Grounds

What are you gaining (or trying to gain) with MSD?

You can easily over modify a car to the point that is is more of a pain in the ass than an enjoyment. I am guilty of this on many many many occasions.

 

Concur w/the doc re MSD.

But re grounds - as an old BrittBike rider, you can never have too many grounds! It was (is) very common to add several direct grounds on old Brittbikes - where there was ONE - to the frame and the engine bolts to the frame, there are now 4-5.

On competition cars we always installed several braided grounds - a master ground from the battery to a point on the chassis and then braided grounds from that connector to multiple locations on the engine/other questionable parts of the frame/grounds for particular components - like your MSD.

FWIW I have a lot of experience with MSDs on competition/performance cars and I have never seen a dyno run where an MSD ignition did anything at all on a street engine UNLESS the original ignition system was faulty. If the original system was operating normally and the engine in reasonable shape, there was no difference in power.

As an example, the oem ignition could not reliably fire a modified Mopar 426 Hemi at 13:1 compression at 9k RPM. But it did fine at the stocker's 10.5:1 and 7000k RPM. So basically, if you are running a car with a stock engine, there is no advantage power-wise to an MSD system.

I will admit that if the engine is in poor condition, using oil, etc, an MSD may fire the plugs under conditions that the OEM would not.

 

Tell him the PLUGS are grounded, to the heads....

I had nothing but ^%&$%*$ from my MSDs, threw them away.

I actually still use an MSD coil, as they are rugged use and solid epoxy potted. You are not "supposed" to turn oil filled coils sideways, but our 308s have, for years.

The issue, I suspect (and he threw in thew towel WAY ealry!) is that there are millionsof variables in our cars.

resistor wires?
resistor plugs?
resistor extenders??

Over the years, our cars have had: Yes...no....no.....yes

And as Dr. Tommy states you really need to be seeing the "total ignition picture" to trouble shoot a problem!

JRV always said" An MSD is like using a flame thrower, to light off a teaspoon of gas!"

It masks a TON of problems, the longer flame front burst.
But, if the one spark from the OEM ignition is properly placed, all the rest of that jazz is wasted.

Check your install. On our cars the most common problem is the distance from the battery to the input to the units in the trunk, and that wants to be HUGE wire!

 

I had to toss the MSD I installed on a different car several years ago. Never could get it to behave.

I have seen them on several carbed 308's over the years, though.

 

Well, against my HUGE pile of spark plugs, maybe you should leave it as is.

Order from Summit, the Rugged Use, any mounting position, epoxy potted MSD ignition coils.

The round ones, (not the ugly larger square one) they fit right in to our brackets.

maybe that is what you need!

 

Dual points is a big misunderstanding.

You throw away the "idle points" that are a 5 degree dwell, and run on the remaining 30 degree set all the time.

Microswitch and wiring can stay mounted, on the throttle linkage for "effect"...