I agree, when the engine has the optimal air/fuel ratio of 14.7:1 and the engine is in top condition internally, a points system will be fine with regular maintenance. I disagree with the claimed advantages of some of the aftermarket distributor designs and am a believer in the GM HEI distributor design. When the air/fuel ratio is modified for enhanced performance or engine internals are below tolerance, there are difinite voltage and amperage advantages with any electronic system as well as improved fuel economy. For example there is about 2.5 amps of current flow through the primary side of the coil on a points system compared to 5+ amps with an an HEI. A points sytem will have about 24 watts in the secondary side compared to 60+ with an HEI. The HEI system is more effective at holding the spark across the plug gap for a longer period of time than a points sytem translating to improved combustion.

 

thats my point, when the motor is working correctly and the point distributor is set up and built correctly a points distributor will run these older motors just great.

many people feel their motors aren't running to peak performance so install electronic conversions and claim they can feel a difference. The electronic conversion units are simply helping to mask the underlaying problems that were already in the system.
if these problems had been properly corrected to begin with by setting up the distributor correctly, rebuilding it to get rid of distributor shaft endplay, or whatever the problem is that's causing the motor to not perform at peak level, than you would not feel any difference from the points system to an electronic conversion.

keep in mind the basics, there is no magic happening here. all the elctronic conversions are doing is replacing an electro-mechanical switch for the coil (the points) with an electronic switch. they do NOT give you a "hotter spark" - that comes from the coil, not the distributor.
If someone feels a difference in the cars performance after switching to an electronic conversion than they would have felt the same difference if they had replaced their older points.

The GM HEI distributor is a completely different story and GM developed that out of a need for a hotter spark because of changes in the motors during the mid 70's from emmision requirements and TRYING to keep some performance on the cars. The HEI was far from a perfect solution but it filled a need at the time.

 

The points conversion kits are a convienent way to modernize an older product, but I just checked the adds and none claim to add more power, so there is no false advertising claims. These conversions may be of benefit if the coil is upgraded at the same time.

Considering $65.00 for the XR-1, and if you upgrade the coil for $40.00 you can buy a brand new Summit HEI for $139.00 and probably get severals years a service out of it considering yhe mileage on collector cars annually.

If these conversions have optical sensors, they are in an environment where dirt and oil can cover the optics and cause the part to malfunction.

 

ahoover
I don't even see the need to upgrade the older motors that came originally with points distributors with HEI units. The HEI units were for models that needed the hotter spark. Motors that came with the HEI units had much different timing set-up to try and increase fuel ecomomy and the hotter spark from the HEI units was needed to help proper combustion. The motors prior to that that came with point distributors didn't need the HEI and really won't benefit very much, if at all from installing it as I understand it.

 

I did the conversion to the XR-i about a month ago. Only took it out for a short test drive, but all seemed well. The only slight hitch was that I had to pull the distributor in order to feed the wires through that little hole. Not a big problem.

 

HEI. Ugly but indestructible. If the unthinkable happens, everybody and their aunt George has parts for it.