Cascade Crew

[scott in wa.]

87 tpi 350

Iam thinking of upgrading my ignition I was looking at these,
MSD 6A CD
MSD Blaster GM Coil
MSD Universal Wiring Harness
MSD Noise Filter
Summit Manufacturing and Engineering Ignition Mounting Brackets

Any suggestions? maybe something else?
I have a stock system now, I want better spark.
May some one here has something else they like better? or maybe they don't like the above?

Thanks
scott

[Twilightoptics]

Mike (schultzy) and I have MSD 6AL with the Jacobs Ultra Coil and couln't be happier. Brandon (Chevymad) has Ultra Coils in both his rigs, and an MSD in the truck. I think he's pretty happy.

Jacobs Ultra Coils are easy to hook up with the MSD box. I like the 6AL because of the rev limiter built in.

Mike needed the Tach Adapter, I didn't. I don't think any of us have the Noise Filter. I mounted mine with the supplied screws. Didn't use any bracketry.



MSD on the left, coil (blue) on the right.

[scott in wa.]

So to hook this up, did you have to cut your harness/ or did you buy a plug and play wire harness?

the MSD 6AL that's the multiple spark unit correct?
does it give multiple spark at idle as well?

Jacobs? is it a two plug in gm connector? looks different on summit.


So all I would need is the 6AL and the jacobs? no connectors and crap

Iam looking at the summit site



thanks
Scott

[Twilightoptics]

Um... I'd have to go look and see but I believe, you just hard wire it in.

The MSD 6AL is just a model of the regular MSD box. Multiple at idle. Keep in mind, when the engine is spinning, there is only one spark reguardless. Not enough time for more spark events.

I had the GM blaster II coil, and it was good, but the Jacobs is better. So I had the plug and play connectors, then had to splice and run two wires to the Jacobs. The same two that originally went to the gm coil.

With the MSD, the distributor doesn't plug into the coil. It all plugs into the MSD, and then the MSD goes to the coil. Just 2 wires to the coil. Those two wires hook the same to any regular coil.

[scott in wa.]

thanks
Iam trying to figure out what one to buy.

sweet car !!!



scott

[chevymad]

There may be other good coils out there, but i've had excellent luck with the jacobs units. I've tried the blaster 2(canister type) when I moved my first jacobs from my truck to my car. There was a definate downgrade in performance and idle quality. So I bought another ultra coil on ebay and gained both back again. They're pretty well indestructable so I wouldnt worry bout buying an ebay unit. They're totally sealed in epoxy and are supposed to be able to withstand up to 99G's. So even if you shot it out of a cannon would probably survive.

I'm running an msd box on truck as well. Only running an accell transistorized unit on the car though. If you want to see hot spark check out an msd box with ultra coil. That thing will arc blue at least a couple inches. And you better have good wires. Accells and MSD don't cut it. Taylor/summit seem to work fine though. My one set of msd wires didnt last a year. They were totally cooked. My belden race wires lasted 8years, and the summit/taylor's are 4 years so far i think.

I wouldnt rate the msd gm coil any better then a good stocker myself. So save your money there. Even if you do get the rest of the ignition.

The msd 6 and 7's are multiple cd spark until about 3k rpm. Thing is with cd ignition you pretty much have to be multiple. Cd type ignitions cause a very short but very hot spark. Much less in duration then an induction type ignition. So they make up for it by sparking a few times in the same amount of time.

One of the biggest advantages to the msd boxes is getting one with a rev limiter. Something I wish I did. If you're going to get one, save up till you get the limiter or forget it.

The msd boxes are tried and true. But there are other decent boxes out there. I'd have to cruise the different message boards to see who's having luck with what though. Don't get the jacobs boxes, the coils good, but I havent heard many people who like their spark boxes. Pertronix is a company that has had alot of good reviews and is starting to come out with alot of aftermarket ignition stuff now too. I'm using their coil and points conversion in my 454 and it seems to work great. They've been around like 50 years too, but only in the last 15 has anybody heard of them. Mainly made commercial duty parts before.

Myself I'd skip the harness and hardwire everything. Almost everybody i've seen that uses the harness' eventually ends up with strange misfires etc. The plug-in connections build resistance and then start making intermittant connections. You can chase your tail a long time before you figure out whats really wrong.