Thread: is msd really worth it? good or bad???

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i was thinking about upgrading my ignition system on my 1956 pontiac...its got heads ,cam i,ntake the works done to it and now i was thinking about doing ignition.....i'm now running a accel module and coil just to try it out i'm personally not a fan of accel but the parts came cheap... i was looking at the msd HEI kit....with coil and module except man its expensive!!!....also i was thinking about the msd AL6 ignition box as a possiblity but its just as much and i'm not exactly sure how it work or hooks up...i was wonderibng what may be best??? any opionions on this would be greatly appreciated....

here what i'm working with.. the forced air induction really works well....

U know, a lot of this mechanical stuff we do is really about theory. I was taught that our infernal combustion engines are at best only 85% efficient sso any thing that gets a little more power from a drop of fuel will pay fro itself, at least down the road. Somebody once said if we could put all the fuel saving devices that have been invented on our cars, we would save so much gas we would have to siphon some out each day. Many of these mods. are dependant on something else to gain full advantage.

Depends on what your are doing with the car. If your just cruising and maybe a bit of Saturday night action once in awhile, what you have is probably fine. If your going drag racing, MSD components are reliable and their performance remains the same from round to round. For just a cruizer, I'd spend my bucks on something else. JMO

I tend to agree with what Dave and Ives are getting at, in theory unless you are going erxtremes (dragracing etc) chances are you will not notice/feel any improvement with the MSD. At best (and I think this is true for most buyers of these systems) you get bragging rights "Gee look what I have".

That being said I will admit that I am running a MSD 6A box on my 351 Mustang II, and they do work. When I built the engine I put on Edelbrock Performer RPM heads (they do not have a heat crossover) on 20 degree mornings the car was extremely cold boolded without the MSD. With the multiple spark at low RPM it did make it drivable until the temp came up.

If you read the fine print with the unit you will find that at higher RPM you still only get a single spark. It did cure the coldnblooded tendencies, however I did not notice any improvement above 2000 RPM.

If your iginition system is optimised already chances are you will likely not really see a difference.

but bragging rights is oh so much fun

Here's my 2 cents worth. I have 6al that I have used on different cars and it works great. I've have experience w/ MSD and Accel both are fine units. I know when you go from points to electronic the way the car starts and runs is so much better,which I'm sure you know already. I believe it comes down to which brand you like better and what you want for looks also how much you want to spend. I don't know or remember which dist. you have, but if you were going to replace all, MSDs' has units that all will plug together.

ehhh i dont reccomend the high output coils on points thing... i tried that for a while on my 69 galaxy... the points would weld together about every 200 miles

Check out http://www.davessmallbodyheis.com/ . Dave can convert your Pauncho distributor to HEI or set it up to trigger a MSD box. I'm running one of his HEI conversions on the SPC in my 32 roadster.

I saw on a mustang website where guys were converting their duraspark distributors and using a GM 4 pin HEI module. They were saying it worked really well. and performed excellent.

As long as you're not racing, save the cash. An HEI setup is more than enough for the street.

my HEI is extremely close to my firewall and i was thinking about taking a smaller sbc points distributor and putting a crane conversion to remove the points and running a god coil but i was wondering if i would loose any performance over the hei??? i know the hei's run modules and stuff and seem to work well i havent played with the older distributors any idea or opinions???

i use a pertronix ignitor, same thing as cranes electronic conversion..... in my opinion it does just as well as an HEI, never had a problem with it, you just put it in, in place of the points, and your done..

Originally posted by firebird45331
I saw on a mustang website where guys were converting their duraspark distributors and using a GM 4 pin HEI module. They were saying it worked really well. and performed excellent.

that exactly what I did to my wifes 68 mustang, duraspark for $30 and an Hei gm ebay $20 and I used a boshe coil .2 0hm $20 ebay and it start and runs great set plug gap to .055in. very happy all off the shefl stuff if up and about. Life time warrenty on the duraspark. Ed ke6bnl

I know its an old thread but if you have a big carb on your engine which ends up running rich on the low end for a reason or another a 6al will save you from changeing your plugs every week it did for me.