Are the procomp 6AL's any good?

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Valvebounce

Valvebounce

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I've been snooping around Ebay looking at ignition boxes with built in limiters. I would like an MSD, but I've seen the procomp ones are much cheaper. However, I have a sneaking feeleing that I read somewhere they're not very good. Since I'm not a wealthy man, I need to be budget conscious. BUt that also means I don't want to have to buy one twice. I also need the limiter feature as I've had a few over-rev related mechanical problems of late. So I'd like to take preventitve measures before I put a hole in the side of the block.
 
i have just the pro comp single rev limiter on my 340 cuda and works perfect... works with the factory electronic ignition. Has a dial knob instead of using the chips.

i also run a pro comp high torque starter in a chevy and has worked perfect for 5 years.

I read some where pro comp was about the same as msd, msd and had a law suit over it. I think msd isn't made in america anymore either.
 
That whole product line is no-name Chinese junk boxed up as "ProComp" by the US importer. As long as you're not actually relying on it—as long as the worst consequence of a failure is that you're done racing for the day—it might be good enough for you to mess with. Me, I won't touch it. The Chinese get more than enough of my money for more than enough of their crap as it is.
 
hey there, i ran a 6al copy in my 440,same wiring diagram on back, same colour etc.even put on mates boss mustang....great spark etc.HOWEVER....i got a second hand msd and fitted that and happy with it, guess its the usual " if its so cheep why scenario" my dizzy is single points type and just triggers the msd, if my msd ever dies with a by the roadside couple of wires i can do away with msd and run home on my points......:cheers:
 
slantsixdan said:
That whole product line is no-name Chinese junk boxed up as "ProComp" by the US importer. As long as you're not actually relying on it—as long as the worst consequence of a failure is that you're done racing for the day—it might be good enough for you to mess with. Me, I won't touch it. The Chinese get more than enough of my money for more than enough of their crap as it is.
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2x!!

cudaboy 67 said:
hey there, i ran a 6al copy in my 440,same wiring diagram on back, same colour etc.even put on mates boss mustang....great spark etc.HOWEVER....i got a second hand msd and fitted that and happy with it, guess its the usual " if its so cheep why scenario" my dizzy is single points type and just triggers the msd, if my msd ever dies with a by the roadside couple of wires i can do away with msd and run home on my points......:cheers:
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so how ofter do u change out ur points??
 
Thanks for the replies fellas.
I'd like to hear stories of these actually failing if anyone has them?
A mate of mine bought an MSD 6A directly off thier website. They sent it down here for him, and after only a few short weeks it stopped working. He couldn't afford the $50 (USD) that he'd have to pay for MSD to send it back/send a replacement, on top of the $25(NZD) to return it to them. So it basically got chucked in a box and forgotten about. I'm on a similarly tight budget myself.
 
Valvebounce said:
A mate of mine bought an MSD 6A directly off thier website. They sent it down here for him, and after only a few short weeks it stopped working.
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Yup, MSD reliability, never especially high, has gone right down the crapper over the last five or ten years. It's why I don't mess with their stuff any more; I do the HEI upgrade and have happy results and easy, cheap availability of repair parts anywhere in the world. (I have an MSD failure story of my own. The short version goes like this: I had an MSD6 in my car. It failed. It was a good thing I also had an HEI setup on the other fender; I moved four wires and got back on my way. Never bothered fixing the MSD or switching back to it.)
 
ive used a few procomp items with great results.ive actually had more problems with msd stuff.and had more than one of the crappy mopar orange boxes fail.perhaps ive just lucked out,but my current procomp ignition has given me 0 problems.
 
IMO if you buy based on how many failures or horror stories you hear about just give up now and run points,when you have thousands to millions of a product sold your bound to have issues and most of them I have seen first hand were the installers mistake regardless of brand.Now Im not saying thats always the case but like any aftermarket part you run a risk,I dont have first hand experience with the pro comp stuff but I do know a few friends using it and I have not heard anything bad yet,they are street driven machines.
 
some friends runing procomp products as well and not a single problem , there is just too much of that " if its chinese its crap" that its more like " if its not made in the US its crap" like US only makes top quality stuff.

like lead said every product will have horror stories most of them because of installers mistakes. and also bad stories spread faster that succes ones even more with the prejuice about not US made stuff.
 
Ok, proComp is crap, MSD is crap but what about Jacobs who basically held most of the patents on MSD? Granted Jacobs was sold twice and is now owned by Mr. Gasket but the older units can be found on Ebay at reasonable prices and are far better then most all newer units from whatever company. If you don't believe me you can do a Google search on Dr. Christopher Jacobs just to see how many improvements he managed on ignition systems from street cars to race cars and if you're really interested on getting the best bang for your buck,pick up his book Performance Ignition Systems "Step-By-Step Guide to Optimizing Your Ignition" and you will learn what its really all about
 
A mate of mine had probs with an MSD 6A???. Something inside it went haywire. When you turned the ignition on, it went like an arc welder....just a constant arc....the engine wasn't turning over, just switching it on. It was about 15 years old though, so he bought another one.
 
HotLines said:
Ok, proComp is crap, MSD is crap but what about Jacobs who basically held most of the patents on MSD? Granted Jacobs was sold twice and is now owned by Mr. Gasket but the older units can be found on Ebay at reasonable prices and are far better then most all newer units from whatever company. If you don't believe me you can do a Google search on Dr. Christopher Jacobs just to see how many improvements he managed on ignition systems from street cars to race cars and if you're really interested on getting the best bang for your buck,pick up his book Performance Ignition Systems "Step-By-Step Guide to Optimizing Your Ignition" and you will learn what its really all about
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I don't think you'll find an ignition system without its detractors, and Jacobs was no exception. He did have a couple innovations, which apparently found their way into Mallory and Accel ignition boxes from what I've heard from the Mr. Gasket people. But some of his ignition boxes were more hype than performance. According to one of his suppliers, some of the Jacobs boxes - he wasn't sure just which - were little more than an off the shelf ST Microelectronics ignition chip that he'd packed into a fancy box.
 
My Pro Comp box/coil/distirbutor worked great until it died. The box went bad(wouldnt go past 2800 RPMs but made it home) and dragged the coil and my Tach down with it.

I now have an MSD box and coil but the dizzy seems fine.
 
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