Wally

iTrader: (1)

Just like anything else out there you will always find people that have had problems with a product and are the first to chime in on why its bad. My first experience with MSD was on my 1979 K5 Blazer w/a 383 stroker. That system never failed me once! i had that truck for almost 10 years and after i set up the springs and installed a capacitor on the box it was bullet proof. Then i went and bought the full marine system for my scarab. Mild motors, nothing fancy and the first box died at the begining of the 2nd season....the second box died midway through the 3rd season. Both were mounted on rubber isolators on the transom right above the transom plates. Would i say they are junk? NOPE cause when they ran, they ran good! The ONLY issue i can complain about with MSD is the distributors always seem to rust on me on the inside. I would usually take the cap off 2-3 times a season and sray it down with WD40 or somthing to keep the rust at bay....and MSD knew all about it in the marine eviornment...just had no solution at that time. I havent used them since cause havent had a chance to but would if the price is right and i needed an ign sytem

cabin fever

What was the turnaround time on that? I think I have to do the same thing. Pretty sure my magnet pick up went out on my Dist, and when I looked at the Dist itt was full of rust. for $100 I'd rather just send it back, and have it rebuilt.

My timing is locked out (was that way, when I bought the boat) wonder if it will come back that way?

ezstriper

well here's what I have experianced, ran a top sportsman race car for a few years, ran all their latest stuff...digtal/programable box($800+) for box alone( worked fine, pro billet dist, was trash...went thru 5 pick ups in one season...worked with their techs..extra grounds, no alt, carefull on charging, etc...finally one owned up and said...the $25 pickup( made in china are junk) put a crank trigger on..which I did, cured the issues there..talked to many guys at the track that had old dist that worked for years, me included, than had them rebuilt..only to have the pickups start failing left and right...so what I see is the older units were better, and the new pieces are trash....and by the way mallory unalite uses the same pick ups !! and the other thing in most cases on boats, won't see a bit of performance gain from the small boxes VS a good HEI....

antknee

I have ran a 6al back in the day on my mustang and actually is was a hand me down off a buddies truck so I do have faith in them. Apparently from all the post I have to go with marine ignition which is no problem,but I have read several post of people dogging the marine version of the 6al so I was hesitant. I agree this is one of those subject where some have had no issues and some have, just a gamble I guess.

Rookie17

Just personal opinion and past experience.

Having worked in NASCAR in the Cup series, thats exactly why there are two systems in the race cars. The damned things aren't reliable enough to just have one. Vibration is no doubt a factor in that application.

I'm sure many boat guys never have issues. I've had enough MSD issues in race cars, race motorcycles, and my boat to never buy another one. But thats just me.

They're very affordable, no doubt. If thats what you can afford, I totally understand, I don't mean to slam anyone for running them.

Nowadays my race team (not NASCAR thankfully) runs MoTeC. Damned expensive, but I've found no equal. The boat will be on it too soon enough, they've just released an 'economy' ECU.

My personal opinion is nothing beats a hall effect crank trigger and hall effect cam sensor with a good ECU and eight individual (LS style) coils - especially at higher rpm. The individual coils only firing one cylinder have a better recovery time between collapsing to create a fat spark. This should also be a good thing in blower motors with the higher combustion pressures.

Different strokes for different folks. Most times it comes down to money spent vs. your threshold for drama, like most things in life. Now that I'm finally an old fart past 40, my drama threshold is quite thin