Ignition Box Issues and ?????s
 

To all the OSO experts. I have been running the Crane HI6-m Marine ignition boxes with my 502 Blower motors. I had a box fail and realioze that these boxes have been dicontinued with none or very few around the country.

I spoke to the guys at Daytona Sensors. They are ex Crane guys and seem very knowledgeable one being the Head design engineer from crane that desined the Hi-6M. i believe that is correct. They offer a new and improved ignition box similar to the Hi-6M .

Has anyone used their products.?? Any questions or comments.
They seem like they are a good option. Not cheap though.

thanks for all comments and info.

I used to use the crane as well and loved the features. Sadly it didn't last very long. These units look like the same thing an the pc interconnect is really neat. The price is a coulple hundred more than msd. If you need the functions should work well. If not get msd as the are easy to set up and support is good.

I have not looked at the MSD I was using one of the preset curves in the Hi-6 Box for a 600SC, Does MSD do something similar, I'm sure I would have to pull out my Rotor because of the offset, do I need to change coils as well. ???

I can't in good concience recommend the MSD. I've been thru a number of boxes over the years and a lot of people I know have the same issues. I even had a brand new one go bad on me this past season and from day-one it had some kind of spark delay.

I usually get them replaced under warranty but last year it took them about 4 months to send me a replacement box and I wound up buying one from Jegs to get me running again. :whistle:

msd
 

The spark delay you talk of is, MSD started to having the 6 boxes made in China. Some one put the wrong parts in it so, it will only send spark above 150 rpm instead of 25 rpm. They are correcting this now. I pulled my hair out . They wil not recall,but will replace if you send in. David

Any Opinions on the Daytona Sensors Boxes anyone out there using them or could I be the first.

The new one with the delay already chit the bed so I guess they'll have to replace it anyway! :whistle:

I've gone thru 4 boxes in 7 yrs.

I have the daytona sensors box and love it. A good friend of mine Art Lilly put me on with them. He hasn't had a problem with the box in three years.

why do you keep buying them ? why would you use ANY component that you have to carry a spare on your keychain just to make sure you can get home ?

100% USA made. They have improved the box over the old design. We thrashed one box as a dyno unit for and had over 30 engines on it, then put it in a drag car, then put it in a late model. No hiccups.

The boys at Daytona got their act together. Nitrous Controller is also a very nice unit. The other thing the box has 16MB chip which allows for up to 45 minutes of data logging. So you are getting box, coil, and data logging for under $600.

The Daytona Sensor Box is excellent! You can Map your own Curve, set rev limiter, also dial in advance curves that are preset, they will work with a mag trigger or Merc Hall effect type. You can purchase a interface cable and also log data. Have been set up with them since they came on market again. They have made improvements on the electronics that Crane wasn't willing to do.

Who's 'we' ? You now have a dyno and build engines with other people or are you talking about another business that uses one you sold them on their dyno + car(s)?

I bought one as a spare and to go to the dyno with. Worked fine. Use the coil supplied. Other coils like the MSD blaster did not work which we found out after 1/2 day troubleshooting.

Does anyone know how the customer support is at Daytona Sensor?----or are they too young/new of a company to know yet?

Hector and Allen are both very good to deal with and will get back to you. They also have a pretty comprehensive listing/down load for there products online.

Because switching over to a new system with box and distributor for 2 engines would cost 4-5 times as much as replacing a box every year or three. If I was starting over fresh I would use something different. It's always easier to spend other peoples money than your own.

You seem like a knowledgeable man, what do you use?

I have 2 good low hour crane boxes if someone is looking for spares

I have always used some kind of ign box, first MSD then after my old box got physically damaged I bought a MSD marine boxe. The marine boxes were such JUNK that I will NEVER buy a msd product again, 3 boxes, all had different problems, one of them was completely doa, ended up buying a ignition tester, saved alot of time trouble shooting there junk. I am currently running a crane box, it has been trouble free. I am lucky too, if box does start to act up on a mefi system you can simply bypass it, Smitty

Also running HI6-M
 

Just curious, how long have you had the Fireball boxes. I have had mine since 05 with no problems.
THX

I've been running the MSD 7000 series marine boxes for 4 seasons now with no issues, knock on wood. I think alot of it has to do with how and where you mount them. Any of them.

on the boat i used the factory gm stuff. it was well thought out. i never had a failure and it is more than adequate. on the cars it depended on the application. invariably it was generally a crank trigger system driving an ECU and a amplifier from any one of a dozen companies building engine management systems. some were better than others. the ones that used anything made by MSD were the least reliable and least effective and after recognizing that, simply stopped using any system that did. in my experience the stuff is scrap right out of the box.

as for the money aspect, i would suggest that i make an effort NOT to spend my own money buying the same bad parts over and over again just because it's convenient. what is that saying ? the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing wrong over and over but expecting a different result each time ...

Some assumptions on your part and I'm glad you think I'm stupid. The topic of the thread was ignition box issues and questions. I don't recommend MSD and have stated why. I've also helped other members on this site for the past 10 years with technical information being a boat mechanic once before.

What makes sense for one person doesn't always make sense for others. I have what I have and in the scope of things it was not cost effective to replace the complete ignition system vs. keeping a spare onboard.

As time goes on and if boxes continue to fail, that will change. However, for now it is what it is.

I inherited the system when I bought the boat and if I was starting from scratch I would have used a TB IV or Crane HI-6.



Next,

I inherited the system when I bought the boat and if I was starting from scratch I would have used a TB IV or Crane HI-6.

Panther,
We have also had excellent success with the Mercury TB IV and the Crane Hi-6. I do think it likely helps if rubber isolation mounts are used with all the marine ignitions.

Man, I wished it was a perfect world. I guess some of us were born with perfect insight.....and some of us are still learning thru trial & error-----we may have to go around the mountian a few times before we "get it right". I suppose I fall in the later crowd and have been known to have to do that a time or two myself. :o

I was running my boxes for 8-9 yrs. I was told the life of these boxes is around 10 yrs. . So I got close. The problem is when they go they go, no fixing them on the water. Good luck

Thanks for all the replies and help. Always appreciated:thankyouthankyou:

:point:

Mark, so then---will the Daytona Sensor Marine ignition system work with the MSD magnetic crank trigger system? Thanx