Here is my 235 that I’ve been working on. It came in my 47 3600. It was stuck. It sat a long time. It has a new rebuilt head, crankshaft ground .020 under rods and mains, bored .060. New cam with hydraulic lifters. Progressive two barrel carbs from Langdon Stovebolt. Fenton intake and duel exhaust. HEI ignition. Working on piping for the spin on oil filter.
Although a HEI originally used a very large supply wire, that was not due to the load required.
A HEI actually only draws less than an amp.
As Tom Langdon, who was part of the team designing the HEI for Chevrolet explained it, the heavy wire had to do with the energy field around the wire being lessened with the larger wire, or something to that effect (it has been many years since he explained it to me).
I have converted many of these with stock wiring and switch with no problems.
That doesn't make good nonsense. The primary winding of a HEI coil has approximately 1/2 Ohm of resistance. When the power transistors in the control module start current flowing through the primary winding, before the inductive reactance kicks in to limit current flow, that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 28 amps for a few milliseconds. That's close to "dead short" current. Or, did someone repeal Ohm's Law? Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I have a HEI system from Deve's Tech. I called and talked to him about the system, and He told me his design uses less power than the old points distributor. I converted my distributor with his conversion kit and am happy with how it turned out. I am far from done with all the necessary wires and hoses. My radiator is a new aluminum one. I shortened the water pump myself and found a shorter chrome pully. I mounted a spin on oil filter to the block just behind the alternator. I installed a removable orifice in the inlet housing, and after I get it running and see where my oil pressure runs at, I can easily modify the orifice to filter as much as I want without sacrificing oil pressure. I think I'll use grease gun hoses for the oil lines. They are 1/8" pipe so they will go right into my block without a lot of clutter. So far, I have re-wired everything and installed a switchable fuse block under my dash on the steering support brace. So, when I turn on my key; heater, wipers, fuel gauge, voltmeter, (I replaced the new 12v amp meter with a voltage meter) turn signals, and Gear Vendor overdrive all power up. I still need to determine what radio I want. I want one with Bluetooth. I have twelve available fuse spots and so far, only use 6. All the lights fuses will be out where they were originally, on the firewall, but flat blade fuses. I rebuild the Huck brakes all around and all the body work is done for my part. The painter will fine tune the body before he paints it. So far since I started this rebuild it has been just a year this February.
You will find the amperage meter to voltage meter swap in the Tech Tips in the electrical section. All I did was to elongate the holes in my case and replace the face with an old one from my scrap instrument parts. I printed off the supplied face templates to photo paper and glued it to my old gauge face and installed it on the new meter. I bought my voltage meter on Ebay.
lumbersawyer Your whole outfit looks great !! On HEI my 5 or 6 of those all made at home run fine on original ignition switches,don't have a jumper cable to the HEI ,some are 25 years old. Good thing they didn't tell me you couldn't do that ! Oh I always use the distributor gear that came with the truck some are 75 years old. Lot of mountains out there that are just mole hills. No relays either.
lumbersawyer On your oil filter sounds like a nice neat job can't see why your grease gun hoses wont be fine,if to close to fit up make a circle. I learned to use heavy angle iron to screw the filter onto a nipple let it seal right on the steel then bend up brake tubing 1/4 inch to fit. Better to use flare rather than compression,they are harder to keep from seeping. Also use any size filter you like meter it to hold oil pressure up there.
I took the hoses and put them in my lathe and cut them with a counter sink so that they fit the 1/8" hydraulic fittings flare. That way I have a swivel fitting on one end.
lumbersawyer Nice neat job there,those flares are 37 degree hydraulic flares to better hold oil pressure. I hate seepy oil fittings that collect dirt,of course you have to consider soft lines out side the block that can dump your oil. However we've done it that way for the whole life of these trucks. Good job !!
