FBO Ignition?

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mopardude318

mopardude318

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What do you guys think of the FBO Ignition setup? For a mild small block street car. I picked up a kit at a swap meet, thought I would give it a try...The guy explaining it made it sound legit, and liked that it was made in the USA...lol...Anyways, I hope it works out...Any one use them??

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I have MSD on one car and FBO on the other. FBO compares favorably. Another advantage is that a regular module will swap in, so you have more assurance on a road trip.
 
i hear a bunch of good things about it. i have yet to hear what is so special though. they say he will curve your dist to your combo. not sure if he just sticks light springs in the thing or what he does. the ecu is made by standard. they say its to their specific specs but who knows. i know a couple guys running them. the one guy ate multiple ballast resistors. think fbo uses a differen't ballast now, the other guy has gone through two ecu's. he did get a free replacement from fbo which is nice.
 
I've got it on my '73. Wouldn't buy it again. It's not bad or unreliable (so far); it's perfectly decent, but I've had better and less costly results with the HEI upgrade . As for FBO's book...well, it's marginally less self-promotional than Jacobs' book, but it still gets some fairly basic principles of engine operation pretty dramatically wrong.
 
Ran the FBO on my 83 cop car 318 4 bbl for years. Car is still out there and running very strong.It drove by me last week.Nothing wrong with it. I saw a much improved cold start,idle and improved low rpm torque/response.

I would recommend FBO and an MSD resistor.Thats what they include in the kit now as at first it had absolute crap mexicali resistors that popped every week.
 
I've done exactly what Dan is mentioning, eliminated the M.P. ECU and the ballast resistor on my 68 Barracuda 340 and installed an AC Delco D1906. No need to carry spare ECU'S and ballast resistor's in the glove box anymore.
 
I'm running his kit in my Duster. It's been trouble free. The ballast resistor he sent was in an MSD package and does not look like the one in your picture. Must be an old cheapie one.
 
I had a FBO set up in my Magnum for 8 years. It is a daily driver, winter included. Due to an unrelatered problem with the FBO parts, the FBO fried. The charging system went crazy shoving 100 amps down the cars throat full time, shorts in the wireing system as well.

What a mini nightmare.
 
I'm running the FBO A688 kit, Fire Core wires and recurved distributor in my 408. Very happy with the product and Don's support. What I like is that you can remove the FBO stickers, place a stock Chrysler "Electronic Ignition" sticker on the ECU and and stencil the coil with stock lettering...looks stock but it will rock! For me it works...goes great with my painted LD-340.
 

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Great Kit. I run it on my 68 340
 
I think the feature I like best about the FBO is it's ability to be run without ballast at the track without harm.
 
well, thanks everyone for the input...I got it at spring fling from Poggie's Hotrods, I think is the name...110 bucks for the kit...
..I'll keep yall updated on how this works once I get it installed...

70Duster440 said:
I'm running his kit in my Duster. It's been trouble free. The ballast resistor he sent was in an MSD package and does not look like the one in your picture. Must be an old cheapie one.
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the guy said that the ballast resistor I had was an MSD unit..hmm...got a pic of yours?

slantsixdan said:
I've got it on my '73. Wouldn't buy it again. It's not bad or unreliable (so far); it's perfectly decent, but I've had better and less costly results with the HEI upgrade . As for FBO's book...well, it's marginally less self-promotional than Jacobs' book, but it still gets some fairly basic principles of engine operation pretty dramatically wrong.
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Slantsixdan, that GM HEI seems like a pretty good option as well...if this becomes to be a pain in the *** and gives me trouble, I guess this is the next step...

My old man really hates MSD, and wants me to stay clear of it...It left him on the side of the road 2 times...Same for his other buddy who had it...But I guess there are pros and cons to every product that is made...lol
 
mopardude318 said:
the guy said that the ballast resistor I had was an MSD unit..hmm...got a pic of yours?
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In this pic it's in the upper right corner of the cowl. Has a single large mounting tab. The one I got in the MP conversion kit is different still.
 

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My resistor is like the one in the first picture. Don at FBO is a book of knowledge. He has raced and built race cars for years.
MoPar or No Car Keep the hei's on the chevy's.
 
I switched to FBO from the mopar orange box. I can't say I noticed much difference. I read the orange box is unreliable and that you should carry a spare which is why I went to FBO and carry the orange box as spare.
 
I have one on my car, seems ok haven't had any issue's with it.

Word of warning, Don is a good salesman and not all his stuff lives up to reputation.
 
Don's stuff is great. Never had a problem and run the ignition on my old Dart and had a dizzy built for the Scamp. Both have been trouble free. Plus cust. support is great too. Don's NEVER been too busy to talk to me...and listen to my ramblings on about my car since one thing usually leads to another.
 
71Duster said:
I have one on my car, seems ok haven't had any issue's with it.

Word of warning, Don is a good salesman and not all his stuff lives up to reputation.
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??

Proof? Or do you expect us to take your word for it?

His product stands up to the test of time.Cant say that about other ign units I've bought like Mallory,MSD Accell,etc. I've had all those brands fail yet they didnt give a crap or offer a warantee replacement even though my reciept said it WAS STILL UNDER WARANTEE.They come with 1 yr warantee's but you better hope it doesnt fail because they wont honor the warantee.

I will buy FBO before any of these other brands,as Dons customer service is outstanding like his product.
 
I've heard both and bad.

someone pointed out that the internals/function is the same as a orange box.
another said that the box pulled out a lot of timing at high rpms, but so do the mopar boxes
 
See now I'd like to see proof of this statement. If I still had an fbo box I'd remove the silcone backing on it and an orange box,see if there is a difference to the naked eye. Could be as simple as upgraded circuitry and components.
 
As far as the box goes mines be going strong for 3 years no issues... proof of the other stuff, 1 year of every issue I could with an engine he built to the point of loseing me as a customer and me building another engine and flushing 6 grand down the toilet.
 
jus yooze da mopah poefoemance stuff and bee dit wit it yo.
 
JTG said:
I've done exactly what Dan is mentioning, eliminated the M.P. ECU and the ballast resistor on my 68 Barracuda 340 and installed an AC Delco D1906. No need to carry spare ECU'S and ballast resistor's in the glove box anymore.
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LMAO...So you think the HEI module never burns out?? Got news for you. They do burn out. I've replaced far more HEI modules than Mopar modules.
 
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