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I have never run an MSD box in my life, but know some people who have, and they all swear by them. I'm thinking about adding one to the T and am wondering if they are worth it on a mild street engine. I am thinking of either the 5900 blaster, or the 6A.
From what I understand, it doesn't really replace anything, it just suppliments your existing distributor, coil, etc. ??
What do you guys think?
Don
I have the 6a on my 29- like it. Had the stand alone distributer on two other cars, worked good.(w/o box)
Installed a new MSD distributor, wires and Blaster coil on my SBC about a year and a half ago....love it!
I use them on everything, great service when I did have a problem.
IDK but, my MSD 6 BTM, for the $403.88 I paid for it it'd better be good.
Don, I'm running a 6A on my 77 Mustang and a 6AL (rev limiter) on the 57 Plymouth (my distributor has been converted to stock Chrysler electronic).
On the Ford (Duraspark) and Chrysler units the 6A and 6AL are stand alone and replace the factory control modul. In the case of GM HEI it works through the in distributor modual.
The Ford (351W) runs Edelbrock Preformer RPM heads with no provisions for a heat crossover package.
The Hemi in the Plymouth is 10:1 compression and a "bit" over camed.
I've had a chance to run both engines on both the stock iginition and with the MSD boxes.
In both cases each engine is cold blooded during the winter (we get to 15-20 degrees some mornings.) The MSD boxes do a LOT for cleaning up the idle and cold drivability problems. Yes I realise I'm only curing a symptom and not the real "problem" with either engine but the boxes do make a marked improvement.
In the case of the Ford there is no noticable difference between factory and MSD systems once the engine has reached full operating temperature.
On the Plymouth the idle seems to be a bit cleaner across the board with the MSD.
I've had to send a few of the boxes back for repairs, but never any problems with them after that. I have an MSD distributor and box in a toter I built that has well over 100,000 trouble free miles on it now!!!!! Not many of the stock units will hold up that well, let alone work as good as this does.. I also still use the same crank trigger system on my big blocks that I originally bought about 10 years ago and have switched it to numerous engines over the year, it's never missed a beat yet!!!!
Ran an MSD 6A for years on my chev, they are good, put out a good hot spark(s), and in some cases, depending on climate you can lean the fuel mixture back a little bit. I found that using a Holley, what worked best was leaning the main primary jets down 2 sizes and increasing the power valve up 1 size did the trick.
Thanks for all the input Guys. I think I am going to try one out. probably the 6A.
Buddy of mine had one and swore by it too.
Don
i have a pro billet dist. with a 6AL and a coil on my FE i love it..... it starts up better and runs smoother its just a better system thhe 6AL is only a little more and has a rev limiter so i would go with that one and im pretty sure you should get a little more power out of an MSD system
yes they work good easy to set up have i have set up many
i have a 6al setup to my 302w with an HEI ignition, runs like a whole new car with the box.....
i ran the 6AL and it has a chip style rev limiter. very nice option on any rod!
I have run the 6A on several cars with never a problem. If you plan on racing (i.e. high rpm) the 6AL is a good choice, but for most street driven cars, not worth the extra bucks. I'm trying the small diameter billet distributor as well in my new project - should be interesting after years of "never broken" Dura Spark dizzys.:HMMM:
I've had a 6AL on my 32 roadster for over ten years.
No problems.
Runs with a Mallory Unilite distributor.
Make darned sure you have a good ground with both these units.
That seems to be where problems start and failure - sometimes - isn't far behind.
I chose the 6AL due to it's capability of having different RPM maximums.
Change a chip does it.
Kinda nice to throw in the 3000 rpm chip when the kid drove the car....
I am going aginst the crowd here. I have the 6AL on the 392 Hemi, and as a driver, I see no advantage. I think they were made for racing, and does nothing to help starting or normal driving. I also had same set up on my 81 Mirada (360/380) crate motor, again no major performance advantage as a street car.
Jack
Had a mallory unilite coil on a 350 that caused a fire once due to poor coil wire retention design. Replaced my 68 Vet transistor ignition with MSD billet distributor and 6AL box and the difference was mind boggling to say the least. Especially noticed it on cold starts, warm up, and lugging around town. Missed a gear once and the rev limiter works great!
I bought a MSD 6AL and billet distributor for the 502 also, someday I'll even light it up maybe **)
Kitz
Don -
I have had a MSD 6200 (aka 6A) on my 57 Oldsmobile since 1994 and it has never skipped a beat. Mine has been absolutely reliable and with the addition of a Pertronix electronic distributor conversion kit added in 1999, it has been hazzle free. The pertronix kit was added to the original (1957) distributor.
moparjack is correct, there is no advantage to running an msd box on a mild build street motor, the only advantage is the built in rev limiter
I guess it really depends on what you call a "mild build".Quote:
Originally Posted by mooneye777
I wouldn't run a 6AL on either of my cars, neither of which are mild or wild builds. My opinion is that the 6AL is overkill for a strickly street machine, but the 6A is a good match.
I don't have one on my 34, because I really have no place to mount the thing. No space under the hood where weather wouldn't be a factor and no space under the dash. Guess I could mount it under the rear seat. :eek: Nah.
There is also a MSD 5 for those who have stock engines with no race ambitions. In some cases an MSD ignition is like Billet, you really don't need it, but to keep up with the "Joneses", you just gotta to have it.:LOL:
You do know the only difference is the 6A does not come with a rev. limiter and the 6AL does.Quote:
Originally Posted by mopar34
Why don't you want to run a rev. limiter??:whacked:
well the msd s do work good on mild street stuff much better then points. but on stock stuff that has a hei maybe not
I got my 6 BTM, I'm going to have it fire the DSII distributor I got, I also bought the $15 MSD- Duraspark harness, so it's plug and play. a 6 AL just has a rev limiter, over a stock 6 box, a 6 M box, is for a marine application, and will work good on vehicles where weather may be a problem. Running a MSD with points, is an improvement, but in some cases, triggering a 4 pin GM HEI modual with the points, will work just as good ( cuts out points bounce signal ).
i personally noticed when addiding my 6al i was able to lean my mixture out a bit and i gained a tiny bit more power.... nothing drastic but it was noticeable
thing about the MSD boxes is if you got a 6cyl or less and you don't cut the wires they will multi spark forever, which I don't think is good for the coil
depends on what kind of ignition you have it on matt... my buddy put one on his 4cyl nissan pickup, and since its got an internal coil on the distributor, the way the MSD box hooks up, it completely bypasses the coil
rev limiter whats that? :LOL:
That's what you use instead of worn out valve springs that float at 6500 RPM!!!!!!!:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
i always thought the rev limiter was the name of that noise rods make when they hit the oil pan
We run a full MSD system on our VW drag car. Billet Dist, Blaster coil, plug wires, 6AL box, three step launch control and a retard box for the nitrous. It's been a great and trouble free system.
Here's a couple of things we found through actual use. We run the plug gaps wide, around .040" to .045" because of the strong spark. In fact, when we first started runing nitrous our tune up was "too lean" and we completely burnt the ground electrodes off of the plugs and the engine never even missed a beat at 7800 RPM with the strong spark. The distributor is easily tuned for advance curve.
You might need to install a "one way" diode in the alternator wiring to prevent engine run-on, its included in their kit and clearly explained in their instructions. By the way, they have all of their instructions and trouble sheets "on line" which is great for us late night racers.
In our race VW group, it is the opinion of everyone that their 6A and 6AL systems are bullet proof. But, everyone that has tried their "digital boxes" has had problems.
If you can afford it, I see no reason not to run the best.
"You do know the only difference is the 6A does not come with a rev. limiter and the 6AL does.
Why don't you want to run a rev. limiter??"
Yeah I know the primary difference is the 6AL has a rev limiter and a $50 higher price tag. The 6A runs just fine in my Olds and highly unlikely that I would ever get the revs high enough to damage anything. The engine is an original 57 371 Olds J2, like to keep it around for while longer so never really push it to the limit. Just driving normally,trying to keep it under 70, burns thru premium gas at a rate of 6 miles per gallon. Probably would go bankrupt if I pressed it harder.:CRY:
As for the 34, other than lack of mounting space, the HEI unit works very well and improvement offered by adding an MSD 6A or 6AL probably wouldn't be worth the time or expense. Neither of these cars are used for racing, street or strip. Just fun!:toocool: :D
it has to fire on the coil in some way, otherwise it wouldn't do anythingQuote:
Originally Posted by thesals
anything is better than points. whoever had the car before me stripped out the screws to set them so i had to buy new screws...not a big deal.... but i went out and bought a set of blue streak, i think thats the name, points and i was going through a set every month becuase they were burning up. no matter how tight i got the screws on the points they still slipped it drove me nuts but i was trying to save up for the 6AL box so i had to deal with what i had. my friends dad gave me a pro billit dist that needed a cap so i got the cap and was planning to save up some more money for the box. well later that night i was on a date with my girlfriend in atlanta when the points slipped and i had left my spare set on the dresser next to my bed....great.....we ended up riding home with AAA she was cool with it but the next morning we got up she drove me to the store and i bought the 6AL from Advance Auto put it in along with the blaster coil and dist i had and it has never missed a beat. im sure the reason for the points going out so much was something i did maybe the blaster coil but im not sure i just know what i have now works and the points didnt. i dont know why i didnt buy it sooner it works great its just expensive.