its been a long while since I posted. moved bought a house and had life come up a few times but now its back to the cutlass. ive pulled the front clip and already had a few might as wells come up. the 455 ran pretty good for sitting how ever long it did and just getting enough to run again. I have the carb and valve covers off at the moment. im replacing gaskets and rebuilding the carb it needed it bad. My question is about converting from points to hei distributor. Ive looked up about as much information as I can find but would like more from people that actually drive oldsmobiles. from what it looks like I can get a decent hei distributor with coil built in on amazon and change a few wires to around 10 gauge and basically be set. from everything ive done to the cutlass not one thing has been this easy and I hate wiring with a passion. has anyone made or seen a decent how to guide on this process? also will the hei fit with a built-in coil and I feel like im looking over something very obvious and more than likely I am. any help is always greatly appreciated.
thanks for the time

 

All you need to do is run a keyed 12v source to the Batt+ terminal on the HEI. Also be advised that the stock timing will not work due to the difference in mechanical advance curve. It's simple upgrade.

 

Also the HEI distributor cap is quite a bit larger than a points cap. It may interfere with your air cleaner, some have had to cut and alter the aircleaner. Its also tighter/closer to the firewall so there can be issues with rotation and the vacume advance cannister. There are a couple of guys that convert a points dist to HEI, looks like points but guts are HEI, dristributor Dave and someone else.

 

ok doesn't sound to bad hopefully I can pull this off soon. wiring always seems to go south on me

 

thanks steverw. that's one of the worries I have. was hoping someone has done it on a 69 and could tell me if the big bulky one will fit

 

The HEI cap WILL interfere with the stock air cleaner on a small block Olds. Factory HEI installations used an air cleaner housing that had a "notch" in the back to clear the cap and wires. Alternately, if you have hood clearance you can use a small spacer between the carb and air cleaner housing. You can sometimes find these in a wrecking yard on mid-1980s Chevy pickups, or buy new from the aftermarket.

 

Don't forget to gap your spark plugs for hei

 

The simplest way is to run a wire from the IGN spade terminal in the center of the fuse box through an existing hole in the firewall to the BATT terminal on the HEI.

There is really no need to change the plug gap; the .035" gap specified for points will work fine. You can open it up some if you like, though. I run mine at .045" instead of .035" . And I highly recommend you NOT go to the .060" or .080" gap that was spec for the '80s era low compression, leaned out engines.