Pertronix or MSD

[Coyote with a roadrunner]

My son is helll bent on wanting an ignition upgrade for our 69 RR. I like pertronix because of the stock appearance while he wants the MSD system. do any of you have any opinions on this? Thanks.

 

[69 Runner]

I've run single and dual points (factory, Accel and Mallory), MSD, Jacobs, and factory electronic. I think the best ignition I ever ran on anything was the Jacobs I had on my Super Bee. I used their box and coil, and a modified M.P. electronic distributor.

That said, a properly set up point distributor will work about as well as anything else. MSD is only good "to a point". And by that I mean once your RPM is above 3000 it isn't gonna do you much good. It can't do a "multiple discharge" that quickly, so it's of no use.

If I were wanting to do an upgrade but didn't want to do an upgrade I'd probably go with a Petronix.

and tell your son to put the tuner magazines down....and back away....lol

 

[dantrap]

I am happy with the MSD line of products. I use their billet dist., 6al-2 box, Wires, coil, retard box for N20 etc with no problems. I have also used several variations of the Chrysler dists, mech advance and vaccum, with different control boxes. Gold box, chrome box, orange, black all without a problem on different sized big blocks. It depends what you like and how much you want to spend. I would look at the 440 source and Pro comp Dists also, they are high quality and a bit more cost effective. And you can run them with an MSD box or one of there own variations. Good luck.

 

[69 Runner]

You can run a M.P. electronic distributor with an MSD also. Got a 6A on my duster and factory distributor.

 

[696pack]

I have MSD boxes on my cars. The only reason is because you can put an RPM limiting plug in them to keep from over-revinging if you miss a gear. They are very seceptible to failure due to heat. I wire mine for under dash install to get them away from the under hood heat.

Regarding the distributor, the Pet. will work fine with any box. If you want the original under hood look then convert your original with the Pet.

 

[Boomhauer]

I just updated from stock points and condenser to the Pertronix kit that looks stock. While I was doing that, my car also had the original coil, so I decided to replace that too. I emailed Petronix and they said to use their Flame Thrower coil with the kit. I'm pretty sure you can use any brand coil you want, I just wanted to stay with the same company, this way if I used all their parts, they should know how they interact and provide better help if I needed it. I also asked them if I needed that white ballast resistor on the firewall, since the new coil would have the resistance built in. They said I could bypass the resistor. I'm still learning as I go, so I don't know if this is correct or not, but this is what I was told by the part manufacturer.

With the new coil and conversion kit, my car ran great. The only problem I encountered was after driving the car for awhile(like a few days out of three months) was the spark plug type wire leading from the coil to the top of the distributor burnt in half inside of the coil. The metal male end from the wire was still clicked inside of the coil. I emailed Pertronix to see if they knew what could have caused this. The only thing we came up with is I used the cheapest wires from a local auto parts store at the time. I believe the new hotter components were too hot for the cheap wires. I bought a set of Jegs 8.5mm wires to see if thicker wires would help. So far I've had no problems. I check the coil wire occasionally and have found no problems. So hopefully this solved that problem.

 

[69Bee]

I know this topic is old, but I had a MSD 6AL, Accel 8mm Stainless wires, Accel SuperCoil, Autolite 75 Non-resistor plugs gapped to 0.055", and MP electronic distributor. This ran the best of any setup I put in my 69Bee.

 

[Histoy]

I've had MP electronic systems on 2 of my Mopars and had to replace the orange box on one and the pick up in the distributor on the other one. I had a Pertronix system in my 64 Corvette and 68 Charger and both worked fine. I stuck with the original points system in my last Charger and plan to do the same with our current Coronet R/T. Points work just fine for the cruising we do each summer.

 

[Meep-Meep]

I vote MSD fired by a factory electronic or points dizzy. True, there is no multi spark above 3000 RPM but I noticed an immediate difference during cold running. I think your plugs will stay cleaner too, which is especially good for street driving. Even with the old Mallory dual point and hot coil I used to foul a plug occasionally on my mild cammed 383. I am running a Unilite on my boat, and contrary to my past experience it's still working, but I keep the original dual point in the boat just in case!! I have a Pertronix Ignitor in my Ranchero and my friends run them in their mild to stock cars and they work well. With the MSD I gap my plugs at .045" and it never missed a beat.

 

[res1vw21]

We had my pops 331 hemi on the dyno and with an orange box it would stumble in the higher revs. We added an MSD 6a box and it picked up power and the stumble was gone.

On my '68 Newport I slowly converted to a complete MSD system, I noticed a sizable seat of the pants gain with every install. (383 holly 650 DP, performer intake performer cam stock rebuild with new rings and barrings though out)
I started with a box and coil then a distributor and then finally wires. Huge difference over stock.

On my aspen (built 360) I bought all MSD right out of the box but haven't run the engine yet.

The Swinger (stockish 360) I just put an electronic dist in with MSD coil, and wires and an orange box, it does ok but I am getting curious what MSD box and dist will do for it.

 

[Meep-Meep]

We had my pops 331 hemi on the dyno and with an orange box it would stumble in the higher revs. We added an MSD 6a box and it picked up power and the stumble was gone.

On my '68 Newport I slowly converted to a complete MSD system, I noticed a sizable seat of the pants gain with every install. (383 holly 650 DP, performer intake performer cam stock rebuild with new rings and barrings though out)
I started with a box and coil then a distributor and then finally wires. Huge difference over stock.

On my aspen (built 360) I bought all MSD right out of the box but haven't run the engine yet.

The Swinger (stockish 360) I just put an electronic dist in with MSD coil, and wires and an orange box, it does ok but I am getting curious what MSD box and dist will do for it.

There's no magic in an aftermarket distributor. All you need is something with good bushings and a proper advance curve. Setting the proper curve is the only "trick" you need to do. Oh, and run a quality cap with lots of insulating ribs and brass terminals and don't get it dirty during the install. No greasy finger prints!! When you are dealing with high voltage it's all about insulation and dirt is a leak path. The caps MoPar supplies with the electronic kits have no ribs at all - at least the ones I seen. Those are only good for pencil holders in my opinion.

 

[res1vw21]

There's no magic in an aftermarket distributor. All you need is something with good bushings and a proper advance curve. Setting the proper curve is the only "trick" you need to do. Oh, and run a quality cap with lots of insulating ribs and brass terminals and don't get it dirty during the install. No greasy finger prints!! When you are dealing with high voltage it's all about insulation and dirt is a leak path. The caps MoPar supplies with the electronic kits have no ribs at all - at least the ones I seen. Those are only good for pencil holders in my opinion.

interesting, I picked both of mine up for less then 100 each so I think I did ok.

 

[Rattler]

I have ran the Pertronix setup on my GTX for about 6 years now. I have had no problems at all. They do have a new version with over rev limit. Randy