Igntion upgrade help needed.
I totally changed my plans. I sold the AMC 304 and bought a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l that I've now rebuilt.
I decided to go with a GM HEI distributor out of a 250 inline 6 cylinder chevy but with the backward cut gear so it'll work in the AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , but I ran across a great deal on ebay for a brand new HEI that is already set up for the AMC and comes with everything including the cap rotor and coil for only $59 with free shipping!!!!!
I received it just 3 days after I ordered it and couldn't believe what a great deal it was!![]()
I considered the HEI before going with the "team rush" upgrade. Here are some of the quotes I got about HEI's that may make you reconsider. Most of quotes are from "JeepHammer", a team rush guy over at JeepForum. A very smart guy that walked me through the job.
Wouldn't use the cheap HEI distributors.
You could very well wind up with something that will hammer your engine to death with wrong timing,
Or a hardened distributor gear which will tear the camshaft gear out of your engine.
Several places have 'Cloned' the HEI with a stem that will fit AMC engines, but they have all the problems of an HEI and some extras, like cheap hardened gears and other problems.
Most places did a really poor job of adapting an HEI type head to an AMC shaft.
With an HEI, they have a very WEAK trigger internally, that triggers a module that is inside the distributor cap. The module works much better when you get it out of the distributor cap where it isn't being 'Zapped' all the time by high voltage,
But the trigger HEI uses isn't worth taking out to skip it across a lake!
GM put the module in the distributor, a bad thing for the module.
It picks up a lot of 'Noise' in the cap, often 'False Fires'.
The issue with that is you have a 14 Gauge feed wire to your existing ignition,
And to work properly a GM HEI need about a 10 Ga. wire to feed it correctly.
HEI comes with a lot of problems, from advance curves (Which we haven't covered here) that will knock the valves & Pistons out of your engine,
Or hardened distributor gears will eat up your camshaft gear causing MAJOR repairs...
You can trouble shoot most of the Jeep/Motorcraft system with a $6 test light from the local discount parts store very easily.
You can't do that with a HEI distributor.
I would not touch the Hei Distributors, too many issues.
The HEI coil is an energy hog, it's MUCH less efficient than the Ford E-core coil is...
p.s. You pulled out a AMC 304 for a AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l ?
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