Ignition upgrade

[infotraker]

I currently run a excel dual point in my sanger pickle (454 BBC 60 over, comp hydr.cam,dual 750's on tunnel) . What performance gain may I see if I upgrade to MSD or other setup ? What is the best setup to use (not to costly)?

[Costello]

Infotracker, the best bang for the buck would be to install a magneto. I see them used for $250-300 all the time. You will pay that for a good MSD distributor and still need the box and a coil with it. Points distributors in my past experience are a total pain in the A**.

[vdriveflat]

I have to agree with Costello here and definately go with the mag. No hassle with wiring. For reliability purposes and a good hot spark you just can't beat them.

[superdave013]

Well, A mag might be cheeper but I'm a convert from a mag to MSD. Best money I've ever spent. It starts SOOOOOOOooooo much better it's unreal. Hit the starter button and it's running right now, no cranking at all. You can't compare the one spark of a mag with the multi sparks from an MSD. I ran a plug gap of 0.018" with the mag and run 0.040" with the MSD. MSD's burn all the fuel every time. I have the soft touch rev control and when the boat hops out of the water and hits the limitter it's so smooth. I can go on and on about how happy I am with my MSD. The down fall is you need a charging system. With my mag I didn't use an alternator so I saved a little weight.
I bet you can just replace the points in what you have with a pick up coil kit from MSD and get a 6AL box with out breaking the bank. I have the marine version of the 6AL and it gets wet all the time with no hassels.
Move into the year of 2002 and get one, You'll love it.

[WILDERTHANU]

I TOO HAVE THE MSD, I'M RUNNING BIG HORESPOWER, BIG COMP, AND THE THING FIRES EVERYTIME AWESOME. I AM RUNNING THE 7AL!!! THE LIMITER PILLS WORK AWESOME WHEN SETTING THE BOAT!

[058]

I vote for the MSD also. Mags are fine for simple operation but they don't work that great at low rpm and they put alot of load on the cam gear at high rpm. Also with the MSD there are alot of options available for engine control such as boost timing control, staged rev limiters, rpm activated 'shift' lites to name a few.

[HAVASANGER]

You can run a stock Chevy HEI distributor without the guts. Install an MSD pickup with an external coil, and it's good for 8000 RPM. The MSD ignition with the built-in rev limiter is the tits.

[blownschiada]

MSD gets my vote also.I,m running a crank trigger set up to clear my 1271 with a 6al box.I also am useing a MSD start retard to ease the starter because timing is locked out at 34.It starts faster than you can take your finger off the button.

[Costello]

Don't get me wrong, I have owned and loved my MSD stuff in the past. The key words that led me to suggest the mag was "not too costly".

[Infomaniac]

I always ran an MSD before I switched to alcohol. I put a mag in then. If I had enough money it would have been an MSD mag.

[Sangster 79]

We run an MSD7al in one of our boats & a 6al in the other.The best $$$ I've ever spent!!
Well, almost..

[77schiada22]

take this for what its worth. been using MSD for 15 yrs. one failure. had on 4 seperate vehicles at the same time. only complaint is the distributor cap gets green in hurry some times. the one on my boat should be in a museum. msd-7m use an accel BEI tach drive distributor. have new 7-ml2 with billet distributor in the shop but why it still works everytime. had a 6al submerged win the rain flooded my car. let it sit for a few months, she fired right up. i'll shut up now