The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 1965 with 292.. Installing HEI

Hi Everyone...

I am in the process of fixing a 1965 c30 dump truck with a 1977 gm Goodwrench 292 crate motor (if they called it a crate back then). The original oner swapped over all of the 1965 engine parts over back in 77.

I would like to install a GM HEI distributer. I understand I need to get the front #1 cylinder at TDC on the compression stroke. I have seen a few YouTube vids showing how to do this with a V8.

Has anyone done this on a 292 and have any pointers or gotchas to watch out for? I heard there is a different HEI for a 250 vs. 292 due to longer stroke.

Turn the engine so the rotor is pointing to #1 plug wire & the timing marks are lined up. Pull the old dist. & set the HEI in with the rotor pointing to #1. 250 & 292 dist. interchange. Tap a 12 gauge wire to the pink wire in back of the ign. switch & run it to the B term on the HEI unit.

Thanks Wrenchbender...

Seems too easy. When you say to line up the timing mark before pulling the dist, set the timing mark to TDC?

yes, i think he means turn crank till balancer mark is on tdc. i don't think the longer stroks makes a bit of difference on the timing. i know the dist will interchange no problems. it will run being one tooth off, so when you adjust the timing just move over a tooth if need be. good luck.

If you don't have a distributor in now, pull the #1 plug out and turn the engine till you feel compression on your thumb which is over the plug hole. Then watch the piston in the hole till it stops moving up, that will be top dead center, compression stroke, #1 cylinder. Drop the distributor in, and wire it according to the firing order. The rotor doesn't have to point at any certain spot and which ever post it points at can be #1. Its just easier to point it at #1 hole so you always know where it is, and some of the distributor caps have #1 marked which make it easy to wire up. Turn the oil pump with a long screw driver to align the tang of the distributor and oil pump slot.

Joe

There is an interference between the the hold down boss on the distr cap and the side cover that will limit how far you can turn the distributor. If you find this to be a problem you'll have to move the distributor a tooth over on the cam gear. Unfortunately it means going thru the procedure again.

Larry

Thanks everyone for the information.

I plan to install the HEI (BTW, the 1977 would originaly come with one) after I address the harmonic balancer issue I have (In another post). I hope not to have any cleance issues with the HEI.

...Russ

You won't have any clearance issue unless you have to rotate the cap a long way around to get it to fire. The vacuum unit should point out towards the fender following the upper heater hose.

Joe

Be sure to change the plug gap to .035! I don't believe anyone mentioned this. I'd change the wires out, too, to something that came with an inline L6 and HEI. If there is a switched 12gauge pink wire in the bulkhead connector, use that for HEI power as wrench says. If not, go all the way back to the ignition switch and pick up a switched terminal. The old one for the coil will do, but don't use the old coil wire. It will not handle the start-up surge. You will not need the pink & purple (yellow at the coil) wire that goes to the starter.

Have fun! I think that this is the most important change you can make on your engine!