The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay The 235 Amazon HEI Distributor

Been doing some study on them, as I got 2, 1 will be going on a flathead 6 at some point in time. Seen a few bad reviews about them, mostly having oil ingress under the cap. Yeah Yeah know all the standard responses of why. In all my years of fooling with this stuff never have taken a GM V8 HEI all apart. Anyway on these china specials, there is a felt ring that fits into the center bore that the shaft comes through at the top, and then has solid plastic washer over it (no oil drain there). Down in that cavity there is no drain back holes at all. Those 2 parts essentially do nothing. Soon will take a GM one apart to see what is going on.
I'm also thinking that these are not a true plug n play deal. Because of the lower shaft and oil pump drive. I will look into that more when the other projects are done.

Anyone else have more input on these.

On the ones I've seen, the machining is pretty good, but the electronics are all made in some offshore sweatshop, and they have little to no quality control. If enough oil is getting up that high above the crankcase to be a concern, the engine has severe wear and/or blowby problems- - - - -don't blame the distributor. If you can find OEM electrical parts such as the ignition coil, module, and pickup coil, it would be a good idea to swap them out or at least acquire replacement parts to have on hand when (not if) the Chinesium electronic parts fail.
Jerry

The oil problem is from people using them with no O ring. There's supposed to be an O ring that fits into a groove on the shaft. If you search a bit, you can see instructions I wrote about how I convert these to use on 216/235/261 engines. If that groove for some reason isn't there you can use a round file to slowly and carefully make one. Those instructions are on this site. I've used one of these since 1997 and have had zero problems with it. As Jerry mentioned you can use standard GM replacement parts. Maybe I've been lucky but I haven't needed to replace any of mine. I probably need to sell the red one I converted. I also have one of Tom Langdon's mini-HEI distributors but I need to look into it. Something did go wrong there.

Yeah I know that crankcase pressure can be a concern for the posted problems that I read about. But still it should not be designed to allow oil to fill the area under the cap where all the electrical stuff is.
Another fun fact and I suppose it is for making it fit the other engines that are listed, is the shaft is the same size as the original 235 points distributor but then turned down in diameter in the area below the gear
I forget the exact number but close to almost .020, and the drive tang is reduced from .170 ish to about .150 ish. If you take the empty NEW HEI distributor body and put it in the engine, it appears that the cam drive gear stops it, also there is no angle cut or chamfer above the distributor driven gear like OEM. This distributor needs a bit more study than just plug and playing it. My opinion.

Probably need to attack it from both angles. Seal the distributor better AND reduce the crankcase pressure.

I’m a big proponent of adding a PCV. For me, it made a huge difference not just in the weepy/smelly aspects of blowby, but I swear it made it run better.

My working theory is that my long-dormant engine needed some help not fighting compression on both ends of stroke. Helped the rings find their home again after some run time.

This is what I posted a year or so ago: https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/1571332/1

Originally I thought the oil was coming up the shaft and so I used a wavy washer and a couple of plain washers to stop it (which it didn't). You need an O ring on the distributor's body (the part which fits in) and that can either be right at the top (since this distributor will not rotate like the original one did) or on the body in a slot. After I added one I never had the problem again. Most of these now have a cutout for the O-ring machined in them. A bit of negative pressure (PCV) helps with this and also other misc oil leaks.

The two I've bought (designed for the 230/250/292/194, etc) have only required minimal work to make them work fine in the Stovebolt engines. 1. you have to shorten the drive tang a bit and reshape the curve as you see I've done, 2. you have to make sure the gear hits the cam gear in the right spot (it should if you follow what I've done), 3. you need to use a relay to protect your ignition switch as there's a good slug of inrush current with these, 4. you have to create a new "collar" to stop them when you install them and 5. you need to make or buy a new distributor hold down thingy (and using this means you could put your O ring under the collar if you wanted because the hold down thing is going to push downward.

Hope this helps. The process isn't very difficult.

These distributors come with an O ring for the distributor to engine block interface. I'm not talking about a leak there I'm talking about it in the upper electrical area, and supposed measures where done for that just in case scenario, just not done properly on these units. Some how the oil must capillary up the shaft on some units and cause it, maybe the shaft finish etc etc. like auger effect. Maybe PCV is a help, PCV was used in 1957 on some big truck applications I think it was.
There is no provision for any kind of seal at the top bushing, there is a deflector cup though.

Ah….

Now that’s interesting. Don’t suppose you could drill a small, strategically-placed hole through the housing and into the shaft bore…to give the “capillary” oil a place to drain back?

If you're really digging into it, and have a lathe, you could cut a spiral groove in the shaft from near the top of the upper bushing to "pump" the oil back down. You'd have to figure out which way the shaft rotates and get the spiral going the right way so you don't pump oil upwards.

JW51, I think that is how the GM units are, I should know in a few day or so.

If some how the oil travels up that is a good thing for lube. Can't just depend on oil lite bushings living without lube, thats the reason for the old time 55 to ? V8's having an oil cup and the 235s having the twisty grease cups.

I'm just trying to figure out ways to make these be a dependable unit to use on these old 6's. I'm going to try to adapt one to a Continental industrial flat head 6.

Points? As a kid (teen) I could stand right next to the engine in a 3100, 1957 and fiddle with the ignition system no problems, now its a huge gut wrenching nose dive to deal with cleaning points or what ever. So HEI is a necessary deal for some of us.

I’ve kinda decided it’s just quicker and easier to pull the dizzy anytime I need to fiddle with points or condensers. Not really that big a deal if you make a couple reference marks to get it stabbed back into the same place.

With no gear on this unit, poking it in the block, I'm thinking it does stop when hitting the gear on the cam since there is nothing else to stop it. And if the empty shaft is with it, the shaft does not bottom into the oil pump drive slot. This particular engine is standing on the flywheel and oil pan is on so have not dug too far into the issue. The OEM distributor would likely go deeper because of the large chamfer or angle on that bottom area.
So I'm thinking this HEI could end up with the cam gear machining into it if not careful when using it as is. And or the with the drive gear maybe it bottoms out, just don't know yet. Yeah all I need is more projects.


Update, I cut some of the chamfer on the HEI unit, it needs a bit more, I blued the chamfer and put it in and yes it goes in deeper and the cam gear marks the chamfer, the OEM has that clearance for a reason.

Try looking up TYGR,s Garage on y tube he put one in his truck and had a few problems that he shows on his chanel

I'm not having any problems at all, just figuring out this inherit bad design, and yes OEM as well.

So found an old one for a V8, don't see any GM numbers on it so not sure what it is. It is very similar to this one for the 6, the felt washer is on top and a non flat plastic one under it. All the cavity's were filled with oil sludge so ? No signs of major leakage though. And no drain back holes.

The Continental conversion will be interesting since it is a CCW rotation distributor on them. The mechanical advance won't like that.

Oldsmobile, and I believe Pontiac or Buick used a CCW rotation HEI. Coilover adapted one to a straight 8 Oldsmobile, I believe. I used one of them to run a Ford 302 engine with a GM HEI top end and a 302 drive unit on the bottom by splicing the shafts and housings together. Problem solved!
Jerry

When I'm adapting an original equipment stovebolt distributor to run a GM HEI pickup coil and reluctor, I also add a Torrington needle bearing at the top of the housing, and a press-fit hardened sleeve on the shaft for the bearing to run against. Zero shaft wobble, and no dwell variation. That system will also run up to 6K+ RPM with no spark scatter, way above what most stovebolt engines will ever see.
Jerry

Pontiac V8 distributors turn CCW.

Coilover had an HEI on his beloved 1937 Buick straight 8.