Hei coil

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dadep76

Greasemonkey
May 11, 2021
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Yeah i have extra new carbon button and spring. I made a rookie mistake. But live and learn.
Oh...and dielectric grease on both sides of grommet? Also i have a pie e that goes under one side of coil and out to where it plugs in under cap. Thats goes in to correct?
 

Ernest

G-Body Guru
Apr 28, 2016
718
959
93
Texas
I've never used dialectric grease... i just made sure all parts are clean, put it alltogether and run it.
 

airboatgreg

Comic Book Super Hero
Oct 2, 2016
2,863
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I was a drivability tech for many years and owned 3 shops. I had scopes and was a Delco Tech approved shop. While there were some issues with pick up coils on GM vehicles with a vacuum advance where the wire would break i think it was in no comparison to the issues the other manufacturers(percentage wise) were having with modules, pick ups, hall effect switches and ECM's. There were a bunch of very cheap replacement aftermarket caps, modules and rotors on the market at that time. Add to that a lack of training on old school techs. We were also transitioning from points and people were driving cars well over 100k miles without a tune up which caused undue stress on the ignition system. I saw a lot of coil failures with the remote coil due to the same factors above and I think they went to the remote coil as the streamlining of vehicle hoods for less wind resistance for better economy , space and the transition of better electronics turning the coil off/on due to better timing control. I had access to Jacobs ignition products as well as many other aftermarket stuff. We put on automotive scopes as well as lab scopes. I still think the best ignition ever made is the GM HEI coil in cap. I have seen them run over 200k without a tune up many many times. That being said...put good parts on your rides, if it skips...fix it.
 
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Oct 14, 2008
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I was a drivability tech for many years and owned 3 shops. I had scopes and was a Delco Tech approved shop. While there were some issues with pick up coils on GM vehicles with a vacuum advance where the wire would break i think it was in no comparison to the issues the other manufacturers(percentage wise) were having with modules, pick ups, hall effect switches and ECM's. There were a bunch of very cheap replacement aftermarket caps, modules and rotors on the market at that time. Add to that a lack of training on old school techs. We were also transitioning from points and people were driving cars well over 100k miles without a tune up which caused undue stress on the ignition system. I saw a lot of coil failures with the remote coil due to the same factors above and I think they went to the remote coil as the streamlining of vehicle hoods for less wind resistance for better economy , space and the transition of better electronics turning the coil off/on due to better timing control. I had access to Jacobs ignition products as well as many other aftermarket stuff. We put on automotive scopes as well as lab scopes. I still think the best ignition ever made is the GM HEI coil in cap. I have seen them run over 200k without a tune up many many times. That being said...put good parts on your rides, if it skips...fix it.
I was going to put that, all 3 had over 200K before the pickup coil died. The Dodge and Ford were less reliable ignition wise. Also the 2G, Quadrajet, Dualjet and Varijet were better carbs than anything Ford or Dodge had as far as reliability and refinement as well.
 
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69hurstolds

Geezer
Supporting Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Make sure it's dielectric and not the heat sink grease/thermal paste for mounting ignition modules. They are not interchangeable.

ACDelco used to supply you with a tiny tube of thermal grease when you bought their ignition modules, and in the distributor cap kits they'd include a little tube of dielectric. Don't know if they still do that or not.
 
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dadep76

Greasemonkey
May 11, 2021
100
24
28
Make sure it's dielectric and not the heat sink grease/thermal paste for mounting ignition modules. They are not interchangeable.

ACDelco used to supply you with a tiny tube of thermal grease when you bought their ignition modules, and in the distributor cap kits they'd include a little tube of dielectric. Don't know if they still do that or not.
The ac delco i got came w just the coil. They cheap out now.
 

Clone TIE Pilot

Comic Book Super Hero
Aug 14, 2011
3,828
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Galaxy far far away
Can i make it external coil? Is it a whole different dist?

For a street cruiser you don't really need to swap to an external coil. There are two options if you want to, either swap in a 87 up distributor and coil or use a special conversion kit on your existing coil in cap distributor.
 

Clone TIE Pilot

Comic Book Super Hero
Aug 14, 2011
3,828
2,565
113
Galaxy far far away
I was a drivability tech for many years and owned 3 shops. I had scopes and was a Delco Tech approved shop. While there were some issues with pick up coils on GM vehicles with a vacuum advance where the wire would break i think it was in no comparison to the issues the other manufacturers(percentage wise) were having with modules, pick ups, hall effect switches and ECM's. There were a bunch of very cheap replacement aftermarket caps, modules and rotors on the market at that time. Add to that a lack of training on old school techs. We were also transitioning from points and people were driving cars well over 100k miles without a tune up which caused undue stress on the ignition system. I saw a lot of coil failures with the remote coil due to the same factors above and I think they went to the remote coil as the streamlining of vehicle hoods for less wind resistance for better economy , space and the transition of better electronics turning the coil off/on due to better timing control. I had access to Jacobs ignition products as well as many other aftermarket stuff. We put on automotive scopes as well as lab scopes. I still think the best ignition ever made is the GM HEI coil in cap. I have seen them run over 200k without a tune up many many times. That being said...put good parts on your rides, if it skips...fix it.

There are several issues with having the coil located in the cap. First they run hotter under the dust cap than external coils. In order to fit in such a tight space the coils use thinner wire in the windings and thinner insulation than most external coils, weaker construction. Having the coil located in the cap also induces more interference into the pickup coil and ignition module.
 
Oct 14, 2008
8,806
7,746
113
Melville,Saskatchewan
There are several issues with having the coil located in the cap. First they run hotter under the dust cap than external coils. In order to fit in such a tight space the coils use thinner wire in the windings and thinner insulation than most external coils, weaker construction. Having the coil located in the cap also induces more interference into the pickup coil and ignition module.
For sure but as said, those original parts rarely failed. I sure wouldn't be in a hurry to swap to the factory small cap. I am looking at owning a 88 to 95 truck, if it develops a miss, I know what to check first. We have a lot of gravel roads, maybe the vent plugs? Those trucks always got the Blue Streak Premium cap and rotors. I just assembled a cap in coil HEI yesterday. The Accel tan cap and rotor had instructions with a picture, which mentioned the contact goes in first then the gasket. It also came with dielectric grease. I used a MSD low ohm contact and there gasket, which is black vs Accel's orange. I used the Accel Brute Thunder coil which includes a tan dust cover, so it looks stock.
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