hi need help on a new hei for the chevy motor in the cj8 scrambler i heard some bad things found this one and just dont know if it would be ok for not does anyone know if it is ok or which one is thanks this is what they say about it Fully CNC machined and polished housing with adjustable vacuum advance. Each distributor has a 50,000 volt Super Coil to insure accurate and reliable timing to 7,500 RPM. The 4340 Chrome moly gear will work with cast or billet cams. True spark alignment for instant throttle response.

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At the risk of asking a stupid question; what is it about your current distributor that you do not like?

You can get higher voltage coils that drop in if that is what you want. You can get new and supposedly better modals. You can get adjustable vacuum advances if needed, your stock advance may even be adjustable. And I really fail to see that the housing being stock or CNC machined would make any difference. Just dropping in a fancy distributor will not make your engine a 7500 RPM engine, you need intake, exhaust, carb, valve springs, lifters, and last but not least balancing of parts for an engine to survive and make good power at that kind of RPM.

Personally I would save my money.

ok the long and short of it is i am having problems after sitting all winter and some of the problems i have found and taken care of like some maybe bad gas and i had some vac leaks on and around base of the carb.......but what is going on now seems to point to the dist ele system.........i can start the motor and runs great then shut it off and sets a little while maybe 10 15 min then start again and runs bad missings some small backfiring ....... shut if down and next time i start it back up seems fine again.......... got me thinking something is not working right in the hei.......... and for the price i would just as soon get something new............ just want the motor to run smooth............. not trying to get more rpm or power....... when it runs good have plenty of that now,,,,,,,,, think the springs and or weights inside the old one are all messed up........

That really sounds more like a fuel problem than ignition, except that it could possibly be a temperature-related coil problem.

ok thanks for the feedback,,,,,,,,,,, i dig out the mallory pro comp 9000 breakerless dist and the acell 300 + cd system that i picked up over a year ago and had forgoten about........... i installed it today and now all is well again............ was not sure if i had everything and if it worked but i went on line and got all the wiring info i needed on it........... works great and i has mech advance and the acell has built in rpm limiter system........... dont have to mess with vac advance at all........... really happy with it............ posted a couple of photos on it.......... will finish up the install this weekend ...... only thing i did not have was a short coil wire so i just used the shortest plug wire from another wire set i had............ will try to find just a short coil wire but dont know if i can buy just the one wire or not.......thanks

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The 'Bad Things' are with the HEI Distributors that are made from 'China' parts imported from wherever, slapped together by guys advertising on E-bay and the '4 wheel drive' sites...

The AMC/Jeep gears in particular were killing engines right and left,
Then along came the $100 to $150 HEI clones that had shafts and housings too long that were jamming up oil pumps....

And yes, it's still an issue with the cheap HEI clones you get...

The only SAFE HEI clones are from DUI and MSD, and both are over $300 each.
(You get what you pay for...)
.................................................. .....

Since yours is a CHEVY ENGINE,
I would walk into the local discount place and ask for a distributor from a '79 Chevy Impala with 305 or 350 V-8 engine,

Then I'd put a premium cap, rotor and coil on it,
And top it off with a set of MSD spark plug wires.
I prefer the cut to fit wires so they actually do what I want them too,
But there are just LOADS of Small block Chevy versions of the wires out there.

Personally, If I were buying 'Cheap' wires, I wouldn't buy anything cheaper than AUTOLITE wires (Around $45) and the MSD wires are only $60 and will be MUCH better wires...
----------------------------------------------

Everything this day and age is CNC machined.
Even China uses CNC machines because they work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, never call in sick, never need a brake, never get hungover, and never screw up the cut....
And all you need is one unskilled monkey to load/unload the machine when the batch is done machining...

What I want to know is,
What tooling did they use?
What are the tolerances?
What was used for bearings/bushings?
Is it factory blue print sized, or is there large tolerances there also?

They don't tell you what the housing is made from....
We know it's aluminum, but is it run of the mill bar stock,
OR is it a good, void pressed, Forged aircraft or aerospace grade aluminum.

Polishing covers a LOT of evils, including cracks!

Is the shaft hardened and centerless ground?
Is the advance head indexed properly?
Can you adjust the centrifugal advance without removing the shaft and advance head from the housing?

Just a few of the questions I have for the CLONES when they make claims...
......................................

The HEI distributors, by definition, have a single spark, and the SPARK ENERGY of that spark relies directly on the saturation time the coil gets.
NO SINGLE SPARK HEI COIL IS GOING TO BE RELIABLE AT 7,500 RPM FOR 50,000 VOLTS!
There simply isn't enough saturation time for that to happen!

HEI coils (early E-core coils) have quicker saturation times than canister coils, but they are still at the mercy of the TIME the module switching transistor allows it to charge, and that time decreases as RPM INCREASES!

I still have yet to see ANY IN CAP HEI COIL that doesn't start loosing spark energy between 2,500 RPM and 3,000 RPM...
No matter what the 'Claims' are or how glossy the print ad is!
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Now, the factory used a ductile Iron gear, not a steel gear of any kind, much less a HARD STEEL GEAR!
I haven't hear of these HEI CLONES tearing up CHEVY engines, but they have played hell with the AMC factory camshaft gears and oil pumps!
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First of all, Throttle Response has to do with the interaction between the fuel ratio, the RPM capabilities of the engine (Weight of the rotating mass, balancing, compression, ect.) and the advance curve.

You can EASILY tune a factory distributor for a faster advance curve but if you don't have the engine getting enough fuel FAST ENOUGH,
And a light enough, close enough to balanced rotating mass, the engine simply isn't going to rev up quickly or smoothly...
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One other thing you might want to know...

Most engines will rarely see operation above 5,000 RPM for more than a few seconds.
EVERY factory distributor is capable of operation at or below 5,000 from the factory...

If you are going to flash above 7,500 RPM,
Or operate for long periods above 5,000 RPM,
You want ROLLER BEARINGS instead of the bushings these HEI Clones have...

SO! READ UP AND REMEMBER THIS!
Up to 5,000 RPM long duration operation,
Or 7,500 RPM flash RPM, the factory distirbutor will do you as good as the 'HEI CLONE' distributors will...
Remember, reman factory distributors are between $50 and $100 and come with LIFETIME warranties!

*IF* you use the factory GM HEI Distributor,
And use a CDI MODULE (Capacitive Discharge Ignition) module instead of the HEI module in the distributor,
You can increase the spark energy to the plug a bare minimum of 500% and up 1,000% depending on what kind of spark energy you are getting at your 'Redline' RPM...
And these modules start at about $139 from Summit.
500% increase for $139.... Yes, it's true and the HEI Clone guys would rather you didn't know about it!
Works with the stock, factory style distributor just fine also!
Summit SUM-850602 - Summit Racing Street & Strip® Multi-Spark Digital CD Ignitions
MSD Ignition 6200 - MSD 6A CD Ignitions

Getting the coil out of the distributor cap will allow you to use a LARGER coil with better winding ratio, that will give you MUCH BETTER, MORE USABLE SPARK ENERGY.
MSD Ignition 8401 - MSD Modified HEI Dust Covers

You can effectively DOUBLE your usable spark energy by simply using a REMOTE coil instead of the small, poorly designed HEI 'In-Cap' coil...
MSD Ignition 8227 - MSD Blaster TFI Coils

Remember!
The distributor advance and triggers are all about the same,
It's the COILS AND MODULES that make the differences, so don't get suckered by 'Shiny' when what you need is USABLE SPARK ENERGY!

Stupid ME!
After reading the entire thread, (After replying to the Original Post) I figured out this is an Accel advertisement...

Accel super coil and Mallory module in the HEI in the orignal post,
Accel E-core coil, Mallory Uni-Lite distributor and Accel CDI module in the last OP's post...

(Accel & Mallory are the same company now and have been for a few years)

...Spam by any other name...

hi thanks for the feedback on the problems i had with the dist on the cj scrambler.... your info on the dist from china and the info on the cd dist systems made me very happy that i went ahead and installed the marllory and accell 300 + system thanks again