Tigger

im looking to change my distrirbutor from the points type to the HEI type. are there any special conciderations that need to be taken into acount? will a standard gm distributor work?

excaleagle42

tigger,
a regular gm distributor will work but it's not according to the coast guard. marine distibutors have holes with screens for "flame arrestors" if any fumes find their way inside. if you switch to electronic, there is usually a resistor wire that you need to find and replace with a regular wire so you get 12 volts to the distributor. points had the voltage cut down( resistor wire) to around 8 to keep from burning points up. if you don't remove the resistor, the module will burn up quickly. it's on the + side. basic power industries in harkersville N.C. sells complete conversions for cheap, $199 i think. they are prestolite distridutors with coil and wires included.

Tigger

excaleagle42...thanks, we have made the switch b4 on family members race cars, but wasnt really sure what qualified "marine" dristributor. and thanks for the tip on the resistor, im sure i would have forgoten bout that. ill get the mad scientists to work

tigger

Blackhawkdn

Have you considered an MSD system, the systems works very well they make a marine version.I run a MSD on my boat

Iggy

Mallory makes a conversion kit for your current distributor as well as complete marine systems.
MSD makes a good unit, I'm just partial to Mallory.

mopower

You couldn't give me an MSD. A friend of mine has lost three in his boat and two on his dyno! NASCAR doesn't use them till they send them to Nelson Specialties who dumps every thing out and replaces most everyhing with better quality components. Otherwise they have been known not to finish a 500 mile race. Iggy's right about Mallory but I'd go for the electronic not the unilite.(more reliable). Stock Merc thunderbolt works good too, or do you have a Ford engine. That's why I went to Mallory. My Ford had a Prestlite and I had to change it every other years because the bushings wore out and you couldn't get a good adjustment on the points.

Pwrbt33

Hey Tigger,
You may want to switch over to the Mercury ignition system like stated before. Mercury uses this ignition on all there engines all the way up to there 1000 hp. Even most after market engine builders use it as well because of its simplicity. Just think if you are out on the water and have an ignition box or distributer pickup go bad. You cant just roll into a marina parts house and pickup a MSD distributer or MSD coil or cap. Plus we have very salty water here on the Chesapeake Bay and after about a year on the water with an MSD dist. the insides of the dist. looks like it was on the ocean floor for a month. The corrossoin is very great.
You might want to take this into consideration when picking out an ignition system.

Pwrbt33