Hi all,
I was just wondering if anyone out there has tried the Jacobs Off-Road Energy Pak? I have a 96 F-150 with a 302, 3.55 gears and am looking into ways to increase my mpg (currently around 13mpg) & hp. I plan on doing a dual exhaust but only after I have it lifted.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. Thanks in advance.

Steve T

 

Hi, I saw on here somewhere a warning to steer clear of the Jacob's stuff. There is better out there.

 

My dad bought a jacobs ignition system (omni pack nd wires and all that stuff) It has done absolutely nothing noticable. Are you driving in the city or long drives. He got about 300km on two tanks in the city and 600km on long drives so it may have helped on the log drives but who knows. I just got a set of MSD wires and I am thinking about an ignition system for my truck and I would probably go MSD.

Any other questions feel free to ask
Canadian Ford Man

 

Holy man thats bad. What engine does he have. I have a 302 EFI, 5 speed, K&N air cone, and true duel exhaust, and i can go just about 1000km on a 2 tanks. I must be doing pretty good for MPG then?

 

We installed the Jacobs Omni Pack system on a friends Jeep and I feel it was a waste of money. We didn't see any noticeable improvement in performance.

I have MSD on my car and truck and I'm very satisfied with the system. The Crane Hi 6 or Hi 2000 are other systems but haven't heard of any feed back on them?

Xaviar
96 F-250HD 4x4 460/E4OD 4.10
Banks Power Pack, Banks Trans Command
MSD 8227 Coil, MSD 32199 8.5 Wires, MSD 6A

 

Yeah it is pretty bad. The engine is a 351W that is a factory engine with only 60,000km on it. I will say it starts better but thats about it. I have a 351W in a half ton and I was thinkin about an ignition, I got MSD wires for it and the difference is not huge but noticable. Personally I would go with MSD from what I have heard.

Good Luck
C'Fordman

 

Thanks for all the feedback. It definately sounds like Jacobs is not worth the money. Like I said in my orginal post, I'm looking for better gas mileage and more hp would be a plus, so any suggestions? I know dual exhaust will help but I have to do that after I lift my truck and that wont be for another year. Any suggestions for the engine compartment (reason I was looking at Jacobs)?

Thanks again for everyones advice.
Steve

 

Be CAREFUL!! your 96 has the OBD-II diagnostics which means, among other things, it'll throw error codes if you try most ignition upgrades. I talked with the techs at Crane about this issue. They said I could not use the Hi-6 CD ignition on my 96 300, the processor would not recognize the new ingition curves as acceptable and would code. They said the Hi-6S inductive ignition would work, but that I might need an adaptor they make which hooks the stock coil back into the processor input while letting their coil and ignition box run the output. the adaptor is something like $85 additional. I've not yet decided if this is what I'm going to do or not. Contact the manufacturer directly and make very sure whatever system you buy is listed as OBD-II compatible or you'll be generating a lot of headaches for yourself.

Back to the original question. MSD and Crane are both very good and very proven systems. Either one costs less than half of the Jacobs, about which I've heard very little that was positive. Save your money, stick with what works not what's got the best ads.

 

Hey Xavier,

How's it going. I've got a question for you. I asked it in another thread, but, haven't been able to find it since, so, I don't know if I got an answer or not... LOL!

Here goes: I was wondering about your ignition system. A friend of mine has a MSD-6A which he took out of his old truck (85 F150 302) before selling it. Now he has a powerstroke and has offered to sell the unit to me. Initially, I declined, because I thought the newer stock ignitions were pretty good. All of this talk about MSD now has me rethinking the idea. How do you like you MSD-6A? I am not too sure what is all up with these, other than a stronger spark. How does the system recurve the spark, does it advance it much... if so, it may give me problems (too much advance) with the Autotronic OBD-II which is there for the propane system. The Autotronic OBD-II already advances the timing for when I'm running on propane, and returns it to normal for gasoline.

I think I could get the MSD-6A for a pretty good price, since it is just collecting dust in his garage, but, I wanted to hear from others with the system, before I get myself excited. I also note that you've got a MSD coil as well. Is the coil not included with MSD-6A? I'm really not familiar with the system, so any info would be great...

Thanks,


Perry

 

My post is probably the negative one you are referring to. I was not impressed with the Jacobs system at all. It was expensive at over $400. It also caused a misfire under load due to the spiral core wires. I presently use a MSD 6A with an adjustable timing control, not alot of performance gain but I can adjust the timing from inside the vehicle. I think my around town mpg increased by about 1 mpg which is about 10%.
Mark

 

Hey Perry,

Long time no hear? Sent you a couple E mails. Did you change your address?

Everything is going fine. Been trying to get this MAF conversion worked out. Dustin has ordered the complete unit from Interactive. Tried with the ford stuff but too confusing with the 4 O2 sensors. I think the Interactive unit will work better. We'll see. He's going to post the results here after he installs the unit.

>Here goes: I was wondering about your ignition system.
>How do you like you MSD-6A?

I've been very satisfied with MSD and think it has been a good improvement over the stock unit. Especially over the early Dura Spark II and III electronics. I do believe the stock units are pretty good, but you know, we all are looking for that performance edge and sometimes go out on a limb to get it.....lol

The MSD unit does provide additional spark of 20 degrees of crank rotation which has to only be a plus in burning any left over fuel in the cylinders. It has smooth my idle dramaticly and throttle response is fantastic. It has provided about 1 to 2 MPG improvement. If I keep my foot out of it. :-) I'm playing with spark plug gap to find the most optimum setting.

The coil was not included with the 6A box and was $46 bucks from Summit. I also needed a pigtail, $15 bucks to hook it to the factory coil wiring. A snap.

>It may give me problems (too much advance) with the Autotronic >OBDII which is there for the propane system. The Autotronic >OBDII already advances the timing for when running propane, and >returns it to normal for gasoline?

With your truck having the OBDII system I'm not too familar on how it would effect you. I would call MSD and see how their system effects the OBDII computers. You're right in that it might be (tooooo much advance for the OBDII Autotronic system?) I haven't come across anyone who has installed it on a OBDII equipped vehicle. I'm sure someone here has tried it? Sorry.:-(

>I think I could get the MSD-6A for a pretty good price, since it >is just collecting dust in his garage.

If you can buy your friends box for a good price, I'd probably buy it. If you later find out you can use it you'd have it. If not I don't think you will have a problem selling it, or even installing it on another vehicle you own?

All in all, the MSD has been a good product for me and it seems others here also. No complaints from me.

I hope this info has help you?

Xaviar
96 F-250HD 4x4 460/E4OD 4.10
Banks Power Pack, Banks Trans Command
MSD 8227 Coil, MSD 32199 8.5 Wires, MSD 6A

 

Thanks Xavier,

That info is quite helpful. I'm understanding that the MSD-6A increases spark duration. That has got to be a better thing especially for propane which has a much higher ignition point than gasoline. So a longer, hotter spark would, theoretically improve the in-cylinder burn.

I only worry about giving it too much advance, which is something I will check with MSD, when running propane my entire intake from just upstream of the "H" fitting in the rubber tubes between throttle body and air cleaner box is full of combustible mixture. Should I get a spark on an open intake valve... well, you can imagine the power of the backfire. The last time it happened was my fault (not supposed to apply throttle while starting), I blew the "H" fitting into several pieces, and took the end out of the bottom half of my air cleaner box. The wreckers want a fortune for those stupid boxes... I chose to fabricate from aluminum. Live and learn!!

Anyway, thanks for the info.


Perry

 

MJB one day my dad was driving his truck with the Jacobs ignition and his truck backfired, and quit, he pulled over and took a look and eerything was fine, so he went to start it up and it ran fine, He hasn't had a problem since, could this be because of the Jacobs Ignition?

Thanks
C'Fordman