This may sound dumb but hear goes. I was shootin the shit with some guys and we got on the subject of installing a gm hei ignition into a dodge 360. I have heard this is possible and figured this would be a good place to start askin. So whats it take?
Thinking about doing this to my 318. It's just a module swap & you use the orig mopar dizzy. Check out this link, the article you want is at the bottom of the page. http://www.allpar.com/fix/electronic-ignition.html Heres the other link in case you miss it from the original page, looks pretty simple. http://duster318.freeservers.com/tech/hei.html Here's a bit of info on an aftermarket hei complete dizzy for the 318/360 http://www.4wheeloffroad.com/techar...1975_dodge_dui_distributor_install/index.html
Here is a link to one that has a small cap and takes an external coil. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MOPA...62QQcategoryZ33690QQihZ017QQitemZ270250261560 Yea I know it is on "that auction site" but I have bought quite a bit from this vendor and have had great luck. I have one of their Chev HEI units that I have put about 10K on so far and it has been trouble free. I have a friend who is a machinist who had mated the GM top unit with the bottom of the housing from Mopar distributors and built his own units. They have worked pretty well in the vehicles I have seen them installed in. The only problem is that they are big.
Why??????????? The Mopar electronic ignition works fine...I even installed one in my 55 Olds, MANY years ago, before Pertronix.
we run every type of motor on the gm hei module, we make a small heatsink out of aluminum, and bolt it to the firewall. Its easy as pie and gives a hot spark, my dodge 440, ford 460 and chevy 350 all run the same module.
Sometimes I just love this board! I'd love to see a diagram for Ford's too if turboroadster or someone else would care to oblige.
I'll tell you why I would do it. Mopar ignition was always inadequate in my opinion, so was Fords duraspark and the wiring associated with it. Chev ignition wasn't much better until HEI was introduced. And now that you can adapt, why not have the best of both worlds. I've been looking over the 318 stuff I got (lean burn & electronic fuel control(?) and wondering how to get rid of all that stuff without having to revert back to a point distributer. Now the old 38 is going to get a piece of the best system GM ever made in it and I won't have to change the dizzy for junk points. Just hope it works as good as people claim.
38, any 72-77or8 small block mopar dizzy's are electronic ignition. Thats what I'm putting in my 318. I got a 76 dizzy from the 'bay for $10 to use. Or you could by a brand new electronic dizzy directly from any Mopar Performance dealer, it comes with everything you need. That and it would take up less space than the HEI cap. later shawn
Shawn, I have 2 electronic dizzy's now. I want to eliminate the troublesome resistor and the electronic box along with all the wiring that goes with it. Maybe i'm missing something here,(I haven't swapped yet) but I understand that you can use the original Mopar dizzy with just the GM module with a heat sink. No big GM cap. Just need the a non-resistor coil mounted in the usual place and a heavy set of ign wires. Set the plug gap to .045 and its good to go. I am going to try it out in a couple of weeks, keep you posted....
great info - on my next Mope I'll convert the dizzy fo shnizzy... Sometimes this place sounds like a rappers pair-o-dice....
Why the hell would you want to go through all the trouble to use the gm junk? Run the stock mopar and use a MSD and no more worries!
Hey Rodhotz, I enjoy making things work using different stock parts. Anybody can go buy MSD or other after market products. Thats what hot rodding is all about in my book. Buzznut, you don't deserve to have a Mope. It'll just make ya dizzy.
Lean burn and Electronic fuel control were all mid to late 70's and 80's systems. Mopar started useing electronic ignition '69 or '70 and the technology was actually designed by Ted Spalding of Spalding ignition fame. You dont have to have an emissions ignition in your ride. Hey! They were good enough to put in 426 HEMIS and 440 sixpacks in 1970.Right?
Thank you Bruce Lancaster for the links above with the Ford conversion info, it'll come in handy in the near future, (I hope.) As for all the debate on why. Speaking strictly for myself, because I want to. Besides that, the HEI is Ubber dependable, makes a nice hot spark, fast and easy to change out, I usually have at least one spare already in my tool box, (they're small) and if I don't they're easy to find in a pinch. If you're dead on the side of the road at 3:00 a.m. when Johnny Mullet stops in his Comaro he isn't gonna say, "Hell, yeah I got a box full of them Mopar inishun thangs at home, I'll be back in 10 minutes."
The first thing my friends who raced those model of Mopars did was to swap out the distributors for an aftermarket distributor. Yes they are reliable and pretty well trouble free but the wern't known for their accuracy as far as timing goes, at least with the guys I ran around with.
Here's a bracket for about $40 that attaches the GM HEI module to your factory electronic distributor - http://designed2drive.com/
The Jalopy Journal
