Hi everyone,

I thought I read somewhere on a thread that the MSD box can be hard on the ignition system and burn itself out. Any truth to this? Anyone ever had this problem?

Thanks

 

Can you be more specific about what you mean by "burn itself out?" One of the main concerns with high performance ignition systems is that performance coils are capable of a higher secondary voltage. A larger plug gap is required to avoid burning the spark plugs prematurely. Because an MSD box's main function is to control spark timing, it has the capability to ground the primary winding of the coil longer, hence building up a larger magnetic field and a higher firing voltage when the primary winding is "released."

However, if the spark plugs are gapped properly, there are few risks. Unless you meant the actual wiring harness itself, but as long as everything is in good shape in the first place there isn't a problem.

Your plug wires need to be in good shape too. It takes a very large (thousands) of volts to jump across a gap of air. Air is about as high a resistance as you can get. The spark is going to look for any possible path to ground that it can find before it settles on jumping across air. That's why you hear stories of people running their engine at night with the hood up, and they see blue sparks dancing around the distributor cap. That's a sign of extremely large plug gap or faulty wires.

I don't know if that's what you were looking for, hopefully I answered your question.

 

I think you answered my question.

Thank You

 

i had MSD hooked up in my bronco from 2002-2005 and went through 4 ignition boxes. i never did find out the problem. i have had MSD hooked up in my F350 since 1998 and have never had a problem. there have been general electrical problems in both vehicles, so i'm not sure why one had problems and one didn't. both are/have been driven regularly.

 

were you burning up ford ign boxes or MSD boxes ? if it was ford boxes,why were you using them with an MSD controller
the MSD works better by itself

 

burned up the MSD box 4 times.