HEI Hook up

[TheRoaringEagle]

i have a painless wiring harness and used to have points type ignition. now i have HEI and it has two posts, one for the tach and one that reads batt. i connected my <to ignition coil> wire from the harness to the batt post on the dist.

am i supposed to have a direct wire from batt to dist. or am i okay with what i've done. the engine started up nice but after one start and some idle, it has a hard time starting up again. like the system is drained.

[PRRC]

The wire going to a GM HEI. Should be hot in the crank and run position. A keyed 12 volts.
The hard starting my be the result of a over heated starter, If the headers are close to the starter.
Tim

[69keith]

Bad Ground or starter..

[Texas Hotrod]

A points system uses reduced voltage, an HEI needs 12 volts (period).
Does the painless harness have a built in voltage reducer? If the HEI doesn't have 12 volts, it would cause issues.
Check "key on engine running" voltage at the main HEI power source. Make sure it's actual battery voltage.

[TheRoaringEagle]

the wires are hooked up right according to the painless wiring manual for hei, the car runs well except for the richness the edelbrock carb is causing. i have a heat wrap around the starter and the wires, i have pretty good grounds too and the cranking still sucks.

i've got 20-50w valvoline in it. is that too thick?

also i've hooked up the alternator with highoutput wires when it only produces 65 amps. is that bad? i've been meaning to upgrade though..

[Madspeed]

the wires are hooked up right according to the painless wiring manual for hei..

Just because the Painless manual says its right does NOT mean it is
I have installed a few painless kits and I assure you that they have all had something incorrect on something.

There tech suport is as worthless as Teetz on a witch..

Did you do an HEI with an external coil kit?
If you did, whos kit is it?

In your description it seems you are hooking the bat from the cap to the Coil (externa coil) More info please...

[TheRoaringEagle]

the hei unit is a factory stock one, came with my fastburn 385 engine. no external coil. just going to stock. it doesnt seem like there's an issue with the way the distributor is hooked up, the engine runs well when it's on

[Madspeed]

Now that I reread your Og post Im a little more clear.

First off have you checked you charge voltage?

Second and shoulda been my first q is what the batt voltage eng off?

If you have good voltage and alternator is charging then Check the timing if you are to far advanced it will crank hard..

Lemme Know