motor swap distr. ?

[king me]

have a 1987 olds cutlass, I am pulling the 307 and computer. have a 69 olds 350 i am droping in. the new motor has a new vaccum advance disributor -where should i pull the vaccum from?
second ? the 307 had a divorced (?) choke the new motor has an electric choke holley 750..where can i pull power from for the electric choke?
thanks in advance.

 

[dan2286]

You can use either ported or manifold vacuum. Try both and see what works better for you.

For the choke you can use any 12 v power source that is turned on with the key. I have heard you are not supposed to use the HEI power as your source. I think the wiper power is a good one too use.

 

[TBRtat2]

there should be ports on the carb specificly for the vac. advance.

And you do NOT want to hook the choke power to your distributer, The electric choke will pull to much power from the coil, and lower the strength of your spark.
The best thing to do is run a line all the way to the fuse block (there are usually extra spaces on the fuse block that are left open from the factory), but you can tap into almost any "keyed" power sorce (turns off with the key), 2 things to remember.

1; the choke pulls some power, so some circuits may not have a big enough fuse to run the choke and whatever was on it in the first place.

2; try not to hook into a curcuit that turns on with the key in the acc. position, it will power the choke when the engine is off. (you only want the choke powered up when your engine is running)

 

[Floydsbuick]

And you do NOT want to hook the choke power to your distributer, The electric choke will pull to much power from the coil, and lower the strength of your spark.

Hmmm, I just noticed I have my Regal hooked up that way. For some reason, the original choke wire quit working, so I wired off the hot to the dist. I'll be correcting that today. Thanks for the tip!

 

[TBRtat2]

hey floydsbuick,
I got something for you to try, Turn your key on (no need to start, just in the run position) take a volt meter (not a test light) and check the power at the hot lead on the distributer, then unplug your hot from your choke, now check your distributer again.
You should see a difference in the # of volts with and without the choke being powered.

When i first started working on car some 15 years ago, it was standard to hook up any after market electric choke to the distributer. I dont know how many I myself hookedup that way, but i know i have rewired many more that were hookup that way.
Then again 15 years ago, we didnt run as high of power ignition systems.
I Beleave stock coils then only put out around 20,000 volts, but noe adays most cars have 40,000 volts stock, and racing coils are well above that.

 

[jrm81bu]

The hei coil has been the same since it was introduced, except for the external mount coil. You have to go a lot farther back than 15 yrs to find a weaker coil, lol.

 

[TBRtat2]

to clearify, I did the work 15 years ago, the cars i did it on where much older then that.

 

[jrm81bu]

Ah I see. Either way they still hurt, lol.