Distributor recommendations

I'm on "team Gary".  No Holleys for me.

Another reason to dislike Holley Carbs:

An interesting twist to this story:
This truck came to me with a Holley Brawler in hand.
someone ruined it be taking a wizzer wheel to it.
Now I know why.

The back vacuum fitting on the Holleys hits against the EGR spacer plate.

I guess they just cranked on the carb nuts as hard as they could because they cracked the body of the throttle plate at that tube.
I bought a new Holley and that is how I figured things out.
So after making the EGR delete plate, I just took my grinder to the spacer plate until the surfaces mated and I can still use that vac if needed.

test fit. modify. repeat.  this is how you do it. never assume it will fit. use mirrors, cameras or any other to see. good job. there are so many different specific versions of carbs spec'd out by car companies and made by subs like carter, Holley etc. not all 600's are the same.  

Hmmm

I've never had any problems mounting a Holley on an EGR.

But then I've always used a proper base gasket with bushes in the corners, so you can't crank on the ears hard enough to warp the flange. (see my advice to Vivek the other day) Not a pizza box or gasket cork to seal hot exhaust gases.

The 750 I've got on my truck now isn't a problem because I have a Trans,-Dapt spacer and I'm actually using that port.

Cry about it if you like, but we can't fix stupid.

My distributor was definitely NFG so I ordered an HEI one.
I'm wiring up a 12g relay.
I gapped the plugs at .045.
I'm Just waiting for Saturday delivery.
Fingers crossed. It would be nice to hear it run for the first time.

Please let us know how it works out for you and leave a vendor review in the marketplace section.  

Well, it starts.

I havent put a light on it yet, but if the distributor needs to go further counter-clockwise, that would be a problem because as is, one of the cap notches is already up against the water tube.

Just shift every wire over one terminal and you'll have another 45° of adjustment.  💡👍

that can be a fair thing to do. if you are using an hei then that is definately one of the issues. on 302/5.0 it is also right against the heater hose fitting.

I shifted the wires 1 terminal counter-clockwise.
I also took a grinder to the water fitting to get full range of movement.

Guess what, I drove it around the block for the first time.

Thanks guys.

Congratulations!  That is such a good feeling!!!  

Glad the HEI is working for you!  

Do you have a tach, and is that wire hooked up?
Where is the initial spark set now that you can turn the distributor?
Does the starter labour on hot restarts without spark retard?

Do you intend to do any tuning of weights, springs and vacuum can?

Hi Jim

I have a factory tach.
Once I locate the wire to it I will hook it up.

Yes, I will get to messing with the springs to get max timing eventually. Keep in mind, I didn't get a light on it at all yet. It got late.

My #1 is on the first terminal clockwise of the power/tach connector now.
I get full range.

No, the starter isn't laboring on hot starts.

Still, being such a cheap unit, I will keep spare parts in my toolbox.

The thing is, Jegs, Summitt, Autozone, B.Graveyard, none of them make clear why theirs are better that the Amazon cheapos.
So I am stuck with the old you get what you pay for thing.

I will say this though, from messing with it so much, the nub for indexing the cap is almost worn off because the plastic is so soft. Also, the attachment screws are so cheap that they are starting to strip.

Sounds like they used the best Chineseum on the parts.

Some of these HEI units have a separate wire for tach.
In the harness it's the same bk/gr ground as goes back to the DS-II Module.

Edit EVTM image:


Caps w/ coils are cheap enough. 👍

The 5 pin GM modules will retard spark if that 5th (H) pin is grounded, so you can wire a micro relay to the (I) terminal of the fender relay and have it retard when cranking.