At base timing only (distributor off car) the points distributor is firing (points fully open) right as the trailing edge of rotor has passed the contact.

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Both electronic distributors are firing (reluctor aligned with magnet) perfectly centered up with the contact. So when I was looking at rotor phasing, thats what I was seeing... That's where i thought it was supposed to be at idle. Obviously with vacuum the rotor moves counterclockwise toward the front of the contact. But my issue is with vac advance unhooked as well.

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So, the question is if the rotor phasing is off on both of these electronic distributors, how and why? The reluctor on the distributor I got from Ray is clearly installed with the roll pin next to the clockwise arrow, for small block. Really, it looks like my points distributor shouldn't be working right, but it is. I am really confused now.

Am I grasping at straws here? With vac advance unhooked the fact that the rotor tip on the electronic distributors is perfectly aligned should make them run better than the points dist. Unless this difference in phasing is totally unrelated to my original problem.
 
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I cut the tabs off my see-thru cap so i could rotate it and adjust phasing at will. Set static timing to 10btdc, revved the engine up until it started running badly, and rotated the cap around so it was triggering on leading edge, trailing edge, center, really didn't make any difference. Still ran badly. So this is probably not a rotor phasing problem.
 
According to what you pictured, rotor phasing appears to be better with the electronic dist than the points one. Vacuum advance, tho, may change that.
 
Points distributor I am running is 2642718, from original engine 1967 318.

I am out of stuff to try, and i leave in 12 days on my road trip and need to get some serious drive time on the car between then and now to sort out any reliability issues.
 
smokinnjokin said:
Points distributor I am running is 2642718, from original engine 1967 318.

I am out of stuff to try, and i leave in 12 days on my road trip and need to get some serious drive time on the car between then and now to sort out any reliability issues.
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Hate to say this you might want to run the points distrib for now with all of the issues they work fine for 10K with a good set of points/cond. Just keep a spare in the car JIC
 
Pretty sure you want 1.5 ohms. and the ballast resistor. Hey you jumped the ballast resistor right?
 
Thanks Ray.
I'm just gonna run this distributor for now and put the HEI stuff in a box. I will play with it again when I get down to Texas and have the time. I was just thinking today it is possible I have 2 bad ignition modules. Unlikely, but possible.
Am I reading that diagram right that the distributor has 52 crank degrees all in? That seems crazy high, and would put me at 62 degrees if I run 10 static. Which is what I have been running, 10-12. I mean, it is a low compression 360 but that seems really high for the vac.
 
Ok I've read through this entire thread and theres one little stupid thing that hasnt been suggested: are you sure your firing order is correct?
 
Willyrd said:
Ok I've read through this entire thread and theres one little stupid thing that hasnt been suggested: are you sure your firing order is correct?
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LOL good call back to basics sometimes. But runs fine with the points and the cap just put on from electric.
 
halifaxhops said:
Pretty sure you want 1.5 ohms. and the ballast resistor. Hey you jumped the ballast resistor right?
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Yep. My wiring harness was in really bad shape though, I have cut and spliced just about every connector. So I went ahead and bought a new one from Herb's. I will put the ballast back on before I fry my stock coil.

Willyrd said:
Ok I've read through this entire thread and theres one little stupid thing that hasnt been suggested: are you sure your firing order is correct?
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Yep, just triple-checked against the diagram Ray posted.
 
halifaxhops said:
LOL good call back to basics sometimes. But runs fine with the points and the cap just put on from electric.
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I saw that but I also read that when he put the old rotor on again the first time.it was fixed, so I'm wondering if hes getting so flustered that hes forgetting the easy stuff. I've never seen someone put so much time into a chinese distrubutor. I've seen cars thatll run with swapped wires but not rev. I did that on my old 72 Rustang and it pissed me off until I realized how stupid of a mistake it was
 
smokinnjokin said:
Yep. My wiring harness was in really bad shape though, I have cut and spliced just about every connector. So I went ahead and bought a new one from Herb's. I will put the ballast back on before I fry my stock coil.



Yep, just triple-checked against the diagram Ray posted.
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Has to be something simple I have done hundreds of electronics and never had one with phasing issues, even some crazy *** custom ones. Not making sense. I have a ecu tester if you want me to check them.
 
Willyrd said:
I saw that but I also read that when he put the old rotor on again the first time.it was fixed, so I'm wondering if hes getting so flustered that hes forgetting the easy stuff. I've never seen someone put so much time into a chinese distrubutor. I've seen cars thatll run with swapped wires but not rev. I did that on my old 72 Rustang and it pissed me off until I realized how stupid of a mistake it was
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I know the one I sent him was a oem mopar rebuilt checked out fine on the machine. Has to be something ecu related with it doing the same on two distributors.
 
smokinnjokin said:
Thanks Ray.
I'm just gonna run this distributor for now and put the HEI stuff in a box. I will play with it again when I get down to Texas and have the time. I was just thinking today it is possible I have 2 bad ignition modules. Unlikely, but possible.
Am I reading that diagram right that the distributor has 52 crank degrees all in? That seems crazy high, and would put me at 62 degrees if I run 10 static. Which is what I have been running, 10-12. I mean, it is a low compression 360 but that seems really high for the vac.
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https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/attachments/318-jpeg.1715376238/

Where are you reading this? Looks to me like it says 10-12 1/2 mechanical at 2350, would be about 24-25 at the crank

Vacuum says 10 1/2 --13 1/2 so about 27 at the crank.
 
Willyrd said:
I saw that but I also read that when he put the old rotor on again the first time.it was fixed, so I'm wondering if hes getting so flustered that hes forgetting the easy stuff. I've never seen someone put so much time into a chinese distrubutor. I've seen cars thatll run with swapped wires but not rev. I did that on my old 72 Rustang and it pissed me off until I realized how stupid of a mistake it was
Click to expand...

Willyrd said:
How much was the dizzy if you dont mind me asking?
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$110 shipped off ebay. From R. Ehrenberg. I moved on from that one a while ago, assuming it was bad. There’s probably nothing wrong with it. I guess I will try to sell it and recoup at least some of the money I have spent on this HEI conversion.
 
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