Rog'. Any suggestions on a coil? Summit/MSD/Who?

 

I use the MSD blaster coil , works good ....

 

My suggestion would be to go with a stock Motorcraft coil.

Unless you are out actively drag racing your truck or spending a lot of time above 5,000 RPMs, a fancy aftermarket coil doesn't perform any better than the stock coil and ignition system.

 

The 6A box is universal. There is only one. It will work with your truck. There is a Ford TFI cable that MSD sells. With that, MSD is plug and play, without it you must splice four wires. The 6AL is the same thing but with a rev limiter. The standard truck CPU has a rev limiter built it, so you don't need the AL.

The benefits of the 6A include: a little more HP; one more MPG; and much cleaner tailpipe emissions. On the last two California smog tests, I have gone to ZERO in two of the categories (hydrocarbons and CO2). It is a much cleaner burn than without. That cleaner burn is from the extra sparks per fire phase burning more gasoline that would have passed through unused and more complete combustion. That extra burn from the extra sparks transfers more gasoline energy to providing a stronger combustion in the cylinder.

I would rethink the NGK iridium plugs. They can't transfer the extra heat generated by the new ignition fast enough. I know. I've been there. Use the cheaper copper plugs. They do better at removing the extra heat. In fact I needed to drop two heat ranges to remove the extra heat that caused pinging.

Sidetrack - I think the 6A requires the plugs to be gapped at .055.

The 6A is the second best thing I've done for the engine/performance/mpg after the MAF conversion

 

Good to hear you got some good improvement from the 6A , i use the 6AL ,i need the soft touch rev limiter , i allways got a good improvement with the coil and wires over the stock stuff when running the timing more advanced.....Lew

 

In my experience the MSD boxes are usually WELL worth the money, whether on a stock vehicle or a super modified one. I run one on my 66 Mustang with a turbocharged inline six and love it, but my buddy with a stock 300 inline 84 F100 loves his just as much if not more lol. His truck now passes emissions as well as other vehicles on the road when need LOL. I will prolly snag one for the 88 one day, every little bit helps in the MPG game.
Matt

 

So, you're saying, I don't need a ignition mod/upgrade just a good set of plugs and wires + a coil. But don't upgrade the coil because stock is as good as the after market products? That's basically saying that after market mods all together are worthless, and I completely disagree. Everything I've done to my truck up until this point has given me gains, why would upgrading plugs/wires/ and ignition not?

 

To see gains from ignition upgrades, the parts need to work together. On a stock motor, adding a "hotter" coil will not make a difference. To try and keep it simple here, the coil may be rated for 30,000 or 60,000 or 100,000 or whatever volts, but it is only going to put out the amount of voltage needed to jump the resistance in the cylinder across the spark plug gap. That is controlled by two things, 1) the compression ratio, and 2) the amount the plugs are gapped at. A stock motor running low compression and a stock gap at the plug will not need or see any advantage. Open the gap up and now it needs more voltage to cross the added difference, and the stock coil will not provide as good a spark. Bump up the CR and increase the gap, and the coil is now struggling to provide the needed voltage. Add in a set of long life plugs, and you are really working the coil to death. Add in the demand from a multi-strike ignition and, well you get the idea.

The key thing in looking at a coil to use with a multi-strike is rise time. The sooner it can get full charge, the more 'oomph' it has available to provide a fat spark kernel when it jumps the gap. That is why you see and feel a difference when adding a multi-strike and hotter coil. They work together to create a bigger gain than just either one by itself could do alone.


As for coils, wires and boxes, I like the Mallory box's and coil's and FoMoCo 9mm racing wires (altho as pointed out, they are cut LONG!)

 

YES, that's exactly what I am saying.

*Most* after-market "mods" are worthless on a stock or basically stock motor. The factory ignition system is already a high-energy ignition system that is more than enough for simple modifications and certainly a stock motor and is not what is holding these engines back. If you want to make a real upgrade, spend your hard-earned money on your heads, cam, or exhaust system.

What have you done to your truck so far that has given you "gains?"

Here is what typically happens:
Someone like yourself has a 1987-1996 model vehicle with mostly original components, which makes the parts over fifteen years old now with over a hundred thousand miles. Many of the stock components are now worn out. The owner gets taken in and is impressed with an aftermarket shiny billet distributor and a pretty red ignition module and cap that is made for racing applications. They replace their worn out stock plugs, plug wires, and coil with a brand new aftermarket unit, and swear they have gotten "gains," when what they really got is their stock performance back.

You do not need to "upgrade" your plugs, wires, and ignition components. You need to make sure they are functioning correctly. If they are not, stock Motorcraft replacement parts are hard to beat.

 

Why would he want to use hard to beat motorcraft parts , the coil and wires are going to cost alot more than the MSD coil and wires , and the MSD parts are better , then he will have a better system that will work good with future mods , like autolite plugs gapped at .055 , timing advance to about 14 , headers , cam , heads ,.....

 

Are Motorcraft parts more expensive than MSD components?

I guess you get what you pay for.

I personally have a warmed over 302 bored 0.060 over, 4V carburetor, port and polished E7 heads, 31-230-3 Comp Cams, Tri-Y headers, dual exhaust, re-curved Duraspark distributor with timing set at 14* BTDC and Motorcraft plugs gapped to .055. I am running a stock Motorcraft Duraspark ignition with Motorcraft plugs, wires, cap, rotor, distributor, coil, and ignition module without any ignition problems.

The only time MSD parts are "better" is if you are spending a lot of time above 5,000 RPMs or are actively drag racing your truck.

 

I have a built 302 to , the duraspark distributor is good , but i think you would do better with better wires , cap, rotor and coil , but thats just my opinion and alot of others to....and yeah a motorcraft coil from ford $75...MSD $45 , so i guess the money makes them better , thats what i wanted to know , thanks.....

 

Mods up to thus point: Superchip, K&N intake, Flowmaster true duals (dumped)...... NGX IX plugs are inbound, with some Ford racing wire. I'll definitely be getting some headers from Ford Raing as well, in a few months. The truck is realy just a toy being used for moving gun and ammo, and pulling a boat every now and then. It's a clean running truck, though.

 

A Ford motorcraft coil from RockAuto is $42.79 + shipping. Your local Ford dealer should charge you around $45 - $50 for it.

For the way you use your truck, an MSD ignition nor Ford Racing plug wires are going to net you any noticeable performance gains. The Ford Racing wires are made for racing, when an engine is spinning hard. When its not doing that, you may notice that the Ford Racing wires don't work as good as the stock wires did on your mostly stock engine.

I seriously doubt that a "Superchip" did much for your truck, except make you run higher octane fuel. I don't know much about chips, but the fact is you are still running the stock restrictive heads and cam, which are going to severely limit what you truck is capable of.

All of these little "mods" you are doing *may* net you a 10 hp gain at best.

The K&N intake and NGX IX plugs do nothing in the way of performance or economy.

The headers and exhaust are a step in the right direction.

 

....At this point it might be nice to know what motor and what year the truck is ?? and what you want from it performance wise....