Re: HEI Upgrade?
Is an HEI Upgrade an issue on a boat application?
Yes, it's not USCG approved for marine engines,,, enclosed engine compartment. Some excess gas fumes, a stray spark from the non-"sparkproof" ignition and the boat blows up.
Now let me ask the question of why pay $250+ (in most cases more) per distributor when a GM HEI ignition is more or less spelt out the same and half as expensive.
So instead of Bashing the GM HEI Ignition and not answering my question, I once again will pose the question of "Is a GM HEI ignition an acceptable upgrade to the points distributor that is currently on my 260HP Mercruisers?"
The same argument can be made for, why use a marine starter or alternator, when their automotive counterparts are less than 1/2 price. The automotive starter will start the boat and the automotive alternator will charge the battery, but they can also blow up your boat as they are not USCG approved - sparkproof.
Besides the spark issue, the HEI's automotive timing curve is not a "marine" timing curve, and HEI's have vacuum advance which marine distributors do not have. Wrong timing curve means poor performance or possibly a blown engine.
There are reasons why Mercruiser, OMC and Volvo never used the HEI...