How do you tell if your car has a HEI vs non-HEI distributor? My car has an aftermarket 350 engine (naturally aspirated), but I am just learning all this stuff about cars. The distributor is quite large (black) and says Delco-Remy on the center of the top. The top of the distributor has a rectangular shaped piece that is in the center. There is no center post on the top of the distributor, they all are around the perimeter.
Any ideas on what this is, or how I can go about telling the difference?

Thanks,

Gary

Given your description, it sounds like an HEI to me. The rectangular object in the middle is the coil. Some HEI's don't have the coil built in, but normally, they do. Does it look like this (roughly)?

http://www.speedshop.net/images/pn8365-7.jpg

That is pretty much it, except it is black.

Thanks!

The old point distributor caps look kinda the same with respect to having the wire towers but with the coil wire tower in its middle instead of the coil mount.

Plus their cap is about the size of a baseball!! pdq67