I know this sounds like a silly question but im pretty sure the vacuum can shouldn't be making contact with the head. This is a new hei distributor with vacuum advance ( obviously ) it was installed by the machine shop that did the rebuild but i never paid that much attention to it at the time but once i got it put back in and ready to wire it became pretty obvious. Dont see how i could've moved it by lowering it in car. Im hesitant to move it because they had it running on an engine run stand to break in new camshaft so im assuming timing is correct. Any suggestions?

When I was running an HEI I used a can with a port that was curved 90* up cause the straight port did exactly that.

You need to suck it up and rotate it. It all depends on the orientation of the rotor and where you put the wires

Here's what Bob is talking about, also, mine is 180 degrees out from where yours is. My distributor is a 1975 model year unit, IIRC.

Or what the other Bob said

Does this seem like a fair deal?

It can be any orientation. I believe the proper orientation for the vacuum advance can is towards the firewall and the drivers side

If you don't feel comfortable enough to lift out and replace the distributor, you may be able to move the plug wires over one post. You will still have to adjust the timing afterwards. Check if the distributor can be rotated one plug tower counter-clockwise without the vacuum can and hose connecting the fire wall, If it looks like it can be turned it's just a matter of moving the plug wires over one tower all the way around.

If it looks like you'll have clearance, set your crank so the number one piston is at top dead center of the compression stroke, or you can set it to the timing mark that your engine is timed at for initial timing. Then mark the distributor just below the cap where the # one plug wire attaches to it's tower, then mark below the tower one over clock-wise from the number one tower. Remove the distributor cap and note the rotor's position in relation to the number one mark, loosen the distributor and rotate it counter-clockwise (vacuum cam towards the firewall) until the rotor is in the same position in relation to the second mark as it was to the number one mark. Tighten down the distributor and replace the distributor cap. Now you move the number one plug wire one position clockwise, followed by all the the wires until they are all one position clock wise. Now you have all the wires in the same position in relation to the rotor and in the same position in space as they were before you started.

Now you fine tune the timing to the start point.

Basically, your moving the firing point to the number two plug by rotating the distributor counter-clockwise then moving it back to number one by moving the plug wires one position clockwise.

Easy as pie, as long as there's room to rotate the distributor and not interfere with the firewall, if not you'll have to take out the distributor or buy a vacuum can with a 90 degree bend in the vacuum nipple or get one like you have pictured. Did you check the specs of the can with the nipple coming off the top to see if it has the same activation vacuum point and amount of advance as your can does now?

Never even thought about the vacuum can specs, thanks for mentioning it

had the same issue with my 68, ended up turning the distributor many times but could not get the correct clearance and timed right, went to petronix ign, and switched out the points, ya still have the new hei..sitting on shelve

This is the one I used for a long time. I think it was off some Chevy. Still got it on the dist if you need the number.

Yeah whenever you get a minute if you dont mind, thanks

This isn’t the one off my car but another I had laying around.

vacuum advance is really not needed on these cars.

You always want vacuum advance. The timing gets advanced during light throttle and back under heavy throttle. That is the way our motors were meant to run. At least for normal driving and not a race setup