MSD Ignition Installed

You guys are correct, any CD type ignition system requires 12V or more, preferrably 13.5 to 13.8 but they will operate very well down to about 10V, below that you'll have a very weak spark.

The CD ignitions use a capacitor inside the box itself, it converts 12V to 440-480V and fires it at the coil the coil then converts that charge to about 40,000V to fire the plug.

onhellofadart: All your gains didn't come from the MSD system, they mostly came from getting your timing closer to where it needed to be and by holding the timing in the motor as the resistance increases.

Just from what you have stated here I would guess your cam is about 230-236 duration at 50, that's why it liked the 21* of initial. You were probably running a Orange box or something similar which will pull anywhere from 6-10* of timing out of the motor as you load it so your 37 was probably more like 30* under power.

Timing events and outputs are critical to overall performance, with recent changes and the merger of the 2 largest Mopar Ignition ECU manufacturers there is no longer ANY quality, stock appearing ECU's made in the USA....well except for ours of course.

All 3 of our cars BB '70 Dart (9.88) 451 '64 Valiant (10.30) and the 318 Fish (11.62) run our Wide Band Coils, the only car that gets an MSD distributor and box is the Dart.....all run flawlessly.

For MOST of the applications here it really comes down to how much you want to spend to achieve the same results.....$600+ for a complete MSD system or $300 for a complete FBO Ignition System.

Before you invest in more that you really need you might want to review the FAQ page:

http://www.4secondsflat.com/a688specs.html

Don