to hei or not (1 Viewer)

[toddslater]

Well shiite.. bout got all the xmas shopping done and am planning on taking some time off over the holidays and am kind of f'd in the available futzing dept for the 40. Things to do when warm weather returns are ample...most revolve around things I want to sand blast, weld, prime and paint etc.....not happening till the g-rage gets a little more toasty. Sure the mini power steering and front discs would be nice...however its not feasible to wrestle my mini donor truck in and out and about in the crap NE weather either (space is limited)....so there I was perusing the tech section and voila the hei upgrade. Local bone yard says for $50 I can pull what I want myself. I know the upside...other than what was said in the tech section..anybody have any downsides ? I figure it'll keep me busy for a day between shooting the s*** at the bone yard, changing out the drive gear and some and picking up a couple stinky stogies.

:whoops: I guess it would help if I mentioned I'd be replacing the points and condensor set up on my 73 40.

 

[Gumby]

it's a good mod. You'll like it. Downside is huge but only if you let the dizzy walk up the gear - the oil pump looses it's drive and you loose all oil pressure.

 

[CruisinGA]

I'm going with a late model (81-87) 2f igniton system. Coil, ignitor, distributor. All ball bearing, all waterproof, maintence free, and vacuum advance.
Best of all its Toyota.

 

[toddslater]

Bailey,
I do like to stay all toyota as well...but at this point I know I certainly am not going to walk in any bone yards aroud here a pick one out. Hmmm maybe cruiserparts.net can send me one...timing will probably be the issue.

 

[fjcruiser]

I just did this upgrade, pretty simple. I researched quite a bit before hand. In ended up getting my dis. from a '79 chevy p/u 6 cy. I think most any 6 cyl. hei dis. will work (they look identical).
Here is what I did:
1) Swap the gears: I pinned the new gear in the same hole as the old one (I didn't want to try to drill throught the shaft).
2) Ground the end of the shaft to correct length (make it look like original, screwdriver shape)
3) Ground mounting flange off.
4) Mark the outside of the shaft to know that it is in deep enough.
You will have to come up with some sort of mounting bracket. I made my own.

 

[72cruiser]

yeah,

when i did this swap last spring, it was pretty straight forward after i figured out what exactley i wanted to do.

fjcruiser gave the most concise and precise description of the process as possible (i always type half a frickin page, ha ha.)

i did drill another hole in the toyota gear to move it to the right place (not too bad), and made a new roll pin to fit the hole in the gm shaft.

fabbing the mounting bracket was cool, first time i'd done something like that and it actually worked.

also, got mine out of a '79 nova with the 250 I-6.

good luck with it,
jonathan

 

[CruisinGA]

[quote author=toddslater link=board=1;threadid=8945;start=msg77758#msg77758 date=1071846803]
Bailey,
I do like to stay all toyota as well...but at this point I know I certainly am not going to walk in any bone yards aroud here a pick one out. Hmmm maybe cruiserparts.net can send me one...timing will probably be the issue.
[/quote]
Napa will sell you a brand spankin new FJ60 distributor for $200.
The other stuff you must source out.
You must also either modifiy (bang with hammer) your current PS pushrod cover, or get one off of a 81-87 2F.
As far as I understand it, thats all thats involved, other than some minor wiring.

 

[rusmannx]

dui
i like it.

 

[brian]

the only "real" downside, is the addition of gm products to an otherwise bulletproof design.

make sure you pin the gear. my PO tryed welding it on, and it did'nt work. good thing he welded the top...

mine also came from a boneyard, it went 7yrs before i had problem with it, and then it was an easy fix once i knew what the problem was.