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Duraspark vs MSD?

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Old Mar 21, 2014 | 07:04 AM
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Duraspark vs MSD?

A friend of mine upgraded his MSD 6A to the 6AL and has no use for the old 6a. Works fine, and is free! Is it worth putting the MSD on to the existing duraspark ignition? Any pros/cons of doing this? Truck has a 351w in it and is just a daily driver.
 
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Old Mar 21, 2014 | 02:57 PM
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Yes it would be worth it. The Duraspark is a conventional electronic ignition, using the battery supply as the supply for the primary of the coil. The MSD6 is a capacitive discharge system, they run about 30v on the primary, and also have multiple sparks at lower rpms giving more complete combustion.
 
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Old Mar 22, 2014 | 07:37 PM
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I lot of the guys in the 460 forum like running the MSD box with the Duraspark distributor. I have done it on a few vehicles and always seemed to work great.
 
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Old Mar 22, 2014 | 08:23 PM
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Originally Posted by cparks
I lot of the guys in the 460 forum like running the MSD box with the Duraspark distributor. I have done it on a few vehicles and always seemed to work great.
Thanks! How hard is it to set up? From what I understand pretty easy. Would this eleminate the duraspark silver box on my fenderwell?
 
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Old Mar 22, 2014 | 08:45 PM
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The wiring instructions are usually on the bottom of the MSD unit.

Yes this will eliminate the duraspark box .
 
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Old Mar 22, 2014 | 10:32 PM
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Originally Posted by ashleyroachclip
The wiring instructions are usually on the bottom of the MSD unit.

Yes this will eliminate the duraspark box .
Thanks! Seems like from all the research Ive done that its not super hard. Would you recommend using the white wire or the magnetic pickup? Not much of a mechanic, more of a weekend warrior lol
 
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Old Mar 23, 2014 | 11:08 AM
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The Mag pickup, if you use the points wire (white) you would need to retain the Duraspark module, install a points type distributor, or something to convert the output of the pickup to a acceptable input for the white wire.
 
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Old Mar 23, 2014 | 01:41 PM
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All you have to do is go to MSD's site, they have very good instructions you can download. You can run the MSD box 2 different ways; Either use the dist to drive the box directly(requires a harness you can buy from them if I remember correctly) or you can run your ignition completely stock like it is now, but instead of triggering the coil, the system would trigger the MSD box. The 2nd option requires the ignition system to be all there, silver box included.
 
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Old Mar 23, 2014 | 09:01 PM
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Thanks for the input guys! I think im going to keep it stock, and have the MSD trigger the coil.
 
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Old Mar 24, 2014 | 05:57 AM
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As I recall it was just two wires from the Duraspark distributor to the MSD box and did not use the factory box is how I wired them up. But yes the MSD website or the instructions that come with the box can tell you how to do it.
 
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