What do I need to know electrically to do to convert from points to Hei. Any tips,tricks or concerns I should know about ? Is one hei better to use for the conversion or are they basically all the same ?

 

Pretty hard to beat a stock Chevy HEI distributor, if you have the firewall clearance for the larger cap. If you don't have room, then I've had great luck with Pertronix electronic kits to put in stock Chevy distributors.
In the case of the Pertronix kit, it takes 30 minutes to convert them by the directions. In the case of swapping to a Chevy HEI, it's just pulling the old distributor and coil. Drop in the new HEI, move the hot wire that went to the positive side of the coil, to the 12v. connector on the HEI. Set the plug gap wider to about .045", and set the timing.
You can go to some of the more exotic, or higher priced systems, with controllers, and such. But if you're not going racing, it's hard to beat these two.

 

I think if you have a stock wiring harness you are only feeding 9V to the coil, there should be another wiring coming from the starter to the coil that supplies the full 12 volts to the coil during cranking. When you switch to HEI you need to replace the 9 volt wire and remove the wire from the starter completely.

 

Good point! Whether you go HEI, or Pertronix, you need to remove the resistor section of that wire. It's easier to cut out the resistor portion near the starter, than replace the whole wire.

 

Thanks guys for all your info. It looks like a Gm HEI will work. Thanks for the heads up on the 9 volts wire.