Hy scottss60, where to begin, it sounds like your engine had some problems before you swapped in the HEI distributor. Were you running the engine on old gas by any chance? Assuming you were using fresh fuel, turn the engine over to get it into number one top dead center on the firing stoke (both number one valves closed), now remove the distributor cap and see if the rotor is pointing at the number one spark plug wire. If the rotor is pointing at number one spark plug wire it should be close enough to start or try to start. If the rotor is not pointing to number one spark plug wire move the number one spark plug wire to the terminal that the rotor is pointing at and then install the other wires clockwise around the distributor cap in the order 5,3,6,2,4. The engine should try to start now, that is assuming you are getting spark at the spark plugs and that you have fuel. I could go on but try that for now and report back, hope that helps.
