MSD Pro Billet ignition- are these unusually "voltage sensitive?" Got stranded, looking for ideas
The Dart stranded me last night for the first time since 1999 or so when I had a ballast resistor go bad and didn't know enough to have a spare one in the glovebox.
My best guess is that this is once again related to the ignition but for very different reasons...I am sure I'll be able to figure this out but thanks to my work schedule and family demands, I won't be able to touch it until Sunday and it's killing me...so I'm just throwing this out there for your input or opinions on where to start.
The car started up and ran normally, shortly after it reached operating temp, I switched on the electric fans manually (as I always do). A few miles later, while cruising at about 45mph (2200 RPM or so), the car started stumbling, then just quit. It started back up and ran rough for about 30 seconds, quit again.
Some details on the engine that may or may not be relevant - The engine is a BPE crate engine 408 stroker. Holley 750 carb, MSD Pro Billet (clone) ignition, nearly brand new coil (the exact one suggested by BPE), plugs, wires, fuel pump, etc as the crate motor has about 700 miles on it. The car appears to be getting fuel based on the gas in the fuel bowls and the normal squirt when moving the throttle...though I can't entirely rule that out technically since I couldn't see what it was doing while it was running since it wouldn't run long enough to watch.
The reason that I'm suspecting the ignition system is that the only anomaly that I noticed is that the battery was reading low on static voltage on the gauge. Unfortunately, the car started normally so I didn't think to look until after the problems started. Once I thought to check that, the gauge was showing ~11v with ignition in run position and no load on the system, ~13v when it was running (before stalling). I don't know for sure that the cheap Bosch voltage gauge is exactly accurate but it usually reads higher than this.
Last year (before the engine swap) I installed a new Optima battery along with a battery relocation kit running 0 gauge cables- it never seemed to be a problem but it could be relevant since it obviously introduces extra resistance to the system. I am running a 100A alternator (about 3000 miles on it max) which I haven't tested but until now, had no reason to suspect.
Thoughts are welcome.
My best guess is that this is once again related to the ignition but for very different reasons...I am sure I'll be able to figure this out but thanks to my work schedule and family demands, I won't be able to touch it until Sunday and it's killing me...so I'm just throwing this out there for your input or opinions on where to start.
The car started up and ran normally, shortly after it reached operating temp, I switched on the electric fans manually (as I always do). A few miles later, while cruising at about 45mph (2200 RPM or so), the car started stumbling, then just quit. It started back up and ran rough for about 30 seconds, quit again.
Some details on the engine that may or may not be relevant - The engine is a BPE crate engine 408 stroker. Holley 750 carb, MSD Pro Billet (clone) ignition, nearly brand new coil (the exact one suggested by BPE), plugs, wires, fuel pump, etc as the crate motor has about 700 miles on it. The car appears to be getting fuel based on the gas in the fuel bowls and the normal squirt when moving the throttle...though I can't entirely rule that out technically since I couldn't see what it was doing while it was running since it wouldn't run long enough to watch.
The reason that I'm suspecting the ignition system is that the only anomaly that I noticed is that the battery was reading low on static voltage on the gauge. Unfortunately, the car started normally so I didn't think to look until after the problems started. Once I thought to check that, the gauge was showing ~11v with ignition in run position and no load on the system, ~13v when it was running (before stalling). I don't know for sure that the cheap Bosch voltage gauge is exactly accurate but it usually reads higher than this.
Last year (before the engine swap) I installed a new Optima battery along with a battery relocation kit running 0 gauge cables- it never seemed to be a problem but it could be relevant since it obviously introduces extra resistance to the system. I am running a 100A alternator (about 3000 miles on it max) which I haven't tested but until now, had no reason to suspect.
Thoughts are welcome.
