Oh yeah ... that's right ... Steve and I sparked up my 454 for the first time tonight!

That's the good news ...

The bad news is that some goofball (me) screwed up my distributor by washing it in varsol, and it won't keep running.

It was grimy as hell, but it WAS working before I yanked the engine out of the donor.

I'm not going to waste a bunch of time trying to clean it up ... I'm just going to order a reman unit. Engine break-in requires a distributor that I can trust.

The parts book lists 2 of them to fit this application (Well 3 actually, but it has no vaccuum advance)

Autoline Part # D2013 "Light Duty"
OR
Autoline Part # D2024 "Heavy Duty"

The same numbers fit a 350, and they say that they fit under/over 8600 GVW applications, respectively.

I'm thinking that the difference will be in the advance weights, right?
If so, which one should I get?

They're both exactly the same price, and it looks like the HD one is in stock at the Calgary DC, but the LD one is not. Either way, I'm sure I could source either one quite quickly somewhere close.

Yeaaah-Hooooo!

There's only one thing more exciting than firing up a V8 (with open headers of course)

I did a really crappy job of videoing it with my POS digital camera in "movie mode" and the audio sucks badly, too.

Oh well ... maybe I'll borrow somebody's DV camcorder and try again later.

After installing the new distributor, it fired right up of course.

You can't hear it very well, but it has a real nice crisp "snap" to it, and that nice lopey idle that we all love at around 800 RPM.

454 break-in

Here's another one. "Blipped" the throttle a bit in this one.
454 Break-in #2

Cool!
Now pass the motion sickness meds please...

Like 71C10 said; "Cool!" As you said, the sound quality of the video isn't that great, but I can still tell what the engine really sounds like , and it's very nice.

LOL!
Yeah, I must have slept thru Videography 101.

A lot of the time, that camera was the furthest thing from my mind, and I never once checked the view-finder.

Next time I'll bring my wife or one of the kids to do that job ... or maybe even mount the camera on a tripod.

The limited amount of knowledge that I have about audio is that the microphone has AGC (Automatic Gain Control) which is trying to ELIMINATE the background noise.

BTW, I ordered the HD distributor in case anyone was wondering.

Sounds good................Nice bread pan.............

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Home Handyman Forum I Shade Tree Mechanic Forum

Spotted that right away, eh?
I had a previous thread on that subject ...
Betty Crocker meets Stewart Warner

I think we all noticed that one!

So now you need to take the new distributor to someone who can set it up for your combination, since the advance curve and vacuum advance are not tuned to your engine.

Ya ... I kind of figured as much. My original plan was to run the existing HEI, and then replace it later, with something more compact. (So that it would fit in behind an 8-71 blower.)

Now I'm getting "cold feet" on that notion. The missus mentioned that she thinks she should come and have a look at that truck, so she knows where her pay-checks have been going. (just kidding)

Seriously, though ... I have been spending a lot more than I originally planned ... surprised, anyone?

--- BTW ... I have just uploaded the video that precedes the other two. This is the first try after installing that new distributor ... and of course it fired right up.
454 #3 (or should it be 454 #1)