Chrome or Orange?

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74.Dodge.Dart.S

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So I'm in need of a new Ignition Control Unit for my 74 dodge dart sport. Ive seen a few around but have read Orange is the cheaper and original, but I also read to stay away from that one and get the chrome version. So whats the difference? JEGS makes one with a new wire harness and its pretty cheap...
What I do know is mine has a 5 pin harness on it so I will need one with a 5 pin in it right? (Pics below)
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Both were aftermarket units offered from mopar performance. These days they aren't made the same (chinese) and have a bad rep for leaving you stranded. Unless you can find an older unit that u know isnt made overseas, I would use a different ignition. Like even an oem one.
 
baracus said:
Both were aftermarket units offered from mopar performance. These days they aren't made the same (chinese) and have a bad rep for leaving you stranded. Unless you can find an older unit that u know isnt made overseas, I would use a different ignition. Like even an oem one.
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Where is the best place to find one at?
 
The more modern internal electronics don't require or use the 5th wire. The fact that the harness has the 5th wire doesn't matter. No need to cut or alter anything. In fact there are or were some later boxes displaying a 5th pin just for the end users comfort. That pin wasn't attached to anything inside the box.
I purchased a used chrome box from a member here about 4 years ago. It has worked fine.
 
I'm in the same boat as the OP!
Have you guys had good luck with FBO?

That box sounds great...no more ballast resistor, adjustable RPM limit...amazing.
 
MRL tested them against MSD I do believe, and they produced more power on the dyno. Shoot him a PM, or maybe will see this.
 
The chrome boxes you get today are nothing like the MP P4120534 chrome boxes of yesterday. Its just a fake Motorola transistor package mounted to a heat sink. The most expensive part of the new boxes are the plug itself. plus the OEM P4120534 wasnt supposed to be used under 2K rpm for extended time! NOT a street ignition. The whole package (P3690560 coil and P2444641 ballast) was 8K race rated.
 
pishta said:
The chrome boxes you get today are nothing like the MP P4120534 chrome boxes of yesterday. Its just a fake Motorola transistor package mounted to a heat sink. The most expensive part of the new boxes are the plug itself. plus the OEM P4120534 wasnt supposed to be used under 2K rpm for extended time! NOT a street ignition. The whole package (P3690560 coil and P2444641 ballast) was 8K race rated.
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Great info, Pishta.

About what year did the original style chrome boxes go out of production? Mine is from the late 1990s...seemingly dead as a doornail.
 
I just spoke with the designer of the box or about 15 minutes...embarrassingly, I didn't catch his name! Very professional, very knowledgeable, very clear spoken. He was patient with my dumb questions too. :)

The box sounds perfect...so I ordered one up!

I will keep you guys posted.

Assuming the product works as advertised, FBO is absolutely the kind of business that we need supporting our hobby.
 
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That may have been Don himself. If you take the back of the "chrome" box off and it's potted, it may very well be an oem chrome, but if it's just a tiny pcb then it's China junk. You could pop it in the toaster oven and reflow it but it may melt the plastic plug. I'm not sure when they discontinued the potted chrome race box, but FBO is a better choice anyway.
 
Try a Rev-n-nator box. They do work very well. Check them out at the R/T Garage.
 
pishta said:
That may have been Don himself. If you take the back of the "chrome" box off and it's potted, it may very well be an oem chrome, but if it's just a tiny pcb then it's China junk. You could pop it in the toaster oven and reflow it but it may melt the plastic plug. I'm not sure when they discontinued the potted chrome race box, but FBO is a better choice anyway.
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Yep, sounds like Don alright.
Straight forward just like the excellent products they put out.
 
318willrun said:
I just bought one of these (same except black). Haven't installed it yet.....
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Did you get it for the 318 you just finished up? But for the price, I like the looks of the one you bought! I think I'm going to try it also! Hopefully it will work for my 318. It says its a 4 or 5 pin replacement with no mods so I should be good right? And what does it mean when it says "min. 7500 RPM certified"??
 
74.Dodge.Dart.S said:
Did you get it for the 318 you just finished up? But for the price, I like the looks of the one you bought! I think I'm going to try it also! Hopefully it will work for my 318. It says its a 4 or 5 pin replacement with no mods so I should be good right? And what does it mean when it says "min. 7500 RPM certified"??
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I actually didn't have a particular car in mind, and neither have I installed it yet. I believe it means it will fire up to 7500 rpm's without missing. I'll throw it on something just to see, but all my vehicles run fine as of now.
 
318willrun said:
I actually didn't have a particular car in mind, and neither have I installed it yet. I believe it means it will fire up to 7500 rpm's without missing. I'll throw it on something just to see, but all my vehicles run fine as of now.
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yeah let me know how it works! :)
 
If I was to stay with the factory style the FBO would be the choice to make. An HEI style is worth looking at and an MSD is my personal choice and very tough to beat. I've had many in service for well over a decade and have never had a problem or a failure.
 
My ignition box and coil came in from FBO...everything looks great. The indicator light on the box comes on sit it's getting input power. I added the jumper to the ballast resistor....and:

Still no spark!

So...I ordered a new ignition wiring harness. I suspect I will have replaced the entire car before this thing runs again.
 
MRGTX said:
My ignition box and coil came in from FBO...everything looks great. The indicator light on the box comes on sit it's getting input power. I added the jumper to the ballast resistor....and:

Still no spark!

So...I ordered a new ignition wiring harness. I suspect I will have replaced the entire car before this thing runs again.
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Can you find an MSD to try?

The msd has a cable that goes to the positive and negative of the battery itself. 2 wires to the dizzy and one for switched 12v power.

If that doesn't run it you have a dizzy issue or something else engine related.
 
I don't know if I can find an MSD to borrow but if the ignition harness doesn't do the trick, that's next.

The distributor doesn't seem to be the origin of the problem...I tried the old (and presumably still functioning) distributor from my 318 and got identical results.
 
See if you can find any circle track guys. They often have MSD's from cars that got wrecked or discarded
 
Well...I put the Mopar chrome box and ballast resistor back in. I picked up a new chassis-ground cable (the home made one I had looked marginal), grabbed a new cap and rotor just to be sure and got back to testing the voltage everywhere I could.

I noticed that the lead going into the distributor was reading really low...tenths of a volt, IIRC. I though that was weird..so I checked again, pushed the probe in tighter...suddenly saw more voltage (didn't write it down) but I decided to give it another turn of the key and VROOM!!!!!

So I guess it has to be an old/corroded wiring thing though I still have no idea what happened. I have a new ignition harness on the way. It has been running like a top ever since.
 
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