MSD Ignition box?

[dfordski]

I was talking to a Ford mechanic (that's all he works on) about haveing problems locating items required to modify my truck (87'/5L) from EFI/MAP to SFI/MAF. He said "Be careful what I wish for!" Mentioning "Pandoras Box" & "Worms in large containers". He said he's done 2. His own vehicle, and a customers, but never again. He said the best bang for my buck (based on my existing minor mods) would be an MSD ignition box, which would extend to spark duration of each firing (more like a double tap) & leave me with the free time I've come to know and love. Anybody familiar w/these?

[RahX]

With a complete MSD system ( distributor and control module ) the install is fairly easy and quick. Whether or not your computer will like it is a different matter. I haven't dealt with them on an EFI vehicle but I do know they work very well on carb'd engines. As far as power and performance of the ignition, I'd rather get my finger smashed by a hammer than get shocked by one ever again!

[dfordski]

I'm wondering if it could make to much more of a difference. My stock gap is .044, and I'm running Sidegapped (not to be confused w/ Spark plug Indexing. I fear I lack the patience for that) stock Motorcrafts at .056. A 60k volt coil, brass cap/ rotor & 8.5 low resistance/high suppression wires gives off a much larger kernel than normal. Timing set at 16 BTDC. w/ K&N air filter. Using 89 octane (I'm never going to hear the end of this but 3 oz. pure Acetone / 19 gal.tank of gas). If I drive specifically for mpg I get 17/23. But on a 1700 mi.round trip to Bend Oregon, 85 mph, A/C blasting, luggage, tools & a Harley strapped to the bed, I averaged 19 mpg. Maybe if it's workin this well I should quit trying to fix it. Haveing only 72k & 178 psi +-2 compression helps. Your right about getting zapped. Before the replacing the coil, I found it kind of invigorating. The 1 time I grounded w/ the new coil left me w/ a case of full blown Teret's Syndrome for the rest of the day. Now I wear a latex glove inside a dedicated clean, dry leather one to adjust the distributor when timing.

[wafrederick]

With the MSD set up,you use a cheap timing light with no fancy features hooked up to a seperate battery not hooked up to the vehicle's battery to check the timing.I know a couple people that know this.

[RahX]

Cheap timing lights aren't really that reliable. You get a good one every once in awhile. Comparing a few sun lights to a good snapon light with adjustable timing dial, the sun was off by 4' as compared to the snapon.