The title pretty much says it all. I recently purchased a nice polished intake and edelbrock performer 600 cfm. carb. I've removed the smog pump and pretty much have done away with the ecm, although it is still plugged in. Currently the car runs with the cc hei, but diesels when I turn it off and runs rather sluggishly. I want to take the cc hei out and replace it with a vacuum advanced one, and basically do away with the computer. I read the Non-Computer Controlled HEI Setup For Performance article, but it doesn't tell me what wires are what on my current distributor set up, and it doesn't really give me a whole lot of details on how to wire it up. In other words, I don't know which wire is tach., which wire is hot, and so forth. Can anyone can tell me what wires are what on my current dist. or tell me how you ran your wires to your non-cc hei? I also realize that once I do away with the computer, I need a lockup switch for my converter, but I have one other question. There's a computer sensor in my water neck, will that make any difference in my cooling system if I take my computer out? This is a 1987 Z28... the last year I believe for carbs in fbodies. Thanks for your time!!!

 

I did the switch last weekend.

When you look at your old dist it will have three sets of connectors. A four wire, a three wire and a two wire. After you unplug and remove them and while at TDC on #1, unbolt and remove the dist.
Install the new dist to the correct set-up for #1 TDC and snug up the hold-down bolt.
you only need to reconnect the three wire and two wire connectors. The four wire connector goes to the computer.
Try to use the same factory connectors it'll make life easier.
The large pink wire is for the Bat and the small white wire is Tach.
That's it. Re-time the car and enjoy
Hope it helps.

 

I took a look at my dist. and it looks like that's going to be pretty simple. From the looks of it, the 4 wire plug is correct, and there's a 2 wire that runs from the dist. to the coil, which won't be used with the non-cc, and there's another 2 wire connector that goes to the coil. This connector has a pink and a yellow. Pink I'm assuming is batter and yellow is tach. My only last question is what about the computer sensor in the water neck, if I remove that, will it effect my cooling system?

 

No.

 

I was reading the Overheating and Possible Causes article in the Tech section, and the part about the cooling fans operating properly has me confused. He says that on a high performance motor, the chip will have to be changed to get one of them to come on at the right time. Is my fan computer controlled?

 

No. There is a thermal switch for the fan in the passenger side head. Doesn't go to the ECM.

The CTS feeds the ECM only for the purpose of open/closed loop for mixture control. You are eliminating that.