Are these distributors any good or dependable. Also looking at the summit HEI's. I would like a pertronix but do not want to spend more. I am rebuilding a 64 330 and have already spent a lot on this rebuild.

 

I would look for a real GM HEI from a salvage yard or seller here on the forum.

edit: the GM HEIs seem to work well with no issues in factory applications.

 

FWIW i have been running the Proform HEI for the last 8 years with no issues. I have been burning up caps this past summer but i think i have a resistance issue in my power feed. If i do anything im going to a DUI unit. I got my money's worth from the proform unit.

 

I run GMPP HEI systems with brass terminal caps and gray colored rotors on all my GM V-8 street engines with ZERO issues and they are competitively priced. Exception is my 55 Gasser that needs a custom curve for racing and it runs a DUI.
I was pleased to discover that my recently acquired 72 Cutlass 350 had already been retrofitted with a GM HEI.

Modules, caps and rotors are readily available through local parts houses.

 

Do the "real" hei systems come factory on any year oldsmobile or would I be adapting a chevy unit

 

They came on later 70's engines, a Chevy distributor will not work.

 

I run a Summit HEI distributor in my 71 98. It works well but to really dial it in I needed to put a re-curve kit in it.

 

Olds started using them in 1975. The later ones were computer controlled so don't get one of those - sorry I don't remember the year this started (somewhere in the 80s?) but they do not have a vacuum canister. So any Olds HEI that has a vacuum canister will work.

 

Will work, yes. But the timing curves will be different, so it's not just plug and play. At least not for optimum performance.

 

there's also Pertronix Ignitor III p/n D7110700 - it's a point-style cap HEI which has plenty of clearance at the firewall of my '72 Cutlass. I run an MSD Blaster coil with it and so far no complaints.

 

Pertronix and the like are not HEI. They are an electronic switch (transistor) replacement for the mechanical switch (points).

 

This thread got me thinking, and I went out and pulled the numbers off my current distributor.

Will any distributor work? According to the numbers on mine, mine is out of a 260. Sure, I've changed the weights and what not, but is that really the best distributor to be using for a 350?

Number is 1103320-78-80

 

Agreed - not 'technically' an HEI in context to the GM-style distributor but essentially a higher-power electronic straight plug and play setup.


seems to be a great piece either way

 

All of the distributors are essentially the same, with the differences being the weights / center bar that control the advance curve profile, and the vacuum canister that controls the amount of vacuum advance and the vacuum level that starts to activate it. The one you have will be fine since you have changed the weights and "what not".

 

Thanks!