MSD ignition in a Dinoplex Case! No Points & Fully Laptop Programable

It has been a while since I posted anything technical so I thought I would finally spill the beans on a very special ignition system that Adrian and I have been working on across the Atlantic over the past 3 years or so. It all started when I went to re-build the advance mechanism on my distributor. Upon inspection I found two major flaws. One is that the system is very time and labor intensive to adjust properly. Second is that once set, it can only get worse and requires periodic maintenance to keep working. Knowing little about electronics I turned to Adrian in Germany for the answer and so began our quest for a better way. Adrian was the electronics brain and I handled the mechanical fabrication and testing.

Here were the parameters we laid out:

- Use tried and tested mass produced parts (nothing custom or home made)
- Everything must fit in the Dinoplex case
- Must look 100% stock on the outside
- Must do away with breaker points in the distributor
- Must do away with the weighted advance mechanism yet still allow for the setting of an advance curve.

To this end Adrian recommended that we use an MSD 6AL-2 programmable ignition mated to a Lumenition optical trigger. In order to get away with not having a mechanical advance a special distributor shaft would have to be made that would eliminate the advance as this would now be calculated electronically. The process was long (involving many FedEx packages) but in the end we got it figured out and I am happy to report that the system works wonderfully well.

So what are the advantages? Here is a list:

- Advance is setup via laptop and is infinitely adjustable. Dyno tuning allows for setting an advance curve that is perfectly optimized for the available fuels with changes taking seconds rather than hours to achieve and test. Performance is unbelievable.

- MSD 6AL-2 is a mass produced and well supported ignition that has proven to be rock solid reliable in the aftermarket world.

- Once completed the system is 100% maintenance free meaning that lubing points cams and advance mechanisms is a thing of the past.

- Optical trigger does away with unreliable points and offers accurate timing.

- MSD offers two stage programmable rev-limiter as part of their software adding an extra layer of engine protection

So far I have logged over 5000 km with this setup and it has been nothing short of fabulous. The car starts like a Honda and pulls strong right to redline. Plugs never foul and I can still use the original Cavis spark plug wires. Top to bottom it is 100% invisible once installed and is a wonderful mod for those who want to drive their Dino.

In the next few posts I'll document some of the build. First up is the ignition and getting it into the Dinoplex case.
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With the MSD now confirmed to fit it is necessary to get it properly fixed. To do this a special bracket was fabricated along with some aluminum plates that would transfer ignition heat to the Dinoplex case. Once assembled all contact points were coated in heat transfer grease. Eventually all the wires were run through the plastic connector again making it all invisible to the outside world.

Again here are some photos to guide you through the process:
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The real treat came in the distributor where the internal shaft and advance mechanism was replaced for a billet custom shaft. To add to the design we even laser cut out of stainless steel (later powder coated flat black) the chopper wheel for the Lumenition optical trigger as well as a custom mount for the trigger. This ensures a perfect plug and play installation that allows the distributor to be returned 100% back to original with no damage of any kind.
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Peter I am not certain if the internals would fit in the longer Dinoplex used by the earlier 206/246 but I can only assume the operation of the electronics are the same. The biggest part of the job is getting the MSD internals into the Dinoplex case. This of course only matters to the concours crowd as the ignition is really quite hidden when installed. Much more practical is just using the MSD as it comes out of the box and conceivably you can do this by mounting the Dinoplex in the stock location totally as a dummy and then hiding the MSD box somewhere else. It is not that big and requires few wires so this is surely doable. The spark still comes from the coil so all of that is retained but I used an MSD coil painted and decalled to look like a period Marelli part.

Assuming the issue of the MSD untouched vs MSD in the Dinoplex itself is taken care of then all of the work resides in the distributor. To this end you would need one of my special shafts, an optical trigger mounting plate, and a Lumenition optical pickup. Because I re-made the chopper wheel you can buy just the optical pickup and save a bit of money there. As mentioned everything is totally reversible so it is nothing more than screwing pieces in.

Once assembled the ignition parameters are set by laptop and you can mimic the stock Dino settings or come up with your own advance curve. Because it is all electronic it is perfectly accurate and will not vary with the passage of time. I have to say that plugging a laptop in to tune your Dino is incredibly cool especially when the results are so positive.

Of course the last question is 'will you sell these?' At present I have a few extra bits but I am very busy with other projects so I am not sure if this will ever go anywhere. Adrian and I have put a heap of work into the project, and the results are spectacular, but I am just divided as to whether it is worth pursuing as a business. I already know there is no money to be made here but if I commit to selling something I would also like to be able to support it and right now I just struggle to see how I could.

 

Here is a photo of the shaft that goes in the distributor. As you can see it is solid and replaces the entire shaft that is currently in the distributor. The chopper wheel is a separate piece held in with a nut and I have made all of these pieces and put them together as one assembly as seen in the pic. The advance is calculated electronically inside of the MSD so that when the engine is at a certain speed the ignition will automatically add the necessary retard based on the advance curve that is downloaded to the unit. All of this can be seen graphically using the MSD software which even allows for live viewing when the engine is running. It may sound complicated but it is incredibly simple to use. As for the shaft once you have the part it requires to only be installed with no machining of any kind. Again this is totally reversible with no damage to the original distributor. I would say that with the correct parts you can covert a distributor in much less than one hour (this of course assumes the distributor is removed and on the bench).
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I would certainly consider selling some of the parts needed with some basic setup information and shopping lists but it would have to be with a clear disclaimer that I am not TECH SUPPORT. This would never be a money making enterprise but I can see it as a huge time sink and right now is a really bad period for me to be distracted. As for releasing a drafting of the shaft, a huge amount of time has gone into perfecting it so I am not quite ready to publicize the IP surrounding it. I hope you understand.

 

Fred certainly you have forgotten more about ignition systems that I have ever known so I take your observations to heart. To respectfully offer my counterpoint I would like to make the following rebuttals:

- Once developed the whole system is actually quite economical. All of the parts including the MSD are about $750 which should be cheaper than the full re-build and re-calibration of just a Marelli distributor by a specialist (let alone the ignition box). Add in the fact that it will be more accurate and with no maintenance ever for me it was a no brainer.

- I totally agree that this system cannot compare with a modern microprocessor, fuel injection, lambda sensors, and all the other great things we now take for granted. It is however a marked improvement over stock while retaining a concourse perfect look for those interested in maintaining the original appearance.

- We spent a ton of time getting the rotor phasing just right and have not found any cross firing problems in running very different advance curves with our testing. I suspect that within the range the 246 motor operates in we are ok with this system. Realistically once the advance curve is set you can forget ever looking at the ignition again shy of replacing worn out cap, rotors ,cables, or plugs. If you drive that much kudos to you!

Lastly as for the pieces here is a pic of everything needed to to the conversion if you are ok with using the MSD as it comes from the box. As you can see it is not a lot of parts and does away with the points (boy do I ever hate points) and the hard to adjust advance mechanism.
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Ken to answer your questions:

- With the MSD guts in the Dinoplex case I do need to remove the cover in order to access the download cable. Of course I could cut a slot in the case to give me access but it is so rare to change that I did not want to damage the original case. Of course if you use the MSD as shipped then there is full access to the download port.

- Yes I did use the grey tach lead for my tach and it works perfectly with no adaptations or anything special required. I also confirmed that the tach was accurate using a digital timing light with an RPM readout.

 

There are a number of reasons for making the shaft instead of trying to lock the original advance mechanism:

- Locking the advance mechanism in a non-destructive way is challenging. In the end I did not want to destroy original parts.

- Installing the Lumenition chopper wheel is already a challenge with the original distributor as the fit is not perfect and requires some engineering. The custom shaft allows for a perfect fit and installation every time.

- I wanted the chopper wheel precisely aligned and a new shaft that perfectly indexes the wheel was important to achieve this. An early prototype had a grooves cut in the shaft that would perfectly align the plastic chopper wheel with a circlip grove that would hold it in place. This was later scrapped as the extra machining time for these grooves was much more costly than just making a new chopper wheel and fixing it with a bearing nut. In the end we had a much cleaner assembly that cost less to make and replaced the plastic wheel for a metal one. All improvements worth the extra development time.

- The shaft without the bell does offer more routing options for the wires as you noted because half of the distributor is now totally empty rather than being occupied with the advance mechanism.