Hei distributor clearance???

I dicided sometime today that it was a good time to install the Hei distributor that has looked so nice sitting on my workbench.

here's the THING: I know by reading that the corner of the intake needs some "clearance grinding" to get the distributor in. I have gotten it to where the base of the dist will sit in the hole nicely and time up to the cam and the whole bit, I had to remove alot of the edge of the bolt boss for that. when I try to put the cap on, now I need to grind away a whole bunch more metal.

are you guys still running a bolt in the front hole, or have you ground the hole to the point where the bolt will no longer fit?????

 

i had to go with a smaller head bolt then what was stock, and i had to drind the corner of that off as well. if that bolt ever needs to come out im gonna have to use vise grips i think. i left the bolt size and thread size alone, just found a bolt in my bucket o bolts, that had a very small head (i think it was a hex head to be honest) HTH i would get you pics, but my jeep is on the other side of a big pond right now

 

Thanks Erik, I'm working on something similar. I just don't think it would be too much to ask for you to take a quick trip home and get a picture to help out here..

 

man i wish i could, if you want i can call my buddy justin and ask him if he could shoot me a couple and i could email them to you. im sure someone else here could get the pics faster though.

 

I'm just razzin ya, I know what it's like to be across the world from my toys, I just never had a bunch of guys online talking about theirs everyday to make it worse. I've got most of the grinding on the manifold done. I think I can put a socket head bolt in and grind the head slightly to get it to work. I am kicking around the idea of removing one of the cap screw bosses to give more room for adjustment. did you do this with yours?

Thanks for takin the time :stout:

 

That would work too. Like i said i think i used a torx head or allen head. something like that. i think your way would work good though. sorry i cant get pics for ya

 

I used a 3/8 x 16 thread 1.5" button head bolt.

 

good idea, I'll see if I can find one tomorrow.

 

good luck

 

used an allen bolt. after the transfer case is rebuilt, going to make the hei work.

 

Piece o cake, I can get them all day long at Fastenal, MSC, Traverse tool, McMaster Carr. Heck we may have a box of them at work, since we use so many button head bolts.

 

I got mine at True Value. Not sure if you have one locally. A good Ace Hardware should have one also. The allen bolts have a taller head, therefore require more grinding on the manifold to make it fit.

 

Sorry, this is the best pic of 3 I just snapped. Poor light at dusk=bad pictures. I circled the area I ground off of the intake. It prolly won't help at all.

 

ground down the lug on the intake to install.

 

Ok, so i got the HEI in and set up, installed new gas line from the pump to the filter to the carb, new vacuum line to the advance. cleaned away some crud, double no triple checked timing and popped her off....

took a bit but I got it running, sounded like hitting on all 7, but I had to adjust the idle up considerably to get it to idle smoothly. not interested in going into the carb tonight. Have racked my brain, timing is sitting on 4 deg bef TDC, advance advances like it should, engine idles as smooth as could be expected from a cessna.

anyone got any ideas why I would have to ring the idle up after a distributor install???

signed Baffled again

 

IIRC i had to go almost 10 deg tdc to get mine to idle low and smooth. i think i was around 800rpm real smooth after all said and done. it took us almost two nights and alot of beer to get there. IIRC i was on here all the time asking why it was not running smooth. keep trying, once i got min eidaled in i was in heaven

 

Mine is better in the ~6-8 btdc range. Make sure you are warm when setting the idle and timing?