MOPAR ECU Gold Box

[68dodge]

Anyone ever try the Mopar Gold ECU for racing? Is worth trying out. Had a Rev-N-Nator the worked good but it would not start my car after 4 times.

 

[BigBlockMopar]

Many years ago I put a Mopar gold ECU in my '71 Dart.
It lasted exactly one run. I barely made it back to the pits.
Mounted it in the coolest place possible with proper grounding, but it still crapped out.

Just a small 'Maybe' it failed because of wrong ballast or coil (MSD blaster 2).
Can't remember what ballast I ran that day.

Swapped over to a Chrome box and was able to do more runs that day.

 

[bOb shingler]

like said, it takes a special resister, coil and it's not for long usage. check out the mopar performance or direct connection manuals for the correct applications.

 

[lilredridinghoo]

if you have trouble with your rev-n-nator ecu. get in touch with them. got mine checked and repaired within short time (and all for free)

they offer very good service and take care of their customers

 

[Duane]

As mentioned it is to be used with a special coil and ballast resistor.
The box works great. Only negative I can tell you is to buy extra ballast resistors.
They will unexpectedly burn out resulting in a no start condition.
If I had to buy an ignition system again I think I would just buy an Msd 6 or 6 digital.
Probably no better performance, but more reliable. Ymmv

Duane

 

[rumblefish360]

Is like to see your actual running testing between the boxes. If you get the good box that is.

 

[Duane]

Forgot to also tell you that if you do buy the gold ecu be very carefull where you mount it.
I had a steady mis firing that took a while to figure out. The box is very sensitive to the high voltage coming from the coil. I went through the msd trouble shooting notes before I stumbled onto the problem. Keep the ecu and the coil well away from each other. I moved my coil 6 inches away and the misfire went away. Something about one inch being equal to six feet when talking transformers. AfterI did this the box ran like a champ. I used shielded wire from my crank trigger pickup to the ecu as well.

Duane

 

[1969383S]

I ran the Gold ECU on my car for over 3 years street/strip. Used the ballast that came with the electronic upgrade with orange box and with the big yellow accel coil. Both were mounted on the passenger inner fender close to the core support and very close to each other. Never had an issue and the 383 saw rpms to 7K and higher. It was the later 80's and perhaps the boxes were better back then. It was the best all MOPAR solution at the time IMO.

Going with the pertonix with my resto so I do not have to hide the gold ecu and harness. Hope the performance does not fall off to much, but don't expect to visit the strip so it should be fine.

 

[Duane]

I believe a previous post mentioned an older mopar performance catalog.
The gold box ecu was sold with recommendations to use a specific accel coil ( not the big yellow one) and 1/4 ohm resistor. It is supposed to be a package deal. The 1/4 ohm resistor Is not the same resistor that is recommended for the orange ecu.
I used the entire recommended package. When mounted close together, my car ran also but it did not run clean and was down on power. You have the high voltage spike from the coil interfering with the low voltage trigger pulse. As always ymmv.
But the ecu runs like a scalded dog as high as I cared to rev my motor.
Great throttle response.

Duane

 

[1969383S]

I believe a previous post mentioned an older mopar performance catalog.
The gold box ecu was sold with recommendations to use a specific accel coil ( not the big yellow one) and 1/4 ohm resistor. It is supposed to be a package deal. The 1/4 ohm resistor Is not the same resistor that is recommended for the orange ecu.
I used the entire recommended package. When mounted close together, my car ran also but it did not run clean and was down on power. You have the high voltage spike from the coil interfering with the low voltage trigger pulse. As always ymmv.
But the ecu runs like a scalded dog as high as I cared to rev my motor.
Great throttle response.

Duane

I do not disagree with the MOPAR recomendations.

Just sharing my expierence with the Gold ECU and still believe it is a good unit. Like I said it was run without the recommended equipment and never failed me.

 

[Duane]

I was just trying to point out that although you did not have any inference issues by mounting the units close together, you were not using the same equipment that I am.
The gold ecu is not designed to run for more than 30 minutes at a time.
It is a drag race unit not intended for street use.The different accel RACE coil,and resister
Affect the operation of the ecu and is part of the design of the unit.

Duane