Hello everyone, this is my first post and I am new to the performance boat world. I just purchased a 95 AO 2600 with a 555 bbc. It has all the msd ignition-dist., box, soft touch rev. limiter, and blaster coil. Several people has advised me to remove the msd and go with thunderbolt or ?? They said msd has had alot of problems. I did notice that the engine wanted to load up when idleing through the no wake zone, and once we shut the engine off, it wanting to drag when we went to restart it a few minutes later, popping and had some black smoke out of the exhaust. It is a 555 merlin block, aluminum canfield heads, dart intake, holley carb and headers. Any helpful information would be appreciated, this is a great site with a lot of valubale information

when their good they run but when they brake you wish you had that spare box on board,,all and all you have it so you may as well use it,just make sure you keep the inside of the distributor clean and it shouls last..

as for engine hard to start after its warm, you need to retard the timing a bit then check the total advance make sure the distributor is not locked out,but before you do anything check and make sure the timing retadr wire is hooked up..

loading up @ idle may just be a simple air screw adjustment..try turming them in 1.4 turn each and see if it does it..

If it loading up with an MSD, then it will be a lot worse with a TB ignition.
MSD's do have issues, but I feel an MSD is the best ignition for your application. It does sound like it may not be set quite right.

Sounds like you have tuning issues.