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Msd 6al

MOABDADC22

MOABDADC22

1/2 ton status
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Jul 24, 2001
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Cheyenne, Wy
Anyone care to share their experience with these? I was thinking of finally installing the one I have. I don't expect to see a huge difference in performance, but your input is always appreciated. What plugs did you run and at what gap? Show me some pics of mounting locations too.

Bob.

P.S. I would gladly trade the MSD 6AL (NIB, never even opened), a NIB(also never opened) Comp Cams cam & lifter set (# 122102) and a set of NIB Comp Cams roller Rockers (#141216) for the 89-91 conversion parts.:D
 
No personal experience myself, but my uncle swears by them. Different application, he loves bracket racing in his stang, but it would be an excellent upgrade. I understand there is a off road version that is more durable. Maybe someone else has more experience with them.
 
I say if you have a carb motor run it. If you have an FI motor ditch it. I ran Champion Truck plugs gapped at .057 when I had my MSD box. I liked my MSD box. I have FI now so I got rid of it.

Harley
 
The offroad version is junk. I had one that had to be replaced by msd. I switched back to the stock hei setup and dont have any problems.I have heard of other people having the same problems with the mds6-offroad ignition. I haven't heard any problems with the msd6al though.
 
Mine has worked flawlessly for about 6 years now.

Mounting location:
3613100-0080_IMG.JPG
 
one in Dad's Nova is great. Rev limiter is a beautiful thing. I think we run .060 on the plugs but its running 11.5:1 compression and 108 octane VP race fuel.
 
Only reason I bought it was for the rev limiter. If I had it to do all over again, I would have bought the stand alone rev limiter and been done with it. That said, I'm real happy with it as it does what I want it to do.
 
I have also had problems with the MSD 6 offroad box. It won't hold up to the heat of being under the hood. My roommate runs an MSD 6A that I got for him used and it has worked great for over 2 years.

Harley
 
The 6AL is a great unit. Used too run one on the 73 Camaro. Love the rev limiter, saved my motor a few time more then I want too admit.
 
I'm running the 6AL box (mounted behind the gauges on the firewall).


I also bought the adjustable rev limiter knob to replace the "pellets" they give you initially, and that is a nice feature also. There is also an extra wire that can be utilized to create a simple ignition-kill for some added security.

My setup uses the MSD Blaser Coil, and the Pro-Billet distributor. Honestly, it's not like I picked up 100HP over the stock setup, but the low RPM idle does seem smoother than before.

The only problem I'm fighting now is with "eating" distributor caps. I had a poorly made MSD wire initially (with around 1000 ohms or resistance!) that forced the box to work WAY too hard to produce a correct spark. It burned up the center electrode on the cap and it took me a while to figure out what was going on.....I made up a new set of wires, and verified that all the ohms were in spec. I'm still having problems with that center button burning up and what looks like a lot of corrosion on the other terminals.

I noticed that MSD is now putting a "vent hole" in the new replacement caps they sell, perhaps to help alleviate moisture problems? Living in a colder and wetter climate now is probably making it tougher to keep that cap area dry.

:thinking:
 
Greg72 said:
The only problem I'm fighting now is with "eating" distributor caps. I had a poorly made MSD wire initially (with around 1000 ohms or resistance!) that forced the box to work WAY too hard to produce a correct spark. It burned up the center electrode on the cap and it took me a while to figure out what was going on.....I made up a new set of wires, and verified that all the ohms were in spec. I'm still having problems with that center button burning up and what looks like a lot of corrosion on the other terminals.

:thinking:
Click to expand...

Greg......It sounds like you need a Low-Resistance HEI Bushing. Summit's part number is MSD-8412.

Summit's verbage:
"The carbon rotor button in a stock HEI distributor cap has very high resistance. When the high voltage of an MSD 6, 7, or 8 Series ignition is added, this resistance builds up heat and can actually melt the distributor cap. To solve this problem, install one of these MSD low-resistance HEI bushings, which will pass the secondary voltage from the distributor cap to the rotor without the excessive heat buildup."

msd-8412.jpg

I've been using one of these in my HEI for 6 years and have never burned up a cap. This is almost a requirement when running an MSD and HEI.:waytogo:
 
I'm running an MSD 6A box with an HEI distributor. I'm very happy with the ignition energy and multistrike capacity. It burns rich mixtures well. Eventually I'll be looking to add a rev limiter.
 
Ben,

Actually I'm not using a GM HEI distributor, I'm using the MSD Pro-Billet.

Would have been a good bit of detective work otherwise, but I don't think that part is intended for the MSD distributors??? :crazy:

At this point, I know my wires are all good...so I think I'm just fighting moisture in the cap. The "redesigned" cap from MSD has me even MORE suspicious that they've had complaints, or at least noticed moisture issues in the past (or is it an ozone vent?) I've heard that the ozone from the sparks needs to escape somehow......

:thinking:
 
I guess I could have READ to figure that out!:blush: :doah: :haha:

Hmm....that is a strange deal. The MSD ignition is causing a meltdown in your MSD distributor? You would think that the two have been tested together, so your problem may lie elsewhere. Have you tried sending an e-mail to MSD's tech help?......if they have one?:thinking:
 
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