I have a 68 Firebird with a Chevy 350 in it. Holley 750, Performer RPM intake, Full headers, 2500 stall, 10:1 comp., mild cam, you know, stuff like that. Anyway, I had points in it and ran a 14.1 at 99 mph with a 2.4 second 60 foot time. I put an HEI in it with the Pertronix ignition.....50,000 volt coil, weight and spring kit.....all the goodies. I have one medium and one light spring in right now. Went to the track and ran a best 14.4 at 97 mph with a 2.35 60 foot. WTF? I know I can tinker with the timing and springs and such, but I have played with it plenty and cannot beat that time. The best time came with 10 initial timing and 33 total. I know I probably need more total, but the points distributor I had didn't have any of the cool stuff in it like my new HEI. Any suggestions? Thanks.

JR

 

Have you played with the springs at all? Since your 60' went up, it sounds like you lost low end. perhaps the light spring is allowing the timing to advance to fast for what power you are making..

 

Sounds like you need to do some more tuning!
But seriously, unless your point ignition had problems, you won't see much difference from the swap. You also have to consider weather conditions between the runs..
One more thing, did you put some new wires on to go with all that new voltage? You may have some spark scatter problems..
Just a thought.

 

At the risk of asking the obvious: you did run full voltage to the hei when you did the conversion?

 

yes, I do have 12 volts........and yes I did use new spiral core wires. Weather might have been a factor, who knows. It just came as a surprise because everyone told me I would gain this and that and I don't really know what the big deal is at this point. There was nothing wrong with the points I had, I changed them because every magazine I read and people I talk to rant and rave about HEI being so much better and more powerful. I do have more tunning in the future when it gets warmer. Just frustrating.

 

I've never seen a head to head HEI vs points dyno test where points lost. It's always close, well within the margin of error. Even an MSD 6 will be about the same. I've seen tests where an MSD 7 gave a good increase, but only by opening up the gaps to take advantage of the added zots.

In supercharged or nitrous applications, who knows. But for N/A, points are fine.

I still run points on my 71. A lot of guys tell me to go to HEI or MSD for an easy HP increase. MSD is in El Paso. One time at the track I was having problems with the Camaro. Some guy that works at MSD (probably a stock boy) came by and informed me that my problem was the points ignition. "They won't rev over 4,000". I fixed the real problem (fuel) and went out and ran it right up to 5,700. Must have been a miracle or something!

 

I've never seen a HP comparison btw HEI and points, but the main benefit to HEI over the Points ignition is reliability. Once the HEI is dialed in you don't have to make adjustments or replace points anymore.....

 

Did you gap the plugs up for the HEI? Generally .045" is used for HEI, and I've usually seen .035" for points...

Also (sorry to say) I haven't heard the best things about pertronix ignitions. Go over to www.nastyz28.com and there's some posts on that. Do a search for Ignitionman - he has alot to say about pertronix...