What ignition system will do me justice??

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spook

Spook
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
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Location
Norman Oklahoma
Hey everyone I am stuck in a tricky spot and am in need of some serious assistance. I have a 67 date Big Block 383 that I am rebuilding. The deck has been milled, .30 over on the pistons, newly restored ported and polished 452s heads, a edelbrock performer dual plane mild rise intake manifold with a Barry Grant Demon 750 cfm carb, electric fuel pump and headers. I need an ignition system that will do my engine justice. A system that will unleash all of the horsepower my engine is good for. Please any assistance is greatly appreciated.
 
MP electronic is a good system for 6000 rpm with the orange box and 8000 with the chrome box. The entire system is 209.00 at Summit or Mancini.
 
Go to the FBO Systems website and check out their fine-tuned-to-your-application MP electronic system. I have heard a lot of good things about them.
 
I like the GM HEI set up it only cost about $35 or $40 bucks and you get to gap your plugs at .60 and it is really easy to set up and you can get rid of the ballast resistor and the mopar ignition box (also the HEI module will tune itself to the way you drive your car better gas, better power, in the end you get alot better spark)
 
Go to the FBO Systems website and check out their fine-tuned-to-your-application MP electronic system. I have heard a lot of good things about them.



only thing i hear about them anymore is that the are now eating the ecu boxes.... first everyone had problems with the system eating the ballis resistor.. they now supply a MSD ballis and that seemed to fix that problem... now the ecu is crapping out on everyone..... they are replacing them for free wich is good i guess but that doesn't help when your sitting on the side of the road...
 
Yep...there has even been a few posts on here about it IIRC. I don't think it's Don's fault it's just crappy boxes from his supplier. Even with the people that say the MSD boxes fail I have heard of far less people being stranded with the MSD box vs the Mopar ECU's.......I mean how many times have you heard that you should carry and spare ECU and/or ballast resistor in the glove box.
 
I don't think it's Don's fault it's just crappy boxes from his supplier.


i agree..... don't know if the suppliers changed or what but it would definatley make me not buy that set up..
 
Maybe he'll see the thread and update us. Of course as we all know and it's probably happened to us before electronics are kind of a crap shoot.....you'll get one that will last 20 years and one that will last 20 minutes....I like that he's (FBO) is out there giving guys a stock appearing performance option but I'll stick with my MSD set-up...it's so much nicer having the built in rev limiter and the option of plug and play with the retard controls for my nitrous system.
 
well it sounds like you guys really like M.S.D. I dont blame you a bit I hear that it's a good system. my biggest concern is my Cam. I have a mopar 509 in it right now and i want a ignition kit to fully light it up. What kit are you guys running/part number? does everyone run a distributor with a module?
I need some fire...
 
only thing i hear about them anymore is that the are now eating the ecu boxes.... first everyone had problems with the system eating the ballis resistor.. they now supply a MSD ballis and that seemed to fix that problem... now the ecu is crapping out on everyone..... they are replacing them for free wich is good i guess but that doesn't help when your sitting on the side of the road...
I know three guys that are running them and have not had any problems. They all said that the car definitely ran better after installing the systems. Where did you hear about the problems? I am going to put a new system in my car this winter and was going to use FBO. If there are a lot of problems I may reconsider.
 
Maybe he'll see the thread and update us. Of course as we all know and it's probably happened to us before electronics are kind of a crap shoot.....you'll get one that will last 20 years and one that will last 20 minutes....I like that he's (FBO) is out there giving guys a stock appearing performance option but I'll stick with my MSD set-up...it's so much nicer having the built in rev limiter and the option of plug and play with the retard controls for my nitrous system.
I guess I have been lucky. I have had the same orange box and ballast resistor in my car since the late 80's. No problems.
 
well it sounds like you guys really like M.S.D. I dont blame you a bit I hear that it's a good system. my biggest concern is my Cam. I have a mopar 509 in it right now and i want a ignition kit to fully light it up. What kit are you guys running/part number? does everyone run a distributor with a module?
I need some fire...
I have the MP 528 lift / 284 duration mechanical cam in my 383. MP electronic ignition with the orange box, no vacuum advance.
 
Where did you hear about the problems?



i persoanlly know two people that had problems... the first guy went through like three ballis resistors in a year and a half. the other has gone through two ecu's in i think 2 years... i have also seen people complining about the same problems on various message boards.....


yea i have heard people that say the car runs better with the fbo.. is that because of the coil and ecu or is it more the dist. being curved? mybe a little of both... i know allot of guys are scared to death to even look into a dist.. curving a dist is cheap easy way to improve the way the car runs.... and the really isn't much to it....

plus think about how many cars are running msd compared to the FBO set up.... i know and have heard more guys that have had problems with the fbo then msd... just think anout how many more msd units are out there... to me. from what i read and personal friends i say the msd is allot more realiable....


know what i'm saying? i don't want it to sound like i'm bashing fbo. but there is definatley a problem that needs to be addressed with their set up.
 
I'm a little biased, and perhaps a little more capable than some. Don has a decent product, but to be honest, the biggest improvement is a result of the right ignition curve. And that can be done by someone who knows a little, has $20, and $10 worth of timing tape and advance weight springs. I ran the Std Ignition modules for years with 175hp NOS kits and factory distributors. Nothing fancy, but he gets a premium price. I consider it a well scienced out factory ignition system. The MSD, Crane, Jacobs, and other multisparks are way ahead in terms of potential. Add in an rpm limiter, and the choice is clearer. The old stand by for me is a Pro Billet distributor, MSD6AL, and Blaster II coil. Many setups in action for years. Stable, and money well spent.
 
the biggest improvement is a result of the right ignition curve. And that can be done by someone who knows a little, has $20, and $10 worth of timing tape and advance weight springs.


exactly the same thing i was thinking. that ign curve does wonders.. the first one i ever did was an old accel dual point. heck had to be close to 290 years ago now... a friend showed me how to do it... got me 3 tenths in the quarter. i couldn't believe it.. but when you actually look at it and understand what just happened it becomes clear... it went from bringing total timing in at god knows where with the heavy springs that were in it to bringing it all in by about 2200 rpm... man did the car feel different....
 
You can put me down for MSD too. I'm using the 6AL (switched from the MP Orange box). It helps with an agressive cam profile like mine. I have a better low end now.
 
This is a msd 6al W mopar part numbers on it.
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I'm a little biased, and perhaps a little more capable than some. Don has a decent product, but to be honest, the biggest improvement is a result of the right ignition curve. And that can be done by someone who knows a little, has $20, and $10 worth of timing tape and advance weight springs. I ran the Std Ignition modules for years with 175hp NOS kits and factory distributors. Nothing fancy, but he gets a premium price. I consider it a well scienced out factory ignition system. The MSD, Crane, Jacobs, and other multisparks are way ahead in terms of potential. Add in an rpm limiter, and the choice is clearer. The old stand by for me is a Pro Billet distributor, MSD6AL, and Blaster II coil. Many setups in action for years. Stable, and money well spent.

I couldnt agree more with this.Also,I have always used msd ignitions for years in all my cars with zero problems and they made a big difference all around for performance and driveability.
 
I love msd's products but, how do you go back to something that bit you in the *** once already? I Lost a msd box after two months of running. Just went to fire up the car at work one morning and it tried to turn over and fire once and then just kept turning over?
 
I run the Mopar stuff, it works just fine, if I need a part it only the nearest parts store away to get me running again. But the MSD stuff is good stuff.


Chuck
 
Most HOT cams just start to hit their power band as the MSD discontinues it`s multi-spark around 3000 rpm. I would think that nearly all of the performance distributors should have a performance curve built in and offer accurate performance up to 6 or 7K rpm (the upper end of a big street cam). I guess it all depends on what you want to spend.
 
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