I've got a 1966 Nova that someone has put an HEI distributor on. I have a miss at higher R.P.M.'s and believe it's because the wire that connects to the distributor is spliced into the wire bundle that goes down to the starter. There is no terminal coming off the fuse box to connect to that says ignition.
any suggestions?
~darbster senior~

 

if you suspect the connection is bad solder it and use heat shrink insualation. guess i'm not 100% sure what you're asking. how'd you stroke a 283 to 302? with a 327 crank in a 283 block? that'd give you a 307. a 283 crank in a 4" block will get you a 302. i had a 66 , not an ss, L79, one of nearly 6000 made that year, less than 300 l79 cars weren't SSs.

 

Well, the question is. Where is the best place to hook up the wire that goes to the battery terminal on the HEI distributor?

 

You could sonic check the block and see if it has the capability of going .125 over. Some do, most don't and you might need some block filler handy. But hey, that wouldnt be stroking at all, that would be boring.

 

It's probably not a power distribution problem. The HEI is notorious for cutting out at high RPM. The fault lies within the module under the rotor. You can get a good new/remanned one out of any mag for a decent price. They come with high energy coil and a better module.

 

How many volts do you have at the distributor with the ignition in the "on" position (engine not running)? I'll bet it's 6 VDC. Meaning you're either running through a ballast resistor or a resister wire (the '66 Impala my 396 came out of had a resister wire).

The wire going down to the starter provides 12 VDC to the coil only while the starter is engaged. Sometimes, that wire also had the 6 VDC going to it, with only one wire going back up to the coil. Other times, GM had the 6 VDC and the wire from the solenoid both go up to the + coil terminal. Either way, if you used the orginal ignition coil power wire, you're only getting 6 VDC.

For the Impala, I cut the resister wire at the firewall and put straight wire from there up to the HEI. This was before the Impala lost the 396 to the '57, of course. Without a full 12 VDC, HEI will definately lose it.

 

The HEI draws what looks like relatively low current on an ammeter, but it flows in short pulses of high current. So it needs a big wire to a source of lots of power.

I like to hook them up to an ignition terminal in the fusebox, and run a #12 wire out to the dist. In a fusebox with no ign terminal, find the large pink wire at the ignition switch (in the dash IIRC?) and splice you new wire into it by stripping back its insulation lengthwise, twist your new wire around it, and solder & tape it. If you use the car's original wiring, the ballast resistor will still be in the circuit, especially if it uses resistance wire (which I believe all GM cars did by 66).

I built a few motors like that, back in the day; for the young guns on the BBS, the easiest way to build that motor is a 63-67 327 block with a 283 crank in it, and of course only 302 pistons will work. There were a few 283 blocks that had enough meat to go .125" over but time has taken its toll on most of them, rust has eaten into the jackets.

If wiring doesn't fix the problem, try a module first, then a coil. Stock modules often start having weak spark above about 5000 RPM.