I am thinking about buying the350ci 290 HP engine from summit. One of my concernes is can I take my 85 HEI distributor off the 305 and put it on that 350. Also, I know my 85 apparently has different intake manifold bolt pattern. Will it fit this engine I want to keep the TPI setup. Any help would be great.

 

262, 265, 267, 283, 302, 305, 307, 327, 348, 350, 396, 402, 409, 427, 454 - they can all use the same distributor.

I'm running a "305" distributor in a 350 right now.

 

Roller VS non-roller does make a little difference though...

The distributors are the same, but the drive gears are different (made of different metals IIRC). Easy to swap the gears though.

 

thats what I thought. Thanks guys

 

The 290 horse crate engine has the same intake bolt pattern as your '85. It should be as close to a bolt-in as you can possibly get.

 

Thats what I wanted to hear. It sounds like this will be a fairly straight forward project.

 

If speaking of factory roller cams, then a "melonized" gear is required. It's a surface treatment. A melonized gear can be used on a non-roller cam.

It has been suggested (although I haven't seen confirmation) that the "good" gears were used before roller cams became the norm. Also that an '86-earlier 3rd gen distributor will be fine on a factory type roller cam. However, that is moot in this case since the 290 horse crate engine has a flat tappet cam.

 

So I will just change out the gear to a melonized gear. I dont quite know what that means though. Is it some kind of coating or one of those brass gears or something.

 

You don't need to change the gear. The crate engine and your current engine have the same type of cam - flat tappet.

 

I got ya.