i have an 82 and i a;so work at advance so i know what your talking about with the distributor. the only performance one i found for the 7 pin module is d.u.i. that can be bought threw mid america. they make a really good product to them oem spec with stronger parts and one of the highest voltages on the coil out there.
The HEI is a great distributor. I don't know of anything wrong or bad about the DUI, but any so called up grade is a waste of money unless your engine has a lot more cylinder pressure than stock, and it NEEDS more voltage to jump the plug gap than the HEI can deliver. Remember, no matter "hot" the ignition system, it will produce no more voltage than necessary to jump the plug gap. If it takes 10,000 volts to jump the gap (typical) your "one of the highest voltages on the coil" will produce only the 10,000 volts necessary, the same as the stock HEI. The HEI will produce much more voltage than any mildly modified engine will ever need. A "hot" ignition system, often is capable of producing higher volts to jump a higher resistant gap, but it takes quite a bit of modifications to require it. Meanwhile all that money spent on that exotic ignition is only producing the same volts as the old reliable HEI.
OK, maybe, but hotter than mine. My engine has never been apart so your thinner cylinder walls could be part if it. The new Delphi radiator is the stock configuration with a single row aluminum core with the plastic tanks? If so, that shouldn't be a problem. How long has it been in there? When you installed the radiator, did you do a good, thorough flush of the cooling system? Again, how long ago? When you say, "Before I took thermostat out, it ran..." are you saying that you are running the car without a thermostat? Bad news. That is worse than using a 160° thermostat. Why did you change from the stock stat? What was the reason? You DO know what a thermostat is, how it works, and it's purpose, right?
i see what you are talking about with the voltage but in the same instance although it may be over kill it really is an awesome distributor for the buck and a big issue with the stock hei set up is that the ignition module cant charge very well at the higher rpm witch kills your top end. that can be fixed with any of the after market modules out there but then you start getting into crossing brands if you want to get the better stuff, which i have never been a fan of. im guilty of doing it though just because of the fact there is nothing wrong with mine yet so there is no need for the dui set up yet. and to get to the strength thing with me working in the parts store i see it all the with parts breaking on the stock distributor and wires shorting out inside of them the gear at the bottom shearing the pin and things like that all the time. it just makes me feel a little better know that the company didnt try to cut back on cost by using even slightly weaker parts because anything is only as good as its weakest link.
it seems your good with cooling systems, i have a small problem with mine cooling at about 225-230 range on extended drives which seem weird with the fact i have a two row aluminum radiator heavy duty cooling aluminum water pump and a 160 thermostat. i wasnt to keen on putting that thermostat in but i put the hypertech thermo chip in and it is required to have that 160 in there (not sure 100% why though). the system was flushed when the radiator was put in 2 years ago and once more when the water pump and thermostat was put in 3 months ago. if you have any ideas please let me know because i like to take mine out on long drives and this limits me to how far i can go.
Is that right? At what rpm does the HEI fail to charge well? Does your Crossfire turn too many rpms for a HEI? I haven't noticed any ignition break up at 6000+ rpms with mine. You must turn your Crossfire to higher rpms that that. Pick up coils and ingnition modules are replacement parts for a HEI. If an HEI has wires shorting out inside or has sheared the drive gear roll pin, it must have been result of abuse, misuse, poor repair techniques, and neglect. Wires, unmolested, rarely short out. Someone mis-routed the wires where they were able to wear ir burn. I have never seen a deitributor gear pin shear. Was the engine run out of oil causing the distributor to freeze up? Are you saying that a Davis roll pin is better, stronger than that used by Delco? Besides that idea being crazy, so would the person that spent a bunch of money on a distributor to get a stronger roll pin that almost never fails.
You should know better than to install that 160° thermostat, other than, maybe, just for racing. Besides all the harm that can be done with that stat, did you do a quantitative test on that chip? With a HyperTech ThermoMaster chip in my Crossfire it ran slightly slower in the 1/4 mile. Did you receive a measured improvement with your chip or just seat of the pants? With a two row aluminum radiator your car should be spitting ice cubes as you drive down the road. You must have something wrong. Air flow is a problem on C4s. Maintenance is the key. That thermostat won't contribute to it running hot, but it won't help cool it either. With no more info all I can recommend it to clean, flush and double check that everything is working properly. Pay close attention to the air flow, to and from the radiator. There is no good reason for it to run that warm at speed, especially with that radiator.
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