HEI problems

[bigbadchev84]

my boss has a 72' chev with a 327 in it. he went to the parts store and bought an HEI about 6months ago and i converted it over for him. it runs great but every month or two it wont sart, i have to pull the cap off and wipe a bunch of dust and scrape crap off the contact points inside the cap. then it runs great again. he called me this weekend and i went over, sure enough it needed cleaned again.....well got it all cleaned up and no spark? wtf? so what is causing all the crap to form in there? i know its not normal.....ive never had this prob in any of my other hei's.

 

[diesel4me]

condensation..

Sounds like condensation is building up inside the cap,that along with a rotor that might have too far of a gap to jump to the contacts inside the cap...the arcing makes ozone and causes the cap contacts to corrode...The best cap and rotor is the "Blue Streak" Standard ignition brand makes with brass inserts (there are others similar) --they seem to resist corroding the longest..

Here in the soggy northeast,a stock cap with aluminum contacts lasts only a year at most..they turn white like cream of wheat,and the resulting resistance causes misfiring and plug fouling..or a "no start" condition--usualy on the day your already late for work..

 

[R72K5]

use dielectric grease, and if you have to then seal the cap to the HEI housing with can of underbody spray coating

make sure the coil high enrgy output button in the cap is in good shape not too short/melted, etc, if so then get another one and make sure the round gasket seal with hole in center that sits under the coil in the cap is there and the spring, it may not be contacting the tang on the rotor because of this

sounds like there is also an arcing issue, gap thats not supposed to exist


also did you run a new power supply off ignition for the HEI to run off of ?

hope didnt use the original points ignition feed wire..(the small white cloth one)



goo dluck

 

[TJS]

Sounds like the windings in the pickup coil are inferior and starting to deteriorate. I bet you have China parts in that thing and they are junk. Also the module might have crapped out as well. When the windings start to go they ionize and react with the posts on the inside of the cap. Seen this before and have done many pickups and modules.
T.J.
www.tjsperformance.com