distributor and other upgrades (2024)

does anybody know where to pickup up a HEI distributor cheaper that 300 to 400 bucks? and also some minor upgrades with out taking the motor apart. im going to put a 500cfm Holley 2bbl and has anybody put E3 spark pugs in a yblock? anything will help thanks

Let me get this straight your honda has 1.6 liters and my bottle of mountain dew has 2

Steve will probably jump in here...

55fordf100,

What size is your y block and what exhaust are you running? I have a holley 350 two barrel on my 272 and it is plenty of carb for that engine. I'd argue that atwo barrel 350 is all you need for a 292 most people get better performance from a 390, 450, 495four barrel as the primaries are smaller and provide a crisp throttle. A larger carb will not be advantageous as the engine/exhaust will not flow more than about 90% volumetric efficiency. Do the math.

E plugs are probably snake oil. Most exotic metal cored multi tipped spark plugs are. Most of these variableshave been tried several times. There is a reason that spark plugs are the same as they were 100 years ago when they were invented.

If you have an original 55 y block and it's still running vacuum only advance and a 94. It's a really good project to change to a Modern carb on a later manifold and a dizzy with both mechanical and vacuum advance and dual exhaust. This makes the y crisp and energetic and surprisingly good in the configuration.

Cheers

im putting lake side headers on it and a flame thower 3 coil on it thats my plan any other in puts?

Let me get this straight your honda has 1.6 liters and my bottle of mountain dew has 2

If you decide to ad Pertronix get the Pertronix 2 not the original.Pertronix 2 wont burn out if you leave the key turned on without the motor running.The original Pertronix will burn out in minutes because of the heat generated without the motor running.

This illustration shows the "three lobed stem" Motorcraft Y-block distributor you are looking for. Often available as a replacement for a 1964 Ford 292 truck application. Saves a hassle in explaining your intent to a sales clerk.

The point plate will look like this....

The points can be replaced with one of several aftermarket "points replacement" trigger units. The earliest version of the Pertronix Ignitior has a tendency to fry if you accidently leave it on with the engine dead - but any of the others will work fine. The upper rotor shaft (cam), points,and parts can also be swappedwith the trigger unit of a Ford "Duraspark II" distributor (used from 1974 to 1985). This isn't a difficult mechanical conversion once you have the parts in front of you. The Ford triggers are pretty bulletproof - and parts are available. Once you have the Ford trigger in there - all sorts of control boxes and coilscan be used to complete the ignition.

Basically the power of an inductiveignition spark has to do with how many amps you can reliably feed the coil to charge it. The higher energy electronic spark systems have coils with low primary OHMs - and therefore have to have higher rated grounding transistors and amperage control circuitry. If you are interested in doing your own - and for a low price and straight forward design - you cannot beat using the Ford trigger with a GM type HEI "four pin" controller.

None of this is rocket science and you will soon have a powerful ignition - with no great expense. Using the low OHM GM coil shown belowwill net "high performance" without the big price of big name hot rod parts suppliers. This one is out of a 4.3 S-10 pickup and had two nice snap connectors. Primary OHMs are about .5 - don't use one with a controller that doesn't have amperage control. Many of the "points replacement" unit specifically say they must be used with coils that don't have lower than 1.5 OHMs primary resistance- this would burn them up.

The GM 4 pin controllers are avaiable from several outfits - besides left over "real" GM parts. It gets mounted on a nice chunk of aluminum with heat couplant paste (and hidden away from water) to reject heat. Mounted outside the distributor (where it was originally located in the factory distributor) nets a huge gain in heat reduction.

I rig these up with an ignition ("on")operated relay to handle the amps needed to fully charge the coil - and do it out under the hood. Keeps the big loads out of your dash. The HEI controller uses a Motorola chip to turn on the coil with a transistor ground - and then shuts it off when it has handled all the heat it can reliably manage.

The TFI "E-core" coil will work just fine - and I'd say it will have a long and useful life. But the energy it delivers just won't be up there like the GM unit shown in the test illustration above. The speed at which the coil current rises will be considerably reduced - due to the greater primary resistance. The Ford trigger beats the GM set-up hands down - but the controllers and coilsdon't have the high current edge.

MSD has a "Streetfire" replacement coil for the TFI unit - about .44 OHMs primary - and it will usethe same snap on Ford connector.Given the opportunity - I'd say try them both and see what you think. This unit below is a commonreplacement for the GM coil - and with the exception of the connector - looks just like the Ford part.