I have done the searches, and looked at wood'ys page, but still have one question. Nobody says definitely if a new hole has to be drill to install the cam gear at the proper location on the shaft. I am to assume that this is the norm, or am I missing something. I have not seen a GM distributor in a long time and never paid attention to the cam gear installation method, nor have I ever take my distributor out of my 60. I am able to do the work but would just like to know before I go pulling thething apart just to see.:rolleyes:

thaks for any info, pics...

-Darius

When I did the swop on my 40 in july the toyota pin didn't survive. I just reused the chevy roll pin that came on the distributor. All I did was use a punch and flair the ends of the roll pin. I drive my 40 every day and have had no problems yet. So no, I would say you don't need to drill for the larger pin.

Iwasn't thinking it needed a larger hole so much as a relocated hole. Just wanted to know if reusing the existing hole is the proper procedure, or are all motors different and I need to verify. My guess is that all distributors are fabricated the same(as close as a production line can get to identically the same). Basically it is just a matter of swaping gears onthe distributors, and making sure the shaft goes down far enough when inserted into the block. Right???

Thanks

-Darius

the shaft is not quite long enuff on the gm dist. mounting the gear lower wont do anything for you, its a crapshot really but most seem to be spiting the guts when the shaft is not set in all the way, so, you have a couple options, i have done all 3 and they all will work.
a: you can weld onto the bottom of the flat oil drive and then grind to perfection to make it bottom out.

b: physically extend the shaft, it is joined below the gear with a pivot type thingy to allow for slop, drive out the pin and weld the shaft together at the new longer length.

c: my personall option and current set-up, grind off the mounting lip of the gm housing, get a collet and install it for proper depth then you can use gm style hold down and gasket.

i have heard of someone using the toyota holdown and a peice of PVC as a spacer, this didnt sound good. the collet gives you the gm style lip back and you can use gasket maker when installing it for a better seal.
anyway there is some options for ya.

I'm not sure what model my HEI came off of but I was told it was from a '76 Nova with (obviously) the I-6 engine, not the commonly found V8. I bought the distributor from a Land Cruiser enthusiast who never took the time to retrofit it to the engine before he sold the truck. I had to redrill the hole to the proper Toyota Location, and slide the Toyota (metric) gear into place. From there, using a rivet pin about 1.5-2 CM long, I riveted the gear into place in the proper location.

I've seen a bunch of different GM HEIs, all with similar heads but many with different shaft lengths. On mine the drilling was necessary. The Dizzy seems to now be doing great (though it is not on my truck), and that was some months ago.

Darius,
What are you trying to gain by replacing the fully electronic system now on your 60 with a GM HEI?
I work on several and own and drive a 60 and find nothing wrong with the factory system other than the cost of the igniter if it drops out on you.
Most of the swaps I know about is replacing the old points type with the HEI.
Butch

Butch,

I was understanding that the HEI would produce a hotter spark(more volts) than the factory electronic distributor. Am I wrong in this assumption?? I am just trying to tweak the motor as much as possible so I won't be hating life as much trying to push the 37s, until I get a crawler setup, or a lower first gear in a SM465 swap. Can the same be done by putting in an after market coil?

I figure by keeping the 4.10 w/ the 37s that should give me the equivalent of an overdrive, and the 465 should give me a reasonable first gear ratio. Then comes the waiting period for funds, and someone to put together a reasonable priced crawler box that will bolt to the split case.

Using a gear calculator. I have figured that with the 4.10 and 37s I should be around 2500-2700 rpmsa at 70(more or less, it was a while ago). I am right in guessing that since the 2F make all its torque a 1800 rpms, that I will still be in the large flat power(torque band), ans not be lugging the engine too bad. I am sure tht lower gears would help, but in trying to get rpms down and get some better fuel economy, I am guessing that the lower the rpms are the less fuel I would be using, as long as I am not lugging the motor. What do you think?? I know that the 2fs are not great gas milage motors, just trying to get the most out of it possible, and drivablity. I do not need to be smoking the tires off the light, but decent to good performance is what I am after. I know there is a fine line for getting both at the same time.

thanks for any info.

- Darius:D

The HEI actually will make a difference over the FJ60's electronic ignition. Maybe 10-20 hp actually - you should notice an immediate difference.

There is little that can be done with the stock electronic ignition, even with a hotter coil, HEI stands for High Energy Induction (or is it inductive?) which the factory Toyota system can't touch even with a higher output coil. I tried various Mallory & even a Porche aftermarket coil - they made a little difference but not much versus the HEI. You'll also notice a mild milage increase. Also, headers with the coil and good carb can make a 2F roar pretty good.

I also think the factory Toyota electronic system is very good, I chose to run it in my '75 FJ40 over an reputable aftermarket setup I have brand new in the box....

Good Luck,

Thanks dieselcruiserhead...:D :D

-Darius

Back when I was in to drag racing, I fooled around with all kinds of fancy ignitions. What I learned is that by itself, a fancy ignition or high voltage ignition does nothing to increase power. Quarter mile times do not lie.

When you have high compression engines with a turbo revving above 6,000 RPM, then you will need one to get it to ignite. You are unlikely to encounter thes conditions in a 2F

pin head i dont know about 1/4 mile times, but i can tell you this, the HEI definatly improved the overall drivability of my pig.

and dieselcruiserhead, the gear being in the right spot will not help you, the problem is the shaft not bottoming in the oil pump and being constantly pulled down, over time you may or may not have the reluctor? pulled into the guts and exploding. this has happened to the majority of HEI conversions w/o the shaft modification. its easy to do, look above at my previous post.

trd55, the HEI if nothing else is a simple system with one wire instead of the many you have, and is much more easily modified if thats your bag.

FWIW,
For me the HEI fit in right about perfect, not too long not too short. I measured the position of the gear ring from the old distributor and was forced to drill a new hole and move the entire gear to a new place. From there we developed a reasonable home-brew clamping system using an FJ40 clamp to keep it in place, it fit in almost stock and I believe the unit I used was the year and model which companies that professionally modify HEI's for cruiser applications use.

Originally posted by RHINO
pin head i dont know about 1/4 mile times, but i can tell you this, the HEI definatly improved the overall drivability of my pig.



I don't doubt it. The question is whether this is due to HEI or having a bad or worn out stock distributor to compare with. You can get some noticable performance gain by just fooling with the centrifugal advance to get more overall advance and have it kick in earlier, so the new HEI distributor may have a better advance curve. You can recurve your distributor for a lot less.

There are a lot of reasons that the HEI ignition is great: It is simpler and more reliable because you don't have points. If you are buying it expecting to get a significant performance increase you may be disappointed (especially if you ar replacing a late model OEM electonic ignition).

The question is whether this is due to HEI or having a bad or worn out stock distributor to compare with

good point, i'm sure my old dist. was worn however i think the HEI is a better sparker than the old points no matter what, i dont think the truck was really faster but it did idle and run in the low and mid range much smoother, pulls stronger too, plus it starts easier and gets at least 3mpg better. this is not to say a newer cruiser electric ingintion swap wouldnt have done the same for me, but HEI was much cheaper.

The reason the HEI feels like it's more powerful is likely do to the ignition curve. At stock compression lighting the mixture is no challenge for the Toy system. The spark only lights the mixture, when it lights it makes all the difference!

Want to light your spark hotter? Get a good alternator that puts out 14.8 vdc at 1500 rpm and make sure all of your connections are good and tight. Why do you think the drag crowd juice their electrical systems up to 18 vdc?