********. MSD has repaired a couple boxes for me at a minimal charge. Look, run what you like, if you got good luck with Mallory stuff, good for you, I haven't and wont use em at all. same for accell and pertronix. Having installed hundreds of msd units I can tell you that they are by far the most reliable least headache causing units available. Parts and supplies are readily available and the cost is reasonable. Those of you that haven't noticed an improvement of any kind after installing msd unit are not paying attention, dont have the power they claim to have, or didn't open the plug gaps and tune the carb to the ignition. In the end its your toy, put whatever you want in it. I'll stick with msd.
I have used MSD boxes for 20+ years. With the older ones I had no problems. In the last 5 years I have had 90% failure rate, including a few that didn't work right out of the box! They always warrantied them and the replacement worked, except once. But my customers were still upset about the failures. I still use them on a "Race" type motor, but for the street, I think they are usually waste of money - you just don't need one. It won't hurt anything, but no real benefits either if the motor has a good electronic ignition to begin with and it is tuned right. They will cover up poor tuning sins, like bad timing and overly rich carbs so some people will see an improvement and swear by them when the real problem is a lack of tuning.
Definitely not ********. I think you missed what he was getting at. He's saying that once you POT the unit MSD won't repair it which is true because they can not physically repair it. The whole thing will be covered in rock hard potting!
While I agree to some point about "good ign vs boxes", I'd raise my right hand to my experience with the Nology wires. I purposely did the test to see if it was what it was. That old Ski Doo is a CDI ign system and those wires made a monster difference. RPM and cylider pressure limit the ability of a plug to spark. Hotter ign systems help overcome that issue. A good steady ign always makes more power and hotter should be better and should require a bit less timing too. Much like indexing plugs, some engines respond ********, some do nothing. I do it all for the reason of "it won't hurt to have it".
I know that we have already solved your problem by PM, but I wanted to add that I have the Heathkit manual with the schematics for anyone that has one of the Heathkit or Mark 10 systems and wants to repair it. Bob
Millions have changed to msd, ever hear of one going back? Even the folks here that have had issues still rely on them. And if they are that good in a race car (and there are specific race only units) it is more important to have one in the street car that has to run for hours at a time under many conditions. In the spirit of things, i'd hide it.
I have one of those old Mark 10 boxes too. I opened it up and everything looks nice and clean, almost new. I always wondered what year those came out. I plan to put it under the hood of the 61 Belair as a proper period speed part. Might be a nice add on to go with the tri power.
I hadn't heard of any big problems with MSDs failing except for maybe a few issues with the digital boxes when they first came out. If there is, I can't help but wonder why, changes in production? bad batch? I do remember being a faithful Holley Blue fuel pump user 10 or so years ago and all of a sudden seeing three pumps loose their magnets all in a row, bad adhesive?
I use points distributors triggering MSD's 90% of the time. Easily hidden, MUCH cleaner idle with the cams I tend to like, the points last a LONG time, as they are just acting as a triggering device, and they make it easier to p*** an emissions test with big dumb-*** cams, IF thats an issue. The other thing I like about MSD's is the accessories like two steps and so on. There is no measurable power gain, but if you like to run big cams on the street, they are helpful. I would say running enough inital timing is probably 80% of the battle, the MSD is the other 20%. And I have run some BIG cams, over 290@ .050 on the street. Oh yea, and I forgot. The reason to use points to trigger the MSD?? If the box dies, you can re-wire it in the pits or on the side of the road, and go back to points and coil in a few minutes.
First time I ever did an actual back-to-back comparision was on a fairly thumper street driven 383 mopar I was tuning for a buddy of mine. 255@.050 hyd. 800 dp. Holley street dominator intake, and a DC chrome box. 18 degrees initial, throttle plates were drilled, and the plates were well down in the transfer slots at idle, had it idling nicely, but with a pretty good lope @ about 850 rpm in gear so it was decently set-up to start with. Put a 6C on it, was able to go down to 700 rpm in gear and it was SMOOTHER than the DC chrome box was at 150 rpm higher. To say I was sold is an understatement. that was about 20 years ago, been using them ever since.
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