Recycling a 65 sportvan custom.

I'd say stick with the carb that was working on the "new" engine. Mine has a Holley one barrel model something-or-other that was also made as a Motorcraft or Autolite and used a lot on Mustang six bangers. Who knows how it got on there, but it is working and staying for now. When I got my van I bought a NOS Carter on eBay and they put a kit in it with all new alcohol rated seals. It's on the shelf waiting for duty at some point.

I looked at your link for the modern engines and to be honest I was hoping you'd go with one of those I-5 engines since that is what you have now ha ha.

Been a while since I checked in on this thread, you are making great progress!!

I just did the HEI upgrade.... van just started running like crap one day and I figured it needed a tune then talked myself into getting rid of points altogether. The van likes it.

Haha, sandy van. The 5 cylinder is pissed at me. The points closed up the other day.

Did you upgrade the wire to the coil when you did the hei?

ScottyJones wrote:Im in the process of upgrading my carb to a two barrel weber right now. If I can get it tuned and end up liking it, I have a Carter or a Monojet that I would sell ya. Monojet came with the rebuilt motor I got and I believe it was rebuilt at the same time. I also have a rebuild kit ready and waiting for the Carter I have.

Scotty I may be interested in your Carter do you know the model number? The housing cracked on mine so looking for a new/used one.

I did the "install a relay" method - there is some discussion of this on VCVC. I decided to go with a Summit Racing dist as I read too many complaints on Chevy forums for the cheap eBay ones. The coil is in the dist - that is the extent of my knowledge! LOL

Actually the only thing that tripped me up was that I didn't know that when you stab the dist, the curve in the gear teeth moves you back about 20 degrees or so. So it wouldn't start and I thought I was off TDC but once I learned what was going on I was in business. Then it was just getting the advance right, apparently the HEI likes more than stock points.

Cool any links to the hei install? Good idea on the relay

The main thing you need to know about the coil wire is this: the stock wire has a resistor in it that steps it down to 6 volts. HEI needs 12 volts. And that wire should be a thicker gauge, 10 gauge I think. I used the wire loom from a newer Chevy that had electronic ignition, since I also eliminated the van's voltage regulator by using a newer 3-wire alternator that has the built-in regulator. Simplifies the wiring quite a bit. Plus you can get an alternator that puts out more amps for all of our modern gadgets.

The resistor wire starts at the harness connector in the DH. I changed that section out and used it for the signal wire to the relay as it is keyed hot when running. You can use that relay for a lot more than the HEI also. I use a relay to power a 6 circuit fuse panel and feed stuff off that that hooks to the engine keeping the old harness running only what was there originally.

Digz, is DH dash harness? The more I think about it the more I like the idea of the big relay to isolate the original wiring. The 6v wire will easily trigger the relay for 20-30 amp circuit.

Leftcoast65 wrote:

ScottyJones wrote:Im in the process of upgrading my carb to a two barrel weber right now. If I can get it tuned and end up liking it, I have a Carter or a Monojet that I would sell ya. Monojet came with the rebuilt motor I got and I believe it was rebuilt at the same time. I also have a rebuild kit ready and waiting for the Carter I have.

Scotty I may be interested in your Carter do you know the model number? The housing cracked on mine so looking for a new/used one.

I'd have to look at the specific model number, but it's the carb that came on my van when I got it, so it should be the one you need. I have a full rebuild kit (minus base gasket I used) ready for a rebuild.

DH is dog house , but yeah the connector that hooks the engine stuff to the dash. The resistor wire starts there and yes by replacing it with a comparable gauge wire at that point seems to be plenty for a signal wire for the relay. Just remember to get a continuous duty relay.

This is pricy, but it looks period correct.
http://bit.ly/13taV3h

It's a vw headlight relay. 30 amps

You can just hit a NAPA store for one. the price is probably close to what a 25 amp one will run, ya get into the 30-50 range they go up some. Mine is quite similar in appearance to the stock horn relay.

Good idea, what is it off of?

I keep editing as my memory comes back ,,LOL. It's a generic part. I'll switch browsers and get a pic of my birds nest.

This is what I have going. this panel contains the fan relay the remore starter solenoid, horn relay and the engine/trans fuse panel. The main relay is the gold colored one lower left.

I kept the horn relay as the main junction for power because thats what it is built for. No way am I saying this the right way as there are more ways than one to hook crap up.

You can go nutz with relays, separating every component with one and using 1 relay to control a bunch of them.

"continuous duty relay". Would this be used for fans, wipers, and headlights and anything that requires power while that option is turned on for an extended period of time? The horn relay would be just a regular relay or non continuous relay, or what ever it's called...lol. I haven't advanced that far yet, as I am not sure how to hook them up corectly.

Lol, that's one way to get there. I see you are building a race car.

Digz that is impressive!

There are a lot of threads on the web about the Chevy HEI upgrade, surprised there isn't one here full of pictures from Don. Try and Advanced Search. The part you show looks good but you don't need the middle fifth post. You also need to put in a diode as a lot of people have issues with the motor not shutting off after the upgrade when the key is off. This was all way over my head, kookykrispy walked me through it via PM - I got the diode at Radio Shack.

And yeah, the alternator upgrade is a must do as well. Soon you'll have an all new van. What is going on with the engine swap?

I got my engine but I've been traveling for work. This week ill flip it upside down and put a new rear main in it and a pan gasket. Just so I don't have to do it later. Hopefully ill take it to work Saturday and drop the whole thing out the bottom and switch it out Saturday. If I have time ill do more space age insulation. That stuff works great.

Last but not least I pulled the axle shafts to inspect the rear end bearings and my outer bearings are shot. Looks like ill be putting a set of repair bearings in. You had the ones with the inner and outer seal. I'm gonna give that a try.

This is the second time the van has just shut off. Does this thing have a fusable link?

I finally found the real source of my short. It's the plug in the doghouse on the driver side. it was full of corrosion. Damn thing. I'm going to replace the plug with something that will take more amperage when I put in the HEI.

In other news, I got a chance to strip down the 250 and redue the rear main seal, timing cover seal and gasket and the oil pan gasket. When I get all done ill have sealed all the possible leak locations and the 250 will be ready for service.

The parts in the motor are indeed very fresh.


Look at the crank. Nice polish and radius corners


After some scrubbing I painted the block. I'm going to use my accessories so ill start cleaning them up tomorrow.

Looks really nice!! Nice job Dirtstar!

Thanks vanny, I'm having a hard time getting motivated this morning. I gotta get to the parts store and then to the shop. Ill put the motorcycle in the back so I can ride home tonight and finish up tomorrow.