Ballast resistor-> 4 prong to 2 prong

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If your going to mess with it, just do away with it All together
 
I prefer the four prong in my road spares. Then everybody is covered.

Outside of that, I prefer stock.
 
diymirage said:
If your going to mess with it, just do away with it All together
Click to expand...
So MSD 6AL and a chevy 1 wire alternator? Dedicated distributor or stock?

I picked up an MSD gold box with the ECU connection a long time ago (but would that help alleviate anything?), but other than realizing that the ballast has a .5 ohm top resistance, and 5 ohm resistance on the bottom portion of the prong leads I am not sure what it does for the ignition. The amp meter on the road runner makes me nervous, but only lights and engine are the only electrical loads on that car, nothing else.
 
Bypassed mine and installed a presto lite electronic ignition kit. No box to fail either. Great spark.
 
greymouser7 said:
So MSD 6AL and a chevy 1 wire alternator? Dedicated distributor or stock?

I picked up an MSD gold box with the ECU connection a long time ago (but would that help alleviate anything?), but other than realizing that the ballast has a .5 ohm top resistance, and 5 ohm resistance on the bottom portion of the prong leads I am not sure what it does for the ignition. The amp meter on the road runner makes me nervous, but only lights and engine are the only electrical loads on that car, nothing else.
Click to expand...

dont forgot the FBO/4 seconds flat setup
or you might even be able to run a different coil and remove the resistor

plenty of ways to skin a cat (just wait for someone to chime in who knows them, as in, not me)
 
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Fbo or what about this hoss I bought years ago (no ballast resistor needed?)?
 
I've always had luck with GM HEI. Cheap and only 4 pins w/ ground. Most important thing is to use a quality 12v coil and to bolt a heat sink with transfer compound to the unit, or bolt it to the fender away from headers. HEI is cheap and compact, and if you're interested, the 5 pin unit has a built in spark retard of 10 degrees by grounding the 5th pin. Good for hot restarts, high compression small blocks, or pinging up a hill on hot days, bad fuel, etc.
 
T56MaxTorq said:
I've always had luck with GM HEI. Cheap and only 4 pins w/ ground. Most important thing is to use a quality 12v coil and to bolt a heat sink with transfer compound to the unit, or bolt it to the fender away from headers. HEI is cheap and compact, and if you're interested, the 5 pin unit has a built in spark retard of 10 degrees by grounding the 5th pin. Good for hot restarts, high compression small blocks, or pinging up a hill on hot days, bad fuel, etc.
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Thank sir but the problem with GM hei is that there are a ton of Chinese distributors and no way for me to know a quality product, I searched into these-I quit when Mike Liston said that the Chinese are making indistinguishable MSD copies-to include 6AL boxes

-which one do you get?
 
If that's the case then maybe the dealership is an option, or the junkyard. Grab 2 or 6. I've ran them for years.
 
greymouser7 said:
how do you get dealership or junkyard hei distributors? do you think the $50 hei distributors -like the one sold by skipwhite on eBay are worth-not sarcasm
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HEI isn't limited to just being a distributor. It's also a box that's half the size of your phone. Wire it to the coil and the distributor you already have. Why would I tell you to bolt a distributor to a fender?
 
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greymouser7 said:
Thank sir but the problem with GM hei is that there are a ton of Chinese distributors and no way for me to know a quality product, I searched into these-I quit when Mike Liston said that the Chinese are making indistinguishable MSD copies-to include 6AL boxes

-which one do you get?
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Let's back up here. When most of us say GM HEI we MEAN GM HEI not some distributor. Run a Mopar dist and trigger an actual GM HEI module bought from the parts stores

Now what about that box you pictured? You think it's bad? ?? As I said if that works it's a great ignition, IT IS an earlier version of Multiple Spark Discharge
 
67Dart273 said:
Let's back up here. When most of us say GM HEI we MEAN GM HEI not some distributor. Run a Mopar dist and trigger an actual GM HEI module bought from the parts stores

Now what about that box you pictured? You think it's bad? ?? As I said if that works it's a great ignition, IT IS an earlier version of Multiple Spark Discharge
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I thought that the GM HEI ignition box/setup was the module on top of the late SBC distributors. How else can you operate GM HEI.

I guess I'm missing some of the puzzle of this big picture.

Thanks
 
IMO, msd is obsolete. You have to buy a dumb timing light and a timing retard controller is expensive and ugly. Have to dick around with timing tape. And apparently there's a load of counterfeit units so that's sketchy. It's only good for a hot, capacitive discharge spark til 3000 rpm or so. It's still controlled by springs and flyweights so what's the point? You'd see more power and drivability by using a modern ignition driver like megasquirt in "ignition control only mode" with a Bosch driver and controlling several variables to create your own ignition curve. Want to retard timing on start? No problem. Retard timing when eng temp is too high? Ok. Valet parking spark cut above 2500 rpm? No problem. Set your own coil dwell. Flood clear on startup with a throttle position sensor? Little more work but it'll do it. Control cooling fans, nitrous, etc. The days of swapping springs and adding limiting plates and grinding off metal are over. Adjust any ignition timing on the fly on a running engine with a 3D ignition map. The controller is smaller than msd and hides under the dash with simple inputs from the distributor you already have that you fully lock out.

- The msd box in my avatar went into the garbage
 
greymouser7 said:
I thought that the GM HEI ignition box/setup was the module on top of the late SBC distributors. How else can you operate GM HEI.

I guess I'm missing some of the puzzle of this big picture.

Thanks
Click to expand...

The ignition module that sits on top simply unscrews and you splice it into your distributor pickup, ignition 12+, coil + and a ground. Done. You could stuff 20 in the glove box. They're cheap and easy. The gm distributor it's attached to is the only gm specific part. The ignition module doesn't care if it's a mopar or a chevy, a V8 or an I4. The distributors pickup sends a sine wave to the module, then the module drops the ground to the primary winding in the coil when it determines the sine wave "crossing 0." Dropping ground in the charged primary winding in the coil sends a magnetic field through the secondary winding and this sends the spark to the plugs through a phenomenon called electromagnetic induction. Science!

I personally would go with an easy HEI or just a simple orange mopar box, or the a system that offers complete control of ignition timing with 3D maps.
 
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greymouser7 said:
I thought that the GM HEI ignition box/setup was the module on top of the late SBC distributors. How else can you operate GM HEI.

I guess I'm missing some of the puzzle of this big picture.

Thanks
Click to expand...

You can use one of several GM HEI modules, incluiding the original known "slang" as a "4 pin."

You must break a plastic pin off.........easy....and mount it to a heat sink. I just mounted mine flat to the firewall for a heat sink. You MUST ground the thing through the mounting holes. One of the members here came up with a magnificent diagram

4pin-jpg.jpg


No ballast, you can even use the factory coil "or a better one"........Pay attention in the diagram to the orientation of the Mopar distributor connector "as pictured"

I made one up "for emergency" ignition, and have used it to test fire engines. .........Plug it into the Mopar dist, hook up coil wire and battery and ground and go!!

hwlcfa-jpg.jpg


In about 5 minutes, this engine was fired!!

34nf6l0-jpg.jpg
 
.............BUT YOU still have not answered my question........What about the MSD box you showed?
 
this is probably an ignorant question, but what do you have to change on the OEM mopar electronic dist.?????

I am not interested in all the "extra" adjustments mentioned above. all I am wanting is a good runnng slant!
 
Barbee, there isn't many mods to do to a mopar distributor depending on what you're already working with. Most mods are very simple. Let us know in another thread what you're working on and what your goals are and what exactly what you have and want to do.
 
Barbee, there isn't many mods to do to a mopar distributor depending on what you're already working with. Most mods are very simple. Let us know in another thread what you're working on and what your goals are and what exactly what you have and want to do.
 
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