MSD yay or nay

Do you like MSD products?

  • yes

    Votes: 42 72.4%

  • no

    Votes: 16 27.6%
  • Total voters
    58
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And I shudder at the cost of burning through that many spark plugs so fast. Have you priced irridiums lately?
I'll stick with my Chrysler ECU- it starts, it performs well and is basically trouble-free.
 
toolmanmike said:
And how much of a spark does it take to light the fire?
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I have noticed what all of us hot rodders noticed.
The bigger and more powerful the kernal of spark is the better and more complete of a burning of fuel I get for more power and mileage.

What’s needed is a big difference of to what works best.
 
rumblefish360 said:
I have noticed what all of us hot rodders noticed.
The bigger and more powerful the kernal of spark is the better and more complete of a burning of fuel I get for more power and mileage.

What’s needed is a big difference of to what works best.
Click to expand...
I'm really not knockin it. If it works, it works, but no need for blatant FALSE advertisement. And that's exactly what those representative pictures are.
 
rumblefish360 said:
I have noticed what all of us hot rodders noticed.
The bigger and more powerful the kernal of spark is the better and more complete of a burning of fuel I get for more power and mileage.

What’s needed is a big difference of to what works best.
Click to expand...

This is the truth. Just because you got the fire lit doesn’t mean it was lit as well as it could have been.

Ive done ignition upgrades that required a completely different ignition curve.

You could light the plug 4-5 degrees later. That’s HUGE.

You can’t have a fuel pump that is too big, pushrods too big or too much ignition.
 
The link isn't working. The one time I did some work with a plasma ignition - the company who built it shall remain nameless as this was a prototype and perhaps they've improved - it was like setting off an EMP bomb in the dyno cell. We had to rewire the chassis dyno RPM pickup so the ignition wouldn't give us false readings when it was active. This ignition clearly did something, but it wasn't something that made more power or mileage.

Currently, I think plasma ignitions aren't a mature technology and, while there may be some potential there, it needs a lot more development to be a viable technology.
 
AJ said:
The biggest cam I have run is the old Mopar 292/292/108. ...and never needed more than the Accell square-top big yellow SuperCoil...
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I had a 6C for 20 or so years with the above cam and Accel -003 (iirc the PN) coil. It was certainly a good starter-upper!

BUT...that setup suffered from a problem it took me years to sort out. Every once in awhile, it would start running 'fer shite. Bad. BAD...as in barely get down the road bad. I could accelerate fine, decel fine...but a constant pedal got me tons of misfiring/stumbling/bumbling mess. Several times on the side of the road I changed all the plugs...which would get me going until the next time it happened.

Also...that build had a detonation problem at cylinder-fill time (right around 3300rpm) that I could not get rid of without running racing fuel. It was a 10:1 engine.

The 6C failed twice, the first time sent back to MSD to be repaired. The second time it quit, about the 25 year mark...idling in my driveway. I put in some old 5-pin OEM box I had lying around. OK-fine.

AND...the detonation problem disappeared.

I asked questions about that over and over...of MSD, 3rd party repair outfits, wrenchers I knew. None of them had an answer for the MSD causing a detonation problem. Most said (including MSD), 'That can't happen.' Except...it did.

The stranded on the side of the road part? I am convinced in these later years that it was a coil overheat problem. It was those years later that someone on this forum (AJ or Mattock I think) said that was likely the issue. The engine feels like it's experiencing a vapor lock problem. I had NO idea back then that a hot coil could act like vapor lock. Ballast resistors were of the proper/specified value for the setup being used at the time. As in...MSD says 'none', but the -003 Accel power tower says 'only ours'.

Have not had that issue since running an OEM style sparky box (of several different makes..Standard, NAPA).

While the fast cold-starts were nice...changing plugs on the side of the road on a hot engine with Hedman headers with the convenient hi-crossover tube that makes #5 tricky, is something I could do without.

I would sure like to know...for a fact...why the MSD6 caused that detonation problem.

It's a cute red box. Looks cool. Years of trouble and problems.
 
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MSD Billet dizzy, coil and 6AL box installed and running w/o a hiccup over a decade now.

20210528_201330.jpg
 
I simply do not agree with "you cannot have too much ignition". Sorry, I simply don't buy it. I think the factories all pretty much got it right through the 1970s, with all the different styles of electronic ignition. They just flat out work and IMO, the Mopar system is about the best WHEN USED with good quality parts. That's my opinion and I'm stickin to it, whether some think it's dated or not. Much like the Mopar Performance camshaft line. While it's true they've not been updated in a long time, they still do exactly what Mopar designed them to do. Each and every one of them.
 
When I was daily driving. I ran 6AL on 2 fox body Mustangs, 77 Volare, 80 LeBaron (318), 70 Dart, 75 Duster and a 84 5th ave (Mom's car). Never had an issue except the one on my 80 LeBaron. Bought it used and on really hot days (I live in Southern AZ) it would just die. Always restarted within 5 minutes. I pulled it out and sent it to MSD. They found a leaking capacitor. They fixed it, charged me $20 and it ran fine till the day that poor card died. (Dad got into an accident)

So I like MSD and I run the 6AL and blaster coil on my drag car with a Mopar 400 BB. Never given me a minute of trouble. I am pro MSD.

:)
 
I bought a 74 Firebird 400 in 2011 and it had an MSD box on the firewall. In 2019 I was driving home from work one day and the car just died. Got towed home. It was the MSD box. I ripped the MSD system out and put a 1 wire GM unit in from Summit Racing. The car doesn't run any better or any worse now than it did before with MSD.

My opinion is this: for a street car, don't do it. I don't feel it's worth it. For racing, it's fine because chances are you're trailering the car anyway so if it craps out, no problem.
 
MILO said:
Simpler

View attachment 1716065583
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There is a guy online sells a kit to add the HEI unit to the bottom of the stock dizzy, includes a mounting plate that acts like a heatsink too. If you are into maintaining the stock look. I bought one and never used it. Got a cheapo HEI aluminum dizzy on ebay instead and replaced all the consumables (module, coil, cap)with Pertonix parts.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Maybe so, if you're used to workin on GM junk. I prefer Mopar stuff. It's every bit as simple to me.
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Some people hide them inside a troublesome mopar ecu and they last forever with better spark
This guy put one on his truck


 
MILO said:
Some people hide them inside a troublesome mopar ecu and they last forever with better spark
This guy put one on his truck


Click to expand...

I'm guilty. I put one in a Ford Duraspark box one time.
 
Love my MSD stuff. I started out with a 6C in the late 1970’s early 1980’s. 6A’s, 7al, and now a MSD small block distributor, big block distributor, and three 7AL3’s.
 
Have any of you guys run a Mallory Hyfire Pro ignition box? They look similar to the MSD units. Even the instructional sheets are identical. I wonder if they're worth a ****?

1680631877458.png


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mopowers said:
So are they the same box with a different label on it? Please explain.
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When MSD bought Mallory they literally junked thousands of dollars of products.

They then picked what they thought were the best sellers, like the Unilite and went right on and fucked it all up. Like MSD always does.

Then they raised the prices for that junk and anything they happened to not screw up (like Mallory fuel pumps and regulators) so they can continue to sell the Holley garbage they bought up.

That box is just an MSD box with a Mallory sticker and some black paint.
 
Rat Bastid said:
When MSD bought Mallory they literally junked thousands of dollars of products.

They then picked what they thought were the best sellers, like the Unilite and went right on and fucked it all up. Like MSD always does.

Then they raised the prices for that junk and anything they happened to not screw up (like Mallory fuel pumps and regulators) so they can continue to sell the Holley garbage they bought up.

That box is just an MSD box with a Mallory sticker and some black paint.
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Thanks for the explanation. I actually called Holley's tech line earlier today (I'm a glutton for punishment) and asked what the difference was between those two boxes. The first guy I talked to said "you get what you pay for," implying that the MSD box was far superior, but he couldn't explain any actual differences in the two boxes. When I mentioned that at their regular prices, both boxes are priced almost identically, rendering his answer invalid, he didn't know what to say except, "the MSD box is better."

Not satisfied with that bonehead, I called and spoke to an older guy who seemed to actually know some stuff. He said that the MSD box is "made with better internal components, but would perform identically to the #695 Mallory." Hmm... Sounds like they're the same to me.
 
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If you want to know if the two boxes are 'identical', you need to know the electrical specifications [ not the box sizes ]. Eg, current draw per 1000 rpm, primary voltage, spark delivery in milli joules etc.
They are not the same.
 
All I can say about MSD is "A fool and his money are soon parted".
 
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