HEI Upgrade for 1977 CJ5 258

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HEI Upgrade for 1977 CJ5 258

bigposer

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Northern California
Vehicle(s)
77 CJ5, 258 I6, T18, D20, D30 with ARB Air Locker, AMC 20 with Detroit Locker
I want to do an upgrade to the cap, rotor, plug, and coils on my 77 CJ5 AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l with EFI.

I've read heaps about replacements causing issues with the cam, messing with the timing, etc. Also, I'm a bit confused on what I can do given that mine is a 77 and it appears that the distributor was a Prestolite in 77 vs. a Motorcraft in 78-90.

Somebody shed a bit of light on this for me? Is it even worth it?
 
Heres the best bit of info I can give you on a HEI.. besides use the search button.

#1 when you get your new HEI distributor in remove the drive gear on the bottom and replace it with the gear from the old distributor. If the old gear is to big for the new shaft have a bushing made to make it fit.

#2 Wire it with a 40 amp relay.

#3 open the plug gap up to about .04-.045

As far as messing up the timing goes thats a little weird since you have to adjust the timing no matter what distributor is in the jeep.
 
I want to do an upgrade to the cap, rotor, plug, and coils on my 77 CJ5 AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l with EFI.

I've read heaps about replacements causing issues with the cam, messing with the timing, etc. Also, I'm a bit confused on what I can do given that mine is a 77 and it appears that the distributor was a Prestolite in 77 vs. a Motorcraft in 78-90.

Somebody shed a bit of light on this for me? Is it even worth it?

Installing an HEI with a hardened driven gear causes absolutely no problems for your cam gear in a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l or any other inline 6 cylinder AMC motor. I've put well over 20,000 miles on my 1979 AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l engine with the stock cam and my aftermarket HEI with a hardened driven gear and I haven't had the slightest bit of trouble with it.

People tend to confuse this, "Cam issue" with the fact that, unlike the six cylinders, the AMC "V8" motors have a soft cam gear and therefore require a soft metal driven gear on the distributor.

What I'd be concerned about in your case is that you're running electronic fuel injection, so tuning the non computer HEI to work well with it might be an issue, but I'm sure it can be done.
 
Heres the best bit of info I can give you on a HEI.. besides use the search button.

#1 when you get your new HEI distributor in remove the drive gear on the bottom and replace it with the gear from the old distributor. If the old gear is to big for the new shaft have a bushing made to make it fit.

If he buys a complete new aftermarket HEI that's already set up for an AMC Inline Six, he won't need to mess with changing the cam's driven gear because it's already got the right one.

I bought my distributor new from ebay in 2010 for something like $58 delivered to my door, and as I said in my last post, I have well over 20k miles on my AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l and the HEI without any problems at all. My cam gear is fine, and the distributor works great.

He'll need to play with the vacuum advance limit adjustment and maybe throw in an advance curve kit to get his total advance where he wants it to be, but that goes the same with any ignition swap.
 
I want to do an upgrade to the cap, rotor, plug, and coils on my 77 CJ5 AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l with EFI.

I've read heaps about replacements causing issues with the cam, messing with the timing, etc. Also, I'm a bit confused on what I can do given that mine is a 77 and it appears that the distributor was a Prestolite in 77 vs. a Motorcraft in 78-90.

Somebody shed a bit of light on this for me? Is it even worth it?


Doing a EFI on a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l is a dream of many jeepers on this or any forum... I am very pleased with my carbed AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l and its a peppy as my buds CJ7 with a 4.0 engine... He has a 5 speed and I have a road 3 speed. Just keep in mind the parts work together as a system.... any weak link/part(s) will lessen the performance as a whole....

If you want EFI then a great ignition and good header will also complement all the funds/time spent on the EFI. The best ignition for a AMC is the Duraspark Distributor and the MSD multispark ignition box. 500 volts to the coil and multiple sparks per cylinder cycle and even at high rpms will get one full voltage charge to coil..... At high rpms other ignitions only get off a partial voltage charge to coil. MSD Capacitance Discharge Ignition are much less expensive that in years past and now are $AMC 150 to $200 depending on what you want.... The Duraspark Distributor Remaufactured is now $50 with a lifetime warranty... I have purchased, sold, installed many MSDs for under $50. I am not very versed on the EFI set ups for CJs but under the impression they can work with the MSD boxes and control the spark advance...


The Hardened Gears are problems & issue for both the 6 and 8 cylinder AMC Engines... There are dozens and dozens of thread on the web with failures of both that have chewed the cam gear and or destroyed the AMC engine... Sorry to the poster above could not agree with what he posts.

Junk Yard Genius & goes by Jeephammer also is quite clear on this. Hardened gears are a issue for the AMC 6 & 8. No confusion problem for both 6 & 8 cylinder AMC engines...

A few hours of reading will show the HEI issues for use in AMC engines (both 6 & 8 cylinder) still wide spread and an area for caution...

There was even a poster last week that a DUI Distributor NEW took out his engine.... DUI and MSD have quality gears but one still make it thru to a production engine... He put all that metal in his engine on a new build. I think it is summit supplier and DIST/Summit and DUI will need to see what they will do for this jeeper...

For the well read and those that read Junk Yard Geniums..... HEI dist in AMC has about 12 major faults.... Hardened gear is just one of them.... HEI will need to be recurved on the cheap units and jeeper is going to recureve just recurve the duraspark that you have or can buy for $50 with lifetime warranty...

I am still running the 1978 Duraspark Distributor and the Orginal Duraspark Spark Box and both run flawless.

I had the aux grounds and the TEAMRUSH Tune Up Parts, when I put in the MSD Box my mileage jumped 4-5 mpg..... I needed to rejet my Weber Carb with the add of the MSD Box


MY opion HEI is not a good choice for AMC engines...
DuraSpark Dist and the MSD can be had for same $$ and BEST possible
I have the DuraSpark Spark Modual still installed for Trail Back Up
Two Connectors, one aux ground, and duraspark running...
Sell Jeep hook up duraspark and keep MSD for next projects
This way you only buy the MSD box once...
 
The Hardened Gears are problems & issue for both the 6 and 8 cylinder AMC Engines... There are dozens and dozens of thread on the web with failures of both that have chewed the cam gear and or destroyed the AMC engine... Sorry to the poster above could not agree with what he posts.

Junk Yard Genius & goes by Jeephammer also is quite clear on this. Hardened gears are a issue for the AMC 6 & 8. No confusion problem for both 6 & 8 cylinder AMC engines...

A few hours of reading will show the HEI issues for use in AMC engines (both 6 & 8 cylinder) still wide spread and an area for caution...

There was even a poster last week that a DUI Distributor NEW took out his engine.... DUI and MSD have quality gears but one still make it thru to a production engine... He put all that metal in his engine on a new build. I think it is summit supplier and DIST/Summit and DUI will need to see what they will do for this jeeper...

For the well read and those that read Junk Yard Geniums..... HEI dist in AMC has about 12 major faults.... Hardened gear is just one of them.... HEI will need to be recurved on the cheap units and jeeper is going to recureve just recurve the duraspark that you have or can buy for $50 with lifetime warranty...

I am still running the 1978 Duraspark Distributor and the Orginal Duraspark Spark Box and both run flawless.

I had the aux grounds and the TEAMRUSH Tune Up Parts, when I put in the MSD Box my mileage jumped 4-5 mpg..... I needed to rejet my Weber Carb with the add of the MSD Box


MY opion HEI is not a good choice for AMC engines...
DuraSpark Dist and the MSD can be had for same $$ and BEST possible
I have the DuraSpark Spark Modual still installed for Trail Back Up
Two Connectors, one aux ground, and duraspark running...
Sell Jeep hook up duraspark and keep MSD for next projects
This way you only buy the MSD box once...

I can't believe I'm having this same discussion again. :rolleyes:

With all due respect MN, I'm not argueing that you're wrong about duraspark being a good ignition because they are, but I have to ask a few questions where your opinion on HEI distributors is concerned. First off, have you personally rebuilt both inline 6 and V8 AMC motors with your own hands? I have. Both types ran perfectly for me the whole time I owned them with many 10's of thousands of miles on each. Have you, with your own eyes looked upon the cam shafts for the 6 and the 8? If you have, you would have noticed that the 8 cylinder cam doesn't have a gear as part of the grind. It's a separate soft metal gear that attaches to the cam. The inline 6 cam shaft has the gear ground as part of it, just like most other motors, including the small and big block chevy that came factory with HEI's. There is no reason why a hardened distributor gear would harm a 6 cylinder AMC cam gear any more than it would harm a small or big block chevy cam gear. They're made out of the exact same material.

I've read Junkyard Genius, as well as the many of the other copy cat forums that all copied his info. While he does provide some very good info in a lot of areas, he's flat out wrong about hardened gears in HEI distributors causing problems for the AMC inline 6. As for the person that recently had a DUI distributor ruin his engine, was it a 6 or 8???? You left that important piece of info out. And if it was a 6, I'm very skeptical about the circumstances.

On to tuning. You make it sound like tuning an HEI is hard. All it took me to get the perfect advance curve was an allen wrench and a $7 advance curve kit for my carburated engine.

I know that team rush and duraspark have a big following on this site, and because of that there's a whole lot of bias in some of the posts. Both are good ignitions, as is the HEI.


My HEI has a whole lot of miles on it and it works perfectly. I change my oil every 3000 miles and I strain it through a paint strainer to catch anything that might be in the oil, and not one flake of metal. I've also removed my distributor to look at the cam gear, and it's fine. I get GREAT gas mileage, 18-19mpg highway with 33" tires and a motorcraft 2100 carb. And let's be honest. At the low RPM's a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l runs, you don't need 100 bazillion volts to fire it completely.

I'm not the only member on this forum running an HEI, and I'm not the only member that has nothing but good things to say about it. Not to mention the one wire simplicity.

Now the question I would put to the original poster in this thread is who do you want to get your advice from, some guy that formed his negative opinion based on reading where someone else says that HEI's are bad, or would you rather get advice from all of the members on this forum that are actually running them with great success, but get criticized every time we tell about our own experience???

With all due respect...... ;)
 
Re: HEI Failures for AMC CJ5 AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l

Rescue....
is the only poster I have seen post and try to convey the HEI Hardened gear is only a problem with 8 cylinder and not 6 cylinder AMC engines. We have discussed this prior and I posted quotes and links for readers to go see. Jeepers have been working on this for the past 7 years or so and I have been active with this effort to alert and warn jeepers... Actually I have been one of the leaders with jeephammer and you can ask him if you want.

As for my knowledge and hands on...... read my posts and help. I have about 50 quotes like the ones below... Several of them were posted before. Long lists like this have been posted on JeepForum many times over the past five years or so.

once again... sorry do not agree



I just bought a HEI dist. from 4WD along with a new cam gear from the same place......30 miles later I don't have a cam gear.....has anyone else had issues with 4wd Dist.? l



I had a CRT in my AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l . after one year the timing was off and I could not adjust it. Pulled the dizzy and found the gear was a little chewed and also the bottom bearing in the distributor was shot
Good luck. Dan
 
Re: HEI Failures for AMC CJ5 AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l

I'll jump in again...

The I6 cam and cam gear are one piece. The cam and gear are created from one piece of material. The cam and gear are (and always have been) hardened - as any and every cam must be hardened.

The AMC v8 cam gear is a separate piece from the cam. It is an external item. The cam is hardened as would be expected for any cam but the 'external cam gear' is not!

Please do not confuse the I6 cam an the V8 cam gear. (note the i6 is the cam and the v8 is the gear)
 
Re: HEI Failures for AMC CJ5 AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l

I'll jump in again...

The I6 cam and cam gear are one piece. The cam and gear are created from one piece of material. The cam and gear are (and always have been) hardened - as any and every cam must be hardened.

The AMC v8 cam gear is a separate piece from the cam. It is an external item. The cam is hardened as would be expected for any cam but the 'external cam gear' is not!

Please do not confuse the I6 cam an the V8 cam gear. (note the i6 is the cam and the v8 is the gear)


CJ,
I agree the CAM GEAR on the 190, AMC 232 i6 , AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l or the I6 versions of the AMC engines are one pc. Mess up you cam gear take the engine apart to replace the cam.

The AMC V8 has a cam gear that comes off and can be replaced.

This has not been disputed....

I have personally helped on Dozens of Failed V8 and I6 Cam failures because of the After Market use of Clone HEI Distributors. Now if you want to look at the I6..... do you want the Dist gear to wear or the cam gear.... that is why they use soft ductal cast distributor gears that are not hardened.

This came to be issue because..... Distributor Gears were hard to get and were needed. Gears were made in spain and they were hardened gears for the distributor.... Problems were found and these were made and dumped on the market. They are still showing up and will be for several more years....

Hardened Gears are still issue
There are several other short commings with HEI to be addresed

1. The lenght of HEI Gear Change in app, can cause wear on cam gear, can be too long and cause the oil pump to bind, fail, take out engine.
2. Many gears were cut wrong and cut up the cam gear
3. GM maker and user of HEI uses a lower level of vaccum than the higher torque, low revening engine of the AMC that use a higher level of vaccum. Thus the AMC get too much advance for the compairble engine operation and vaccum level.
4. HEI distirbutors are known to have way too much advance sometimes 55 to 60 deg or more.... Use one of these in a lugging situation and you can rattle your engine apart
5. HEI Dist did not have adj vaccum ports for most of this time. Seems some of the After Market of Clone HEI Dist for AMC have added the adj vaccum pots like the Duraspark Dist has standard and did way back in 1978.
6. AMC engine mounts are not made to handle the large cap, coil, electronics and weight mounted in head. Its a lot of strain on the dist mount in the AMC Engine that is used in a rough country off road use for a CJ or any jeep.
7. After the HEI came into use for sometime.... there was a problem in the head controlling spark, weight control, and overheating of coil. The coil was remote mounted to solve all three of these issues and to make a better ignition. This makes the install better but not as simple.
8. HEI are known for grounding out in the HEAD.... the read dust that shows up as the spark going to the spark plugs gournds out in the HEAD to Engine Ground. Breaks the metals down and arks out via the mech advance weights and to engine ground.... often called red dust in the HEI Distributor head. sure it is a searchable.... HEI Distributor Red Dust
9. Hardened Gears on HEI need to be tested.... drill with std 1/8" twist bit and see if it drills easy. Should drill easy then use it.... if bit does not touch it hardened and should not be used. BUT this test pass does not mean you are good to go.
10. Many HEI Gears were found cut wrong
11. Many HEI Gears were found to be rough and chewed cam gear like sand paper...
12 Many HEI Gears were found with a different lenght, did not match OEM
12. Many HEI Dist had so much advance would not start. Needed a cut off switch so the starter could get the engine rotation up and normal spark usage would stop the motor rotation. Used spark off switch allows engine to get up to rotation speed and then allow the spark / swithc to start the engine. Common on race engines but should not be necessary on the AMC engines we mostly have that have AMC 150 hp.
13. HEI Dist come with cheal alumium terminal caps....same for the wires....Buy a $60 dist and what kind of parts do you think will come with it. I pay $50 for Borgwarner Cap/Adapter/Rotar for my Jeep with brass parts and lifetime warryanty.... that right Lifetime..... Will never buy a tune up Cap/Rotar again..... been replaced once on both my vehilce already. Aluminum Terminals are cheap and degrade in wks not months/years. Alumium cannot be cleaned like the corrosion off the brass terminals.
14. HEI Hardened gear..... over used expression just change out the gear with the AMC Gear.... Well the HEI shaft diameter varies and will not fit. Some have made shim stock so the old gear will fit. Some mfg have made a few gear internal diameters so the different HEI Shafts can have a non hardened gear. The the lenght of shaft application needs to be measured again because gear lenght and shaft lenght vary..... More headacks, more things to ck, more chance for failures....
15. Biggest feature we hear.... its a one wire install just bring it 12V swithced with a relay. If this is that big of claim easy install why have a CJ.... with all the work and mods, and parts problems not the right vehicle for those afraid to wire up a MSD Ignition (12V, Dist FireSignal, Coil connection) or add a ground to DuraSpark Modual and ground HEAD(s) so the modual does not fail and you get better spark energy and it gets delivered to the spark plug and can find its way back to the 12V battery.


This was done by memory... sure I forgot a few... I have read everthing on this for the past 7 years or so. If you have some more for me to read... OK. CJ we have talked before and both of us are Tech Sound.... I have read hundreds of hours of this subject and the AMC Ignition in general. JeepHammer has helped me, I have helped JeepHammer, and we have worked a few joint projects....
 
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Here is a thread on JeepFourm.com that has been going on for about 4 years now. It also shows a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l with HEI Dist that was starting to chew up the cam/cam gear Jan 30 2012 on post #107.

CRT HEI cam gear question - JeepForum.com

CRT HEI cam gear question - JeepForum.com

Take a look at the thread from the start. One of many many theads and shows how wide the problem is with AMC 6/8 and the solutions are equaly wide/broad. Good thread for those that want to learn more.


CJ,
I agree the AMC Engine has a one pc cam and the cam gear for the distributor is cut right on the cam... Not disputed by my now or in the past.

QUESTION????
ARE you saying the hardened gear on the I6 is not a issue for the HEI Distributors that have hardened gears????? They cam & dist gear can both be hardened and work together????

I get that you are saying V8 has two pc cam and the I6 has a 1 pc cam. But it can also be taken.... you are claiming the I6 does not have issue with HEI hard gear???

I will also add you can change the V8 gear with out taking the engine apart. The I6 would need to have the engine taken apart to remove the cam. Both failure are a very big deal in my opion.

I would also add.... Hardening ... a temp treatment is surface related. We are getting 10x the failures of CAMs esp with flat lifters like the AMC Jeep CJ Engines as published by the CAM Manufactures.... New oils are lower on the scuff/friction modifieres that the govt asked to be lowered on engine oils.... ZDPH, zinc phospate. Cam Mfg is better machineing and heat treating and makeing a better product yet their failures are up 10x and published on their web sites and tech articles.
 
Re: HEI Failures for AMC CJ5 AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l

Rescue....
is the only poster I have seen post and try to convey the HEI Hardened gear is only a problem with 8 cylinder and not 6 cylinder AMC engines. We have discussed this prior and I posted quotes and links for readers to go see. Jeepers have been working on this for the past 7 years or so and I have been active with this effort to alert and warn jeepers... Actually I have been one of the leaders with jeephammer and you can ask him if you want.

As for my knowledge and hands on...... read my posts and help. I have about 50 quotes like the ones below... Several of them were posted before. Long lists like this have been posted on JeepForum many times over the past five years or so.

once again... sorry do not agree
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
 
Here is a thread on JeepFourm.com that has been going on for about 4 years now. It also shows a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l with HEI Dist that was starting to chew up the cam/cam gear Jan 30 2012 on post #107.

CRT HEI cam gear question - JeepForum.com

CRT HEI cam gear question - JeepForum.com

Take a look at the thread from the start. One of many many theads and shows how wide the problem is with AMC 6/8 and the solutions are equaly wide/broad. Good thread for those that want to learn more.


CJ,
I agree the AMC Engine has a one pc cam and the cam gear for the distributor is cut right on the cam... Not disputed by my now or in the past.

QUESTION????
ARE you saying the hardened gear on the I6 is not a issue for the HEI Distributors that have hardened gears????? They cam & dist gear can both be hardened and work together????

I get that you are saying V8 has two pc cam and the I6 has a 1 pc cam. But it can also be taken.... you are claiming the I6 does not have issue with HEI hard gear???

I will also add you can change the V8 gear with out taking the engine apart. The I6 would need to have the engine taken apart to remove the cam. Both failure are a very big deal in my opion.

I would also add.... Hardening ... a temp treatment is surface related. We are getting 10x the failures of CAMs esp with flat lifters like the AMC Jeep CJ Engines as published by the CAM Manufactures.... New oils are lower on the scuff/friction modifieres that the govt asked to be lowered on engine oils.... ZDPH, zinc phospate. Cam Mfg is better machineing and heat treating and makeing a better product yet their failures are up 10x and published on their web sites and tech articles.

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. :notworthy:

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. :D
 
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. :notworthy:

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. :D
Don't be so sensitive. This topic has been going on so long it's crazy. There is no right answer as there are many factors that contribute to a gear failing.

AND - no where did I say why the gear fails, I just clarified the hardness between the two. If a gear fails it's up to the user to determine the cause.
 
Don't be so sensitive. This topic has been going on so long it's crazy. There is no right answer as there are many factors that contribute to a gear failing.

AND - no where did I say why the gear fails, I just clarified the hardness between the two. If a gear fails it's up to the user to determine the cause.

Thank you CJ! I agree that it's up to the user to determine the cause of failure. I can see people who put together their own setup in an inline 6 with a combination of distributor and driven gear that might not get the alignment correct, which would cause failure. I bought my distributor complete with a driven gear already installed for the AMC 6 banger, and the gears mesh just fine. I did run an extra gasket to slightly raise my distributor, but that was because it seemed to be contacting the oil pump drive shaft a little too hard and I didn't want any binding.

If anyone with an AMC 6 has problems it's not because of hardened gears, it's because the gears don't line up correctly, they've had a distributor bearing fail, or their oil pump drive shaft is a tad too long causing binding.

This whole argument reminds me of talking to an old woman that will insist until the day she dies that if you put hot water in the ice cube trays it'll freeze faster or if you put cold water in the pan it'll boil faster because for years they've heard that from others, but they've never bothered to try it for themselves to see how long each takes.

Is there a word for old wive's tales for Jeepers??? :D
 
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. :notworthy:

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. :D


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
 
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Another Distributor Failure in Thousands of Jeep TJs with 4.0 I6

There are also wide spread Distributor failues with the JEEP TJ going on at this time...... Tons of warranty claims to crysler/jeep and lots of efforts to solve the dist/cam gear failures....

This is for the more modern 4.0 I6, nothing to do with HEI, but another example of this stuff does happen.....

Read this thread, I did about a wk ago, I feel sorry for these Jeeps
2005-06 Jeep OPDA_CPS_Distributor Failure - JeepForum.com
 
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