ignition on small block

[Texas charger 73]

73 charger , mild small block, weekend and occasional cruising , is stock ignition fine or ignition box better? i see so many run the ignition box just to eliminate the ecu and the ballast resistor since they overheat and fail... i was just curious on yall's opinion on what your running. pros and cons of stock vs aftermarket?

 

[aeon280]

Cdi boxes are really only beneficial above 6k rpm. I run one because thats what my engine came with otherwise i would have probably stuck with the factory electronic or done an hei swap to eleiminate the balast resistor.that being said i have had several high milage mopars and never had a ballast resistor go bad.

 

[Frank Mopar]

Hei swap is the best bang for the buck. Pretty easy to do. Tie all the ballast wires together

The hei module must be on a heat sink of some sort.

R

 

[69Bee]

Cdi boxes are really only beneficial above 6k rpm. I run one because thats what my engine came with otherwise i would have probably stuck with the factory electronic or done an hei swap to eleiminate the balast resistor.that being said i have had several high milage mopars and never had a ballast resistor go bad.

I disagree/agree/and agree. A MSD box (6AL) is far better than stock at all rpm levels. Up until a certain rpm level, the MSD box will hit 5 times per 1 cylinder fire cycle, and above a certain level, it will become a continuous 20 degree burn. I ran a Mopar Performance orange box for a while, until I replaced it with the MSD, but retained the OEM connector in case of failure. Either OEM or MSD will work fine, and I have NEVER had a ballast resistor fail on me in 35+ years either.

My project was going to use a MP Ignition kit until I went a different direction and decided to use FI with an ignition module in the TB so that I could adjust timing also. Yes, it will use a MSD distributor though...

 

[Cranky]

I had trouble with ballast resistors around 77 or so but they were local parts house replacements when the original went out on my 74 /6 powered pickup. The stealership wanted what I thought was way too much so picked one off of a donner small block Challenger for free. Didn't even think the values might be different but it worked until I sold the truck a few years later. Other than that, I never had problems with the Mopar stock or race ignitions from then on.

 

[Demonic]

Nothing wrong with the stock ECU’s for the average street car. MSD does give a noticeable improvement.

 

[Texas charger 73]

Nothing wrong with the stock ECU’s for the average street car. MSD does give a noticeable improvement.

so it sounds my stock ignition with orange box and curved distributor should be more than enough.. thank you everyone

 

[66Satellite47]

Is your orange box a Mopar (Direct Connection/Mopar Performance) item? Over the years I have observed that Mopar DC orange boxes seem to run out of steam about 5000 RPM (think Mopar says 5500). Not sure how the non Mopar orange boxes work.

 

[Texas charger 73]

Is your orange box a Mopar (Direct Connection/Mopar Performance) item? Over the years I have observed that Mopar DC orange boxes seem to run out of steam about 5000 RPM (think Mopar says 5500). Not sure how the non Mopar orange boxes work.

I believe it is. It's old style orange box not new stuff.

 

[MoparLeo]

If you have an ignition failure on your set-up, almost guarantee that it will be the "orange" box. A stock spare should be part of your cars tool kit.

 

[66Satellite47]

Good the 70's & 80's parts seem better than the off shore products. My mid 70's Blue box was great (on the shelf now for 35 years). It was a higher RPM piece than the Orange box. MSD's are better, but not worth the cost unless racing or serious street.

 

[451Mopar]

The stock box is fine. Need to use coil with correct input resistance to work with the ballast resistor.
Changing the ignition advance curve inside the distributor is where most improvements come from.

 

[WP29440SE]

View attachment 955459

Hei swap is the best bang for the buck. Pretty easy to do. Tie all the ballast wires together

The hei module must be on a heat sink of some sort.

R

this is what I use. I literally do not have one dime into it.

 

[Texas charger 73]

The stock box is fine. Need to use coil with correct input resistance to work with the ballast resistor.
Changing the ignition advance curve inside the distributor is where most improvements come from.

Distributor been recurved already. Made huge improvements