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Hey,
I have a a 1976 18'10" Sanger Bubble deck. It's seems to be a bit of a odd-ball as it has a Hardin Marine 455 Olds rated at 390 HP (at least that's what it says on the valve covers...) mated to a 10 degree Casale running 12% over gears(38T over 34T). Most V-Drives I read about here have BBC power. The boat spins a Federal Nibral 12 x 15.5 three blade. Eldebrock Torquer manifold and Holley 850. I use the boat for skiing and pleasure boating and has been a delight in over 15 years of ownership. The motor was rebuit prior to my purchase by the original owner but I don't know what all was done to it or what parts installed. I know it did cost upwards of $2,500.00 at the time it was done (1983).
The motor runs a single points distributor, the original I suspect. I would like to change this over to a MSD/HEI type unit for better spark and more reliablity. The trouble is all I ever see advertised are for BBC set-ups. Are these ignitions interchangeable with the Olds 455 or do I require a unique Olds MSD/HEI? What kind of results should I expect with the changeover?
Could I just go to my local wrecking yard and pick one out of a newer Olds product?
Thanks,
T
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You have the right idea, go to the wrecking yard and get an HEI 1975 and up then you will have your reliability. forget about the MSD stuff, it would be a waist of money. HEI dist. are good for 8000 rpms. I had one in my boat before I bulit a blower motor that is in it now. I never had a lick of problems the two years it was in there. I took out a point dist. that I had problems with, the shaft was worn out.
Bill
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Thnaks for the reply Bill.
If I indeed find a HEI Distributor in the yard one day, how do I know if it's good or not? What if anything would need to be looked at or replaced?
What about coils?
Should I locate "any" post 85 block out of Olds or does it matter?
Thanks,
R
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I would say Check the shaft for side to side play (should be almost none) check the the advance weights, pins and bushings for ware. turn the top half of the shaft wile holding the dist. drive gear then let go of the top to see if it snaps back to the spot it was in before you started to see if the machanical advance works. Then make sure the vacume advance works by apply vacuume to the pod and see if it moves the advance plate. Then you could check the magnatic pick up by (ohm testing the thing should be 500-1500 more or less the thing is no good) the two leads that come from the pick and go to the module (Black rectangle looking thing w/ termanls sticking out of it that wires plug on to). As for the coil, use the stock one it puts out 50,000 volts and its mounted in the cap and you can ohm test it also but I don't have the specs. handy right now ,the way I test them is the spark should jump a 40mm gap and should be blue & white spark. you should run 12 volts to it from ign. (get rid of the ballest resistor) and thats it. you can tune your advance curve the same as with point dist.
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Chuck the ballast resister?! Whoo hooo!
Is there a way of installing the HEI distributer back into the block in such manner as to have the engine start, albeit maybe rough, so as to be able to tune it on the water without aid of a timing light?
Toruble is with this boatis there isn't a timing mark indicator. I think it got in the way of the alternator bracket that was fabricated for it and the original owner just left it off.
R
Thanks Bill.
R
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Sure you can time it with out the timing light.Use a vacuume guage, hook it to manifold vacuume, turn the dist. until you get the highest vacume then back off 2" of vacume and that will be real close.
Pull your old dist. out and point the new dist. rotor at the same spot then turn the dist to point to the same post in relation to the old cap. point it at the cylinder it was at on the old dist. before you pulled the old one out.
Bill
