What Ignition to use

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440DART1970

440DART1970

1970 Dart 446ci Swinger
Joined
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Location
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Just finished my 440 motor for my 71 dart

Now I need to choose an ignition to go with my motor 440 +30 over.. 10.35 to 1 Speed Pro frodged pistons, Comp cam 230/236 duration 488/491 lift. Steel crank, street dominator intake, Schumacker tri-y headers, 727 trans 2400 stall. 8 3/4 suregrip rear W/3.55s

What do you recommend?? Mopar electronics or MSD, Mallory or what else...
 
MSD..have run 2 systems in 2 different cars..NEVER an issue..If you run a Mopar system be sure to carry extra control boxes,coils ect..cause' your going to need them..
 
There are as many opinions on this as members here. Yours is a mild combo, I would use the factory Mopar set up with a chrome box and good coil. don't get caught up in big money systems. Mopar makes a good one.
 
440DART1971 said:
Just finished my 440 motor for my 71 dart

Now I need to choose an ignition to go with my motor 440 +30 over.. 10.35 to 1 Speed Pro frodged pistons, Comp cam 230/236 duration 488/491 lift. Steel crank, street dominator intake, Schumacker tri-y headers, 727 trans 2400 stall. 8 3/4 suregrip rear W/3.55s

What do you recommend?? Mopar electronics or MSD, Mallory or what else...
Click to expand...

In your search for ignition systems take a look at FBO (www.4secondsflat.com)
Made in the USA, good strong ignition with digital rev limiter, and the backing of a privately owned USA organization for any possible warrantee issue's.
IMO, one of the best quality and priced systems out there.
Call Don (the owner) and talk to him in person as he really knows his stuff and is real easy to talk to.
 
stroked340 said:
MSD..have run 2 systems in 2 different cars..NEVER an issue..If you run a Mopar system be sure to carry extra control boxes,coils ect..cause' your going to need them..
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x2

While you here many stories from people. I have run many MSD's without failure. My dyno tester uses an MSD. at the drags, you guessed it. MSD. Circle track..MSD. And simple.. clean and simple. I've had nothing but issues over the years with the orange boxes, chrome boxes, ballast resistors, and MPP dizzy's.

Diagnosable, if you do have an issue with an MSD, it is easily tested, roadside if needed. Parts are as easy to get as your nearby advanced auto.

I lied, I had 2 issues with an MSD. One was me not having the right wire hooked to it. The other was a failed pickup in a dizzy. (available right at advanced because they use a Ford pickup.
 
TrailBeast said:
In your search for ignition systems take a look at FBO (www.4secondsflat.com)
Made in the USA, good strong ignition with digital rev limiter, and the backing of a privately owned USA organization for any possible warrantee issue's.
IMO, one of the best quality and priced systems out there.
Call Don (the owner) and talk to him in person as he really knows his stuff and is real easy to talk to.
Click to expand...


I was to advocate or go back to a Mopar system this is the direction I'd go.
 
TrailBeast said:
In your search for ignition systems take a look at FBO (www.4secondsflat.com)
Made in the USA, good strong ignition with digital rev limiter, and the backing of a privately owned USA organization for any possible warrantee issue's.
IMO, one of the best quality and priced systems out there.
Call Don (the owner) and talk to him in person as he really knows his stuff and is real easy to talk to.
Click to expand...
I was happily running a stock Mopar electronic setup when my brother gave me an MSD 6A box and Blaster coil for Christmas. Installing the MSD stuff with the stock electronic distributor noticeably increased the power and gas mileage. This MSD 6A box now has more than 340K miles on it without a burp. I am also running another 6A box on my truck, also without problems so far. These things start instantly.

On the other hand, I installed an MSD billet distributor/electronic ignition unit on my 76 Ford F-350 and the ignition module went intermittent then died in less than 5K miles. They wanted more money to repair it than it cost new. So I put in an Accel billet distributor (the stock Ford distributors are famously wimpy) that could be used as a trigger for an MSD 6A box and Blaster coil, and that system has been great.
 
I would never run a 6A nor a MPP for the simple fact there is no rev limiter.
 
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440DART1971 said:
Just finished my 440 motor for my 71 dart

Now I need to choose an ignition to go with my motor 440 +30 over.. 10.35 to 1 Speed Pro frodged pistons, Comp cam 230/236 duration 488/491 lift. Steel crank, street dominator intake, Schumacker tri-y headers, 727 trans 2400 stall. 8 3/4 suregrip rear W/3.55s

What do you recommend?? Mopar electronics or MSD, Mallory or what else...
Click to expand...
I use the Mopar chrome box with a MSD blaster coil. With your set up you do not need to spend a lot of money. I been racing and driving on the street with this set up for eight years now and only had a ballast resistor go bad once. If you want more out of the ECU go to the Rev-n-nator after you have tested your car. I use the Rev-n-nator and it did make difference. I gained .10 to .20 at the track. Only reason I do not use the Rev-n-nator now is because of hard starting problems with the Painless wire harness. Has all the right voltage, but still will not start on when key is turned. The chrome box starts every time.
 
stroked340 said:
MSD..have run 2 systems in 2 different cars..NEVER an issue..If you run a Mopar system be sure to carry extra control boxes,coils ect..cause' your going to need them..
Click to expand...
agree, I`ve run MSD in four cars now, so far, so good !
 
stroked340 said:
MSD..have run 2 systems in 2 different cars..NEVER an issue..If you run a Mopar system be sure to carry extra control boxes,coils ect..cause' your going to need them..
Click to expand...
I disagree, there are many who run the Mopar system with no issues and there are people who have had issues with MSD as well. If I have a issue with a product I will relate that, but not expect everyone to have the same problem and call them all bad. I've known people who have had problems with MSD but I don't condemn it because it is a good system. Same goes for the Mopar system. It sounds like you are speaking from experience and don't take that away from you.
 
The FBO system aside...the MPP chrome and orange boxes are inferior in every way to an MSD. That is a engineering fact. If both were as reliable or as unreliable as the other, the MSD out performs the MPP in function.
 
I have run mopar orange and chrome boxes for over 25 years and never had a failure. But car runs much nicer with the FBO.
 
340doc said:
I disagree, there are many who run the Mopar system with no issues and there are people who have had issues with MSD as well. If I have a issue with a product I will relate that, but not expect everyone to have the same problem and call them all bad. I've known people who have had problems with MSD but I don't condemn it because it is a good system. Same goes for the Mopar system. It sounds like you are speaking from experience and don't take that away from you.
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Sorry been caught out in foul weather with the crappy Mopar junk 1 too many times..my MSD systems have NEVER had an issue..
 
I would use the factory Mopar set up with a chrome box and good coil.
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Weren't the chrome boxes known to have a high failure rate? Or is that the golden one?
 
phaelax said:
Weren't the chrome boxes known to have a high failure rate? Or is that the golden one?
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I cant speak for anyone else but I've had good service on my chrome box. I did have problems with an orange box and vowed not to run one again.
 
340doc said:
I cant speak for anyone else but I've had good service on my chrome box. I did have problems with an orange box and vowed not to run one again.
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It depends on what you want. There is nothing wrong with running the Mopar electronic distributor. The ecu's can be sketchy though. If you want plug and play, the FBO ecu has modern electronics, uses a full 12 volts (no ballast resistor), has a rev limiter and their advance limiter plate and spring kit makes the factory distributor adjustable for a good timing curve. The cost is reasonable, and there is no cutting, splicing, wiring, routing, drilling holes, yada yada. Everything bolts in or plugs in to the factory locations. I use them a lot for street driven, or sleeper applications.

If you don't mind the extra work and expense, the MSD is a nice system, but it isn't guaranteed to never give you problems. With electronics, anything can fail....instantly.
 
B3RE said:
It depends on what you want. There is nothing wrong with running the Mopar electronic distributor. The ecu's can be sketchy though. If you want plug and play, the FBO ecu has modern electronics, uses a full 12 volts (no ballast resistor), has a rev limiter and their advance limiter plate and spring kit makes the factory distributor adjustable for a good timing curve. The cost is reasonable, and there is no cutting, splicing, wiring, routing, drilling holes, yada yada. Everything bolts in or plugs in to the factory locations. I use them a lot for street driven, or sleeper applications.

If you don't mind the extra work and expense, the MSD is a nice system, but it isn't guaranteed to never give you problems. With electronics, anything can fail....instantly.
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I've looked at the FBO set up and was quite impressed with it plus its made in the USA! I defiantly would consider it a solid upgrade.
 
IQ52 said:
When I first started out searching for an ignition system I needed something inexpensive so I chose this one. Worked so well I now use it on three cars and my dyno.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-850610/overview/
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I believe that's Summit's version of a Mallory HyFire system; I've contemplated using them, just never actually pulled the trigger. The directions are almost a carbon copy and the function/specs look exactly the same.
 
roccodart440 said:
MPP and MSD. They sell MSD's right at the track.
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What I meant was if he was going to do some track events and something happens there would be people with spare stuff.Especially if ot was a big money event and you were doing good!IQ52 knows his stuff.Not to take away from what he said!
 
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