EF HEI in an OF Engine, what are the results?

:? doesn't seem like it should run as well as yours.

 

ok, when i bought my jeep from my dad, it had points dist. he gave me 2 HEI's for it and i went to maine. when i tried em, it fired up and ran fine, until i put it to power. then it backfired through the carb and out the exhaust. it ran like sheeut. thats when i opened it up, did some research on the web and decided it was an even fire. both were actually.
i purchased an odd fire dist from a 75 regal and dropped it in and it TOTALLY blew away the coil (since the nut was rounded and wasnt moving the points like it was supposed too).
but it did run and it idled as an OF with EF HEI. there isnt THAT much of a difference, one will fire early and one will fire late (or so)...hence your arcing. but..it will run. now, for yours to run good with lots of power? i am thinking you have an EF crank bud. that would lead to an EF cam and everything else. scary...but i looked on the buick history page and it listed the differences (there werent many at all between early EF and OF). of course '79 and up there were, but not early ones. maybe you got an OF block (or PO) from the factory and all they did was stick EF parts in it?
i am curious to find out what you find because thats what i wanted to do. keep the narrower runners, but make it an EF motor for vib loss.
keep us informed..=)

 

Sparky you can tell if it is an EF dist., by the spikes that come off the dist shaft....if they are evenly spaced you have and EF dist. if the spikes are not evenly spaced its an OF dist. Let me know what you find.

 

they are also different sizes. the first one is a larger triangle than the 2nd and thats how you align it to run...i dont know about the timing gear or any of that on a 225. i have never had one open. only the 231 odd and even.

 

I have different versions of Even-Fire Dists that I have run on EF and OF engines. One of my old even-fire dists has a three point star on the shaft. This dist ran an even-fire just wonderfully for years. and ran an OF with an OF cap. I have been told that the odd-fire critical part is the dist cap and that an EF dist will run and OF engine if it has an OF cap. "PARTS MIKE" also verifys that an EF dist will run an OF engine if you only change over to an OF dist cap. PARTS MIKE claimed to have an OF Buick V6 engine in his Jeep that runs an EF dist with a OF cap. PARTS MIKE may have just been lucky enough ( like me ) to match the right kind of EF with an OF cap.

I say this because I tryed A six point stared p-u EF dist on an OF with changed cap- but it back-fired and ran rough. Keep in mind that I also put the EF dist with a three point shaft PU and an OF cap, it ran the OF 225 A-OK and wonderful. I always thought it was the three point star that made the difference--- but maybe I did not have all the facts.

Now I read that some six point shaft pu id running an OF engine!

From what I have done and read-- these are my conclusions (confusions?)----Some EF dist will not run an OF with a cap change-- but some will six or three star shaft p-u is not the critical difference.

Humm Maybe its a difference in the electronics related to the P=U sensor????

Any other ideas?

 

i was wondering how you got it to run... adam, is the sensor (the magnet) also evenly space or odd spaced?

if you look at http://home.off-road.com/~merls_garage/oddfire.html i'm not sure how you could get an ef to fire up and of engine. esp. with the differing degrees of firing angle between the odd cyls and even cyls.

but then, i'm quite often wrong.

 

we have a HEI and it is great

 

How many cylinders is mine running on if yours gets 2nd gear scratch with 12.5" wide tires on 5 cylinders? I have a DELCO if you want to get back to your roots.