MN, please note that you gave a quote where the member doesn't specify whether he has an I-6 or a V8, and another quote where the guy says he has a
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , but that after a year, the bearing was out and the gear was a little chewed. A bad bearing could easily cause the distributor gear to be a little chewed. I'm not the only one on here running an HEI, but I have better things to do than spend all night digging through old posts to quote them.
I want to thank CJ for confirming that the I-6 cam gear is hardened and is part of the cam, unlike the V8 cam gear.
To the original poster, please buy whatever your comfortable with. I'm not one that feels that everyone has to run exactly what I do or they're making a mistake. I'll say again the the HEI is a good distributor to run in an AMC 6 banger. So is the duraspark, Team Rush, MSD, Mallory, Accel or whatever. Happy Shopping!
David
A more incohenant rant there has never been on here before, but nevermind, your right, and I give up because I can't compete with the superior intellect.
As soon as I get home from work tomorrow, I'll remove my flawlessly functioning HEI that after more than 20,000 miles shows no sign of cam or driven gear wear and has the proper advance curve because obviously mine is just a freak of nature and has to fail sooner or later because I heard it from some guy who read it from some guy on the internet that it was bad.
P.S. have you really dedicated 7 years of your life to the irradication of the evil HEI? :O
Good night all.
WOW..... I feel so IMPORTANT that my words need to be quoted everytime by this poster, Rescue.
It is more important to read the Thread and Info that were provided showing wide spread issues using HEI in
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l engines.
The link and verbage about the
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l /HEI failure quote below..... It does not say
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , but just like when we help posters, look at the Posters PROFILE.... he has a
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l . Further, there are several failures of
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l /HEI is the same thread with 107 posts of HEI Failures & Tech. Further there are only, what 30 other threads or so, just like this one one on JeepForum.com talking about HEI/
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l & HEI/V8 failures in AMC Engines
Rescue, is a helper, just like me, and knows posters often leave out details in there posts....like engine,
Transmission , transf. Good chance he looked at the profile that shows poster has
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , just the normal process on the internet help forums.... only shows up 20 times per day "fill out your profile so we can help you"
Post #107, 1/30/2012
Old thread but This is still an ongoing problem. i put in a dragonfire HEI and ran it for about 25 miles before i read about the hardened gear problem on here. Pulled the distrib and sure enough it is just starting to damage my cam gear and the distrib gear couldent be cut with a drill bit. i think i caught it in time. ordered a msd gear to replace it and going to monitor wear periodacally.
Profile..... shows he has a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , I6, with HEI failure in AMC engine
The other quote says direclty by poster the
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l /HEI was a failure.
I see no debate...... There are tons of HEI/
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l failures on the Internet.
Rescue has made a FALSE CLAIM that there is no issue with
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l /HEI that the use of HEI is only a problem with the HEI/V8 AMC....... will add in my opionion. My opionion is backed up by posters saying HEI made their engine fail with hardened gears and put shreaded ground up metal shavings in their AMC Engine internals and one of the most respected online helpers and master mechanic with 40 yrs of experience, Jeephammer/Junk Yard Genius.
I will agree that the
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l /
AMC 232 i6 /190 engine has a one pc cam where the cam gear is ground into the cam, one piece. The AMC V8,
AMC 304 ,390, 360, 401 engines have a two pc cam where the cam gear drived the oil pump. Not sure why you need to confirm this again, note that CJ said the same, heck I even ssaid the same thing 2-3 times in this thead alone.....
Two pc and One pc cams was not the objection to what REscue posted. But the mention of this 10 times or so does cloud the thead efforts.
Just to clear this up for readers....
MY OBJECTION was Rescue falsely said HEI/AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l does not have problem
I will say again HEI has multiple issues including hardened gears in both engines AMC I6 & V8 applications..... This is not to be taken lightly and this failure will put ground up metal in the internals of your often restore/rebuilt AMC ENGINE....... This is a HUGE GAMBLE if precautions are not taken to Check & Confirm the proper usage & install HEI. Why use HEI when there are safe & better & cost effective ignitons.
Will also say, computer removed Jeeps from the 70s & 80s are the ones with distributor issues. W/o the computer the advance curve is gone, not working, and makes the engine preform poorly. Advance Curve is the "heart beat" of the enigne....idle, low rpms, high rpms, hwy, town, lugging on hills, offroad, trailer pulling, etc, these normal everday situations are taken care of by the distributor advance curve.
Rescue said you can turn 1/8" allen screw and change the vaccum advance. Although a partialy correct statement there is more, much more to, the advance curve work. Duraspark Distributors that work with the AMC computers can be modified in about 1 hr to work like the non computer distributor advance curve. The mechanical advance limit slot can be opened up to equal the 13r/18r slots, the vacuum advance limits can be increased, when the mech/vac advance starts to come in can be changed. This is engine health and application specific, but when done and done well it will wake up your engine...
This is my
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , 33" tires, 3:54 gears,
T-18 so 4 spd granny that is used like a 3 speed road gears, 2-3-4, first not used on road. Added MSD Ignition, TeamRush tune up parts, Aux Grounds, Borla Header, 80s Intake for 2 barrel, Weber 34, stock internals, rebuilt 7 yrs ago. All work done by me. If all CJs ran like this would be lots of happy jeepers.... Also, bud has Cj with 4.0 FI 5speed, my
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l 3 spd is as peppy as his jeep.... both run like new. My speedo is way off, 15 mph at hwy, so watch the tac and ck a gearing calculator. I am now running 3.73 gears & TrueTracs.... added more advance and redid the advance curve..... even with a engine that ran like that. I want all the economy and pep I can get, that is done with a tuned advance curve and carb jet/adj.
Video, watch tac....4k+ rpms is like 65 mph in second road gear. I also get 22-23+ mpg on the hwy going 60
Video Link
Jeep Main Album :: Working Gears II video by fjguercio - Photobucket