good ignition module?

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so i can get another orange box from jegs for 40 bucks, would i be better off doing that and running an orange box and keeping an orange for a spare, or should i buy the borg warner select from oreillys for 26.99? the borg warner select module and the standard x- series module look identical, i wouldnt be suprised if its the same module, except they are charging 50 bucks for the standard module. Can standard ignition be so much better then borg warner to make up for the extra 24 bucks? i could darn near get two borg warner ignition modules with the price of the standard module. I have always been told borg warner was good stuff, but standard is that much better then i guess i'll fork out the extra 24 bucks for the standard, i just wanna buy a module from a parts store that is a descent module with a life time warranty, that way i will always have a spare module, even if the one i buy for a spare fails i take it back and get another module and always have an extra. I'm going to run the mopar orange box but for a spare i want a good module with a life time warranty so i always have one. I just dont understand why the napa echlin and the standard ignition modules are 50 to 60 bucks each when the borg warner is half that with the same life time warranty, i cant see echlin or standard being twice as good as borg warner, in fact i have heard that borg warner owns echlin and supplys echlin with there parts, then echlin gets them and throws them in there echlin box. i compared a borg warner distributer cap to an echlin and they were identical only difference was the borg warner was grey and the echlin was a light brown.
 
I forgot to add, jegs and summit dont offer life time warrantys on the mopar orange or chrome ignition boxes, so my point here is i could buy a brand new orange box and keep it as a spare, then say i need it and put it on and it fails, i wouldnt be able to get a new one, i'd have to fork out another 40 bucks for a new one, where as if i bought a borg warner or a standard or an echlin i get the life time warranty, so if i use wichever i get as a spare and it poops too i can take it back and get a new one, that way i allways have a spare module and not forking out 40 to 50 bucks each time, i know thats un likely to happen but still, just trying to think smart and save money down the road if i can.
So with that being said, has anyone ran the borg warner select module? how many rpm's is it good for? the only reason i'm asking about the borg warner so much is because i can get it for 26.99 with a life time warranty, napa wants 55 bucks for there echlin module and a life time warranty, and every store online wants 50 plus bucks for the standard x-series module with a life time warranty. spending that on an echlin or a standard dont seem to smart to me because i could get 2 borg warners for that price, unless borg warners parts have gone down the toilet in the last few years, but as far as i know they make good qaulity stuff, i was under the impression that borg warner was just as good as standard and echlin if not better?
 
I buy only Standard Ignition, Blue Streak if available, from my local Car Quest. I don't shop by price because as others have noted, cheap crap is all over. In my past I've been an ASE Master Tech, and worked parts from jobber driver to manager, including dealership parts. This was back when the retail based stores like Auto Zone and the like were coming into my area. I shop the places the garages use, which is mostly Napa or Car Quest. I've also found unless you're careful, the shipping charges will equal out any discount Rock Auto has over my local jobber stores. The retail store parts are lower quality the vast majority of the time. If you play the parts game well, you may find some things (like Moog chassis parts) can be gotten at those places fairly cheaply and it is the same high quality Moog. But, many manufacturers now have a "value line" of almost everything now which is the cheap crap. It's so real parts stores like Napa and Car Quest have something to compete with against the retail places on in terms of cost and quality. If you find a part with a life time warranty, there is a VERY good chance you will need it. The lifetime waranty is the gimick that makes having to change a part 3 times seem like not a big deal. The good part will have something like a year or so warranty. That will cover defective ones which is really the intent of a warranty. Performance parts wil not carry a warranty in most cases because of the assumption of risk.
In terms of the MP - It might fail, but for me, I'm more concerned with the timing fluctuations and timing being pulled out at higher rpm. There is some truth to the old adage "If you have a mopar, you have a ballast in the glove box". The modules had similar reputations, but I never carried one. I do have 2 spares in my parts bins tho...lol.
 
Pjc - I'd get the chrome over the orange if going MP. Heard of alot less problems with the chrome unit over the years. i've had a couple of orange boxes crap out so I do keep a stocker in the trunk. Now that I know there is a timing issue (which I thought was happening), my car will definitely get a new setup for spring.
 
So moper, you said you buy standard blue streak from your local car quest, i have a car quest near me, but they do not sell standard parts in a standard box, unless they are repacking standard ignition parts. I have been told in the past that car quest's premium blue line is re-packaged standard parts, but i had recently read that standard ignition got upset with car quest for one reason or another and stopped doing buissness with them? i'm sure i can find the page that discusses that and share it with you guys, it was a part store owner posting about it and making fun of car quest about it because supposidly they were getting a crappy ignition line up since standard bailed on them?
I can order the standard X-series from a few different places for 50 bucks and sum change. I can get the mopar chrome ignition box for 63.99 or 62.99 one of them price's.
Would i be better off getting the mopar chrome box? or should i get the standard x-series? the only issue i have with getting the chrome mopar box, is that it says its good thru 8000 rpm, my engine will never see anything over 6500, that being said, will the chrome box cause problems with the ignition at an idle and low speeds? because i would be running the chrome box on my crate 360 magnum thats in a 4x4 truck that see's alot of idleing specially when climbing around up in the hills in four wheel drive.
 
If the car quest premium blue line ignition parts are still standard ignition parts, then i'd drive down top my local car quest and purchase the module right now. but like i said i had heard that standard bailed on them? could be just a rumor tho?
 
upon finding the mopar orange ignition module i found what looks to me to be the gold mopar ignition module and it looks like its hrdly been used, i'm trying to figure out if this module is the mopar gold module, it has the black fins on it and it has an m with a circle around it and below that it says mj10009 and below that it says mexico and below that it says 9607, then on that back it just says 69303.
Is this the mopar gold module? and if so would this module be safe to run on my truck? somone told me if i had a good enough coil that it would be ok to run the gold module, the coil i currently have is the borg warner select coil that i got from oreillys, would this be a good enough coil to handle the gold mopar module?
 
Dude....Go to Carquest....Buy an ECU....Put it in your car.....Drive away.

Your making this waaay harder than it is.
 
I converted to HEI. Bought the bracket off a member here, Summit E-coil, and a module from Advance auto. Idles smoother starts quicker and picked up 2.5 MPG by doing the conversion from the orange box.
 
I think I've got a bad orange box on my 440...hard to get idle dialed in, won't idle in drive....runs ok up to about 4500 - 4800 then everything just goes south....NASTY misfiring....my first thought was starving for fuel...changed the fuel pump...then thought the carb might be bad (only a year old)...so I borrowed another new out the box carb from a friend...car performs exactly the same with second carb and new fuel pump. Admittedly I'm not a master mechanic. lol

Would a bad orange box cause the car to idle like crap...then run good up to 4500?
 
URDUSTED said:
I think I've got a bad orange box on my 440...hard to get idle dialed in, won't idle in drive....runs ok up to about 4500 - 4800 then everything just goes south....NASTY misfiring....my first thought was starving for fuel...changed the fuel pump...then thought the carb might be bad (only a year old)...so I borrowed another new out the box carb from a friend...car performs exactly the same with second carb and new fuel pump. Admittedly I'm not a master mechanic. lol

Would a bad orange box cause the car to idle like crap...then run good up to 4500?
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This sounds like a wore out distributor (wiggle in the shaft from use) or a bad wire (to small or bad contention some where) but it could be your orange box is not grounded good to your fire wall. just a thought :coffee2: to me if they are bad they go out completely
 
memike said:
This sounds like a wore out distributor (wiggle in the shaft from use) or a bad wire (to small or bad contention some where) but it could be your orange box is not grounded good to your fire wall. just a thought :coffee2: to me if they are bad they go out completely
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Got it! I'll recheck the connection and the ground...the fire wall is painted, however this problem did not exist last year...same module, same location.

I'll recheck the bolts...maybe it's just loose...if that's the problem I'll be extremely happy...but I'll feel really stupid. LOLOLOLOL

Thanks for taking the time to reply to the thread.
 
URDUSTED said:
I think I've got a bad orange box on my 440...hard to get idle dialed in, won't idle in drive....runs ok up to about 4500 - 4800 then everything just goes south....NASTY misfiring....my first thought was starving for fuel...changed the fuel pump...then thought the carb might be bad (only a year old)...so I borrowed another new out the box carb from a friend...car performs exactly the same with second carb and new fuel pump. Admittedly I'm not a master mechanic. lol

Would a bad orange box cause the car to idle like crap...then run good up to 4500?
Click to expand...

This could be caused by reversed polarity to your dist. One way to see how bad rotor phasing is, look on the bottom side of your dist cap; if what I call the burn mark on all eight lugs is way off to one side? The burn mark in all 8 lugs should be somewhat centered. If not; then you have possible reversed polarity or just a screwed up dist with really bad rotor phasing. Of course check your reluctor gap. Set at .08-.10 Also possible bad coil.
:burnout:
 
rtgarage01 said:
This could be caused by reversed polarity to your dist. One way to see how bad rotor phasing is, look on the bottom side of your dist cap; if what I call the burn mark on all eight lugs is way off to one side? The burn mark in all 8 lugs should be somewhat centered. If not; then you have possible reversed polarity or just a screwed up dist with really bad rotor phasing. Of course check your reluctor gap. Set at .08-.10 Also possible bad coil.
:burnout:
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Hi, thanks for the reply. Just trying to back track while troubleshooting, I took the Summit Max coil off the car and put the stock Echlin back on it..totally corrected the breakdown at 4500. Someone sent me a note and told me that sometimes the Orange Box doesn't play well with high output coils...I'm learning here so all I could do was give it a try and it worked.

Also changed out the springs in the distributor and got rid of the beautiful braided plug wires. lol Car now idles, but admittedly doesn't run as good as it did last year. Honestly I'm happy at this point it's running and idling.

My carb vacuum is running around 9-10 at best. I currently have the timing set at 12. In your opinion would it help if I advanced the timing a little more? 12 seems high to me, but then again, as I've admitted numerous times, I'm still learning.

Really appreciate the input.

Have a great day.

Dave
 
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