Anyone in the mood to talk about stock type Mopar ignition boxes ?

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Well, I agree there are some crappy ones out there, but to say "all" the China made boxes are crap is misleading at best, if not downright WRONG. How many ignition box failures would we be seeing if they were ALL bad? If all these parts from China were so bad, there'd be writeups in every car magazine out the wazoo and there's not. You'd be seeing failure reports on every automotive forum and you don't. Some failures? Sure. ALL? Yall've lost your minds. If you want somebody to buy your stuff, you don't have to flat out LIE about the competition. I get tired of readin that crap. The evidence, or lack thereof points a different direction.
 
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A couple of years ago I bought a bunch (4-5ish) new old stock aftermarket Mopar ignition boxes from companies such as Borg Warner, niehoff, kem, etc. All estimated 30-40 years old and all new in box never used. Around the same time I went and pulled a handful of them off of various old cars/trucks in the junkyard mostly off of 80s trucks/vans.
I've used a couple, and have some still (not selling until I have NO vehicles that can use them!)
I too frown on Chinese parts, I have as good of luck (longevity) with alot of used original parts these days as new, recent stock, China made crap and for less cost.

But this brings up a question
In the 80s Mopar sent alot of vehicles out with blue ignition boxes from the factory and some orange ones as well. These wouldn't be the same "orange boxes" sold by Mopar performance, would they?
(Had to edit a bit, dam "auto correct" on phone thinks it's smarter than me and tries to read my mind and put words up I wasn't intending)
 
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Chrysle sort of color coded them for what they did by paint and heat sink color. Lot of knockoffs out there and not all are bad, but alot have "fake" transistors that are misleading. Long thread but that 1974 brain box pretty much explains most of it and identificaton. Fast MP chart o ID's

ecu chart 2.png
 
halifaxhops said:
Chrysle sort of color coded them for what they did by paint and heat sink color. Lot of knockoffs out there and not all are bad, but alot have "fake" transistors that are misleading. Long thread but that 1974 brain box pretty much explains most of it and identificaton. Fast MP chart o ID's

View attachment 1715999879
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Right that's true. My point is though of those so called "fake" transistor types, millions are sold. What's the failure rate? Do you know? I don't. Whose to say they are all a bad design or all cheaply made? The parts stores have been selling them for years and if they were all the total POS boxes some people say, we'd know it. I mean, I can argue TTI headers are pieces of CRAP based on the absolute FACT that LOTS of people have had to beat the snot out of them to get them to fit, or some didn't fit at all. Same with the Eagle cast steel crankshafts. "SOME" had trouble breaking, but not a TON, or else we'd see it all over the net. You know as well as I do that bad news travels ten times faster. Those Hi Rev 7500 boxes for example, like the one I have and several members are running. While it appears they do have the so called "fake" transistor, I've not seen piles of them failing, Have you? All I've seen of those are good reports so far, including me. Believe me, as closely as we are to the Mopar pulse, we'd know it if there were mass failures and we haven't seen it. So that tells me there's at least ONE source out there for "good fake" transistors. So sure, they might be a different design, but they're certainly not all bad by a very large margin. Here's how I look at it. Even back in the day when REAL quality made in USA parts were available everywhere, most Mopar guys carried around at least a spare ballast resistor and ignition ECU in the trunk. SO what's changed? Nothing. Yeah, there are crap parts floating around for sure, but as long as you do the same as we did thirty plus years ago, you'll be fine. I have that hot little point distributor that you built up for me, a spare ignition box and ballast resistor ridin around in Vixen's trunk. It's always been like that so I rock on with it. Even the "good stuff" has a failure rate.
 
The type of power transistor or whether it is visible should not be a factor in buying 'the box', in my opinion.

What is important is the electrical characteristics & if the heat sinking is adequate.
 
Bewy said:
The type of power transistor or whether it is visible should not be a factor in buying 'the box', in my opinion.

What is important is the electrical characteristics & if the heat sinking is adequate.
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I always mount my ECU (when I run electronic ignition) in a spot where it does not mount flush. Where it will have an air gap under the box itself. That way it gets air flow all the way around.
 
Rob, I agree the high rev boxes I have onl heard good things about. Do they fail, I am sure a few do its the nature of electronics. I am just saying a lot of them are made overseas and the design is not good with heat built up inside the transistor itself that is inside the box itself without a heat sink and a lot of them fail The Orange boxes that come with the new all in one distributor kits and the Summit ones ar a real crapshoot. seem to have the highest amount also. We beat the hell out of them in that 1974 thread and there were a few electrical guys i there. The "real" transistor types have the lowest failure rate and have a lower fail rate. Just saying.
 
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