I haven't run Msd but have the crane cams box in the race car. Ford thunderbird with 351w. Also have the crane cams box in my 73 tbird with a 460 since 97. Never had a problem with it. I put the crane cams box in my 75 truck with a 429 too. I tried changing the timing curve with the stock dist. What a pain. Run it and then take it apart and try something else to see if its better, springs, bending stuff, etc. I bought the crane cams dist and all you have to do is change a setting on the outside with a little screw driver. Love that. It's a little on the pricey side. Just another idea.

 

I have a 75 SuperCab 460, factory Duraspark. I put on an MSD Blaster II coil and it really woke up. I'd recommend finding a Duraspark distributor and ignition box out of a 75 or later at a junk yard and putting a good coil on. Yeah maybe that's a "12 pack" install project, but a solid upgrade. A points dizzy is fine if working right, as long as you get a fat spark out of a good coil.

 

Aight well Im about to get the engine back togather, just waiting on an intake manifold to get hear on tuesday...
So I was looking through the instalation instructions for my MSD 8595 and it has 2 wiering diagrams.

One just the dizzy and the coil
and the other one has the dizzy hooked up to a MSD ignition box...

Is there any advantages of hooking up my ready to run dizzy to the ignition box???

I have a 6A laying around thats for my VW type one project, but if it will do some good on the truck Ill put it to use insted of it waiting for me to get around to finishing that VW build...

 

I run a msd distributor/mechanical and 6al box. Also I have the phaseable rotor. The rotor tuning is great. Not many distrib's do this. Its really more critical in the upper rpms. Been running mine for about 15 yrs in one truck. Also had other trucks with other systems. MSD has been good to me for years. another person spoke of having problems. Be sure to check your grounds. cab to engine and engine to frame. Once had a voltage regulator fail internal and caused some alternator problems and was seeking a ground anywhere it could find it. It found it through my MSD box, killed it. If you have anyquestions on phaseable rotors drop a PM and will help out. This is critical especially when running some aftermarket cams and things just don't line up correctly and a tunable rotor will allow you to fine tune rotor to rotor cap alignment.

 

I got a hold of an MSD Street Fire box for dirt cheap so I ordered it and put it on my truck. A friend gave me MSD wires but they were they had the wrong distributor ends on them. So I found a cap from an International that works and am now running Chevy MSD wires with an International Cap on my Ford Distributor with an MSD Box and factory points. Works like a charm! So far I am still using the stock coil but plan to upgrade the the MSD High Vibration Blaster II as soon as the budget allows. I am going with the high vibration coil because it is potted instead of oil filled so you can mount it in the stock location and it won't leak.

I have seen a lot of forum posts regarding MSD through the years and I find it's very much a love / hate relationship. People either have them and have absolutely no problems and absolutely love them, or they have nothing but problems and hate them. Personally I have used several MSD products over the years and haven't had the first problem. Likewise I have several friends with performance cars who also run MSD and love it. The only negative I hear about them is on the internet and it is usually from people who keep blowing up the exact same part over and over and over. In one particular case there is a person on Corvette Forum who has gone through about a dozen MSD digital 6 boxes. He has also gone through a large number of coils, ignition control modules, and every other electrical component on the car. Somehow it's MSD's fault though, not whatever gremlin is causing his whole electrical system to take a dump on itself. Meanwhile I have had the exact same digital 6 box on my car, installed in a location where it get drenched every time it rains. It has been and continues to work flawlessly after 10 years and 50,000 miles.

Therefore, my conclusion is this. Say MSD makes 1 million of a product, that is 1,000,000. Now say 100 of those products fail. Mathematically that is a 99.99% success rate with their products. Now consider that all 100 of those people who have a problem go on the internet and bitch about it. Meanwhile the other 999900 people simply forget that the product is even there because it works like it is supposed to and they never have to think about it. The net result to a person looking on the internet is 100 people who say something bad and nobody who says anything good. The old saying is that it takes 10 good reviews to make up for 1 negative and I believe it wholeheartedly. I swear by MSD and would not consider anything else. I will continue to swear by MSD until I have a product of theirs fail, and even then I will give them the chance to make it right before I complain.

I'm not trying to say that the people who have had problems don't have a legitimate gripe. No company makes a 100% foolproof product 100% of the time. I'm just saying that you are much more likely to hear about the negative than the positive.

 

Same here, except I have a Mallory HyFire 6AL. And the Duraspark distributor is actually a pretty solid piece. I was looking at the fancy MSD and Mallory units for my Mustang, but some friends who road race Mustangs told me to leave the Duraspark distributor in. I eventually learned that it's one of the best ones out there.

 

right right, but are there any advantages to hooking up a MSD ignition box to my ready to run MSD dizzy???
my 8595 MSD dosent require an igniton box to function, but there is a diagram in the installation instructions that shows how to hook one up to the dizzy if I chose to run one...

Is there any advantages tot his or should I just run the dizzy straight up???

 

Without a box it should function quite well as a factory replacement distributor. It will, however, be a single spark inductive discharge ignition. Installing an MSD box in addition to the distributor will allow you the benefits of a capacitive discharge multi-spark setup.

Do you NEED the box? Probably not. Do you WANT one? Dunno, in addition to multi-spark capacitive discharge, many MSD boxes allow rev limiters and different timing controls, etc.

Do these features sound like something you are willing to spend the money for? The value of an MSD box is entirely up to you. What has value to me, you may consider useless.

You may want to read about capacitive discharge ignitions and see if it is something you think you would benefit from. Wikipedia actually has a pretty decent writeup on them. Capacitor discharge ignition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Ok well I have a 6A layin around that is for my VW aircooled build but thats unimportant right now.
the last time I did a bunch of reading I rember that it said I couldent use a solid core spark plug wire with the 6A.
the spark plug wires I have are
MSD Ignition 31389 - MSD 8.5mm Super Conductor Spark Plug Wire Sets - Suggested Parts - SummitRacing.com

Are they not going to work with the 6A???

 

MSD Super Conductor wires are not solid core, they will work very well with your MSD box and distributor. As far as I am concerned they are some of the best wires you can buy and what I run on my truck.

A friend gave me a set off of a SBC. They are about 2x as long as they need to be and had the wrong ends on them but I found a way to make them work anyway! I run the same wires on my Corvette as well and love them.

 

Aight thanks mann... Now I just cant wait till my new intake manifold gets hear tommrow so I can assemble everything and listen to the truck fire up again!!!