i used msd on my racecar and it crapped out in the middle of a race... i threw it away and never touched it since..

Matt

 

Many of the racers I see use two MSD boxes with a switch to select them because they are failure prone. Unless you need some special feature to run the bottle, rev limiters, or other rpm dependent functions it seems silly to use a $$$$ unreliable box.

The main problem with most engine bay electronics is heat or corrosion (in long term applications). For heat, get the unit as far away from heat sources as possible and get good airflow around it or a big heatsink. For corrosion or connection problems a good dielectric and good connectors are a must.

 

got my box mounted beside the radiator with half the base exposed to the fresh in coming air.... had no probs with it, and i've done a couple hard n fast drives across country - usually 1400 miles a run. like it so far.

 

I have had good luck with the CraneCams HI-6 unit. I've got about 65,000 miles on one. Note: I installed it in the passenger compartment away from engine heat! Also, I agree that for mild to moderate engines, a Duraspark II is simple and has plety of spark. The only reason I went aftermarket was for the rev limiter. I had the gas pedal get caught under my floormat once between shifts. Buried the 7000RPM tach. It actually sounded awsome but it scared the crap out of me too!

 

That is the only reason I considered an aftermarket unit. With me a motor mount broke and I went for a wild ride. Any shifting "problems" like yours were solved when my left knee went out and I converted to a C6 automatic.

 

Ok I want to add my .02 cents worth. Most people understand I am usually making suggestions that deal with the high hp end of things, I leave the stock ignition stuff upto Eric. I know the stuff very well but he is better at explaining it, and knows it better than I do even at that.
Now with that said I am going to defend the MSD stuff I have read on here. I run MSD on a lot of my stuff mostly the performance stuff, had a 6a box in a 73 F150 that I used for my daily driver and mud drags back in the 80s had the same box on it for 5 yrs and approx 60,000 miles and sold the truck still running. Had a 6al on a GMC 1 ton I used for towing my stock trailer with a 454 ran that truck for 4 yrs 210,000 miles when I blew the clutch out, and parked it took that box out put it in my race truck ran it for 3 yrs in mud drags (one year that truck also was a daily driver), took it out of my current race truck this year to switch to a 7al-2, but that box is now in someone elses truck and running just fine. so it has atleast 250,000 miles and running strong. I have had a couple of others but those were the ones I used the longest. I will add my dad has one in his 76 chev, been running it for 15yrs and used it to pull a travel trailer cross country 4 times, and from WA to AZ 6 times still going strong. My point is if your burning them out you have something messed up, and you need to look at what your doing wrong. they are good and well built pieces of equipment.

 

Someone with too much time on his hands reverse-engineered an MSD-6A and wrote a excellent article about it: http://www.dainst.com/info/circuits/msd6a_02.pdf
If you've any blowed-up MSD's around, the schematic in this article would help in fixing it.

 

That is QUITE cool - thanks!

 

I bought an MSD 6A and Accel Supercoil after some engine mods (see signature). Was **** in exactly following the directions, etc. Noticed absolutely no difference in start-ups, fuel efficiency, take-off, etc. Kept it 'cause it looks so pretty in the engine compartment...
Munrow