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Best Electronic Ignition?

dodge68charger

dodge68charger

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Just Wondering What Everyones Running?

Looking For a Distributor And Coil Setup For My 440 Engine
 
I'm on Rev-N-nator, MP/Mallory dist and blaster 2 chromed coil. I'm satisfied. But I was looking for a stock system setup ( Module, dist and coil ) without any mod for my 74 because my car already came with the factory module wiring.

Now if you still have the stock points distributor ( per your avatar )... maybe pertronix Ignitor I or II to build into your existant distributor replacing condenser and points and their Flame Thrower coil will be the best, cheaper and easier. Allmost a plug and play. Just a slight mod on Ballast aside mount their unit into your dist. No external modules around, stock look ( not big RTR distribuitors, simply your existant one )
 
I'm running a Mopar Performance (orange box) electronic ignition. It was on the car when I bought it and have no complaints so far (5 years).
 
I changed from an orange box to a MSD Street Fire.
With no other changes the car started more quickly and idled better.
And get this I had to retard the timing, started pinging.
That one I still find odd?
And I'm an electrical engineer.
 
1962 Belvedere, 318 poly 4bbl. Points distributor with Pertronix II installed, Flamethrower II coil, solid state black VR, ballast bypassed.

1969 GTX, 440 4bbl. Points distributor with Pertronix III (rev limiter + multi spark), Flamethrower III coil, solid state black VR, ballast bypassed. I prefer this one because it doesn't require the hall effect insert on the rotor.

Very happy with both of them and they run fantastic.
20170502_180456.jpg
20170503_162221.jpg
s-l400.jpg
 
ceramic part of ballast can be keept for the look removing the resistor on back and installing a jumper wire into the grooves. On pic a dual ballast unit, but the same for the single ballast

images


or jumper wire in front between prongs, but the wire there gets it ugly, the other one is cleaner

ballast-20bypass-jpg.jpg
 
Went from points to Pertronix in a 383 67 Satellite in a stock distributor . Starts quicker and runs smoother.
 
I'm running a Pertronix Flame Thrower coil w/ Mopar Orange box and FireCore distributor. Firecore distributor is very well built and adjustable. All going on 3 years now, no issues.
 
I could tell you what i'm running but it wont help you any, everything i'm using is at least twenty years old.
I'm running a cast iron tachdrive distributor that was part of a Direct Connection race electronic conversion kit, along with a fifteen lbs Mallory 690 hyfire box and coil that i got as a reman from Super Shops. This is NOT the rebranded msd box with Mallorys name on it, Super shops that sold it to me went out of business about twenty years ago.
I do also have a msd box that still runs that is so old, it doesn't have a number designation (msd 5, 6al, 7al2 etc.) ,just the old msd logo.
Everybody seems to have made good stuff, way back,when!
I did not ever have good service from mopar boxes on the race car, i had failures from orange, chrome and gold boxes.
 
Last edited:
Second that. My orange boxes were always going out. Maybe I didnt ground it right? I dunno...
 
Don Frelier said:
I changed from an orange box to a MSD Street Fire.
With no other changes the car started more quickly and idled better.
And get this I had to retard the timing, started pinging.
That one I still find odd?
And I'm an electrical engineer.
Click to expand...
My car has Street Fire. Previous owner swore it was the very best electronic ignition out there. So far no issues, but don't see Street Fire too often out there as 6AL dominated the market.
 
I connected with the evil empire and bought the MSD RTR with a Blaster II coil and MSD wires as well. The set up was turn key from the beginning. Never looked back
 
Don Frelier said:
I changed from an orange box to a MSD Street Fire.
With no other changes the car started more quickly and idled better.
And get this I had to retard the timing, started pinging.
That one I still find odd?
And I'm an electrical engineer.
Click to expand...


I run the orange MP ECU with an Accel coil and a Mallory dist. It was on my boys Dart and we took it off and put MSD on his Dart. Started no different and ran the same et and idled the same. Some say newer orange boxes will retard timing at higher rpm but I bought mine around 1999 and that orange box is now on my 63 and its still going strong on my 63. It may be the older boxes were made by a different place and may be better but not sure. I did just get an MSD 6AL digital box that I plan to put on my 63 so I will see how it runs with that unit. Ron
 
The MSD Digital 6-Plus is a fantastic ignition. I changed from a Mopar Performance electronic system and the idle smoothed out and the acrid exhaust smell went away on a well tuned 361-4V. MSD does not use the ballast resistor so I gutted a vintage one with the metal bracket and added a 10 gauge wire across the terminals in the back out of sight. The controller is mounted under the battery in the stock engine compartment location. I did not need to modify or adjust the MP distributor timing or vacuum advance as they were already dialed in. I use a vacuum gauge to set the idle mixture lean with and that too did not need any adjustment with the Digital 6-Plus.

I kept the Mopar wiring and simply unplugged the orange ignition controller so that I can change back on the road if the MSD system ever fails. The ignition box and ballast resistor are in my glove box.

The MP system is a very good ignition. The MSD adds the multiple spark feature at low RPM which helps burn all of the fuel at idle.

https://www.holley.com/products/ignition/ignition_boxes/street_and_strip/parts/6520
https://documents.holley.com/6520.pdf
 
I've probably used them all at one time or another...currently have a Firecore distributor with FBO's box and it's been solid. I had already converted from the 1968 points to the old MP electronic so the install was plug-and-play. Easily adjustable distributor and the box has a rev-limiter (which I've hit a few times, so I know it works:rolleyes:)...

These are all good systems. The point that needs to be stressed is, stay away from the cheap junk! (Pro-Form/current "Mopar Performance"/parts store replacements/etc)....and as always careful attention to detail when installing is key and will pay dividends in the long run. As poor-quality as some of the stuff out today is, "installer error" probably accounts for 85% of the problems that people blame on the equipment!
 
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