Small Cap HEI?

[Chero77]

Earlier today I was talking with a Chevy guy who said GM makes (or made) small cap HEI distributors. Supposedly the same as a standard HEI except it used an external coil. Anyone ever heard of these? If they exist, they sound like a good swap canidate for our rigs as the large cap HEIs (the only type I know of) are a very tight fit on an AMC V8.

Just did a web search and their are companies that make small cap HEI distributors conversions for AMC V8s. Heres one:

http://www.davessmallbodyheis.com/

On a related topic, more of a rant, how come all of the Mallory Unilite Dual Points I keep seeing on EBAY have mechanical advance only. Nobody cared about drivability back in the day? I guess everyone was a racer and engine operation below 5000 rpm was just never a consideration.

[ June 05, 2003, 01:28 AM: Message edited by: Chero77 ]

[Brown Bear]

Sounds like a good deal if it's actually true. I've never seen one though. Would this make the cap smaller in radius as well? Seems that would increase the chance of cross sparking, something just about everybody here has tried to avoid by going tfi.

[paddyp]

The later model computer controlled HEIs eliminated the module inside the cap, and moved to an external coil, so yes they did make the cap a small size again. Brown Bear is right though, I thought part of the good thing about the TFI and HEI upgrade is the larger cap, minimizing crossfire in the cap. When you start running higher coil voltages, that would increase the chances of crossfire, wouldn't it?

[The Anti-Chrysler]

I've had several GM vehicles with the small cap HEI, and they've always been nothing but great. I'd like to see a small cap GM setup for our rigs, since I prefer GM parts over Ford anyday!!

[paddyp]

That guy says that epoxy filled coils are not reliable; I ran a HEI in a 327 Chevy past 6000 RPM on a regular basis and never ran into problems, always had plenty of power. I also thought the TFI coils (which are supposed to be pretty reliable) were epoxy filled.

[jeepinrandy]

Early HEIs' had external coils, could that be what he was talking about? I had one on my 258 for a while, same large diameter distributer with a short cap. Simular to a TFI conversion.