Wow I heard of msd issues. But dam.
 

Changed plugs hunting down a slight intermittent miss at idle. Well I think this might have some input in the issue. Lmao. All I can say is holy crap. 40 hrs. 3 summers. No salt. Heated storage when not boating. Blown away when took the cap off !!![ATTACH=CONFIG]559302[/ATTACH]
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thanks honey but wrong picture here oh well looks pretty under that valve cover lol

I've had it in my MSD boats that I owned in the past just like that. I only boat freshwater, and used dielectric grease and it still looked like hell

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It's like they try to harden the metal in a salt bath and never clean it.

Even with all the yearly threads on same thing, people still think it won't happen to them.

There are some things you can spray on them to keep this from happening, but unfortunately I'm old and I keep forgetting what it is.

Mild Thunder is younger and will remember...as he uses it on his MSD stuff.

Egads!!! Looks like heavy humidity and condensation. Honestly I've never seen anything like it even on vehicles that have sat in bone yards for eons. Looks like the alloy is acting as a rust magnet. Who's to say where it comes from. Damm.

Found it:

You'll see threads about this everywhere:

Here's 1 recently: http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...ml#post4448483

And another:
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/d...ml#post4316198

And another:
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...ml#post4094888

There tons more. Atleast 3.4.5 or more per year.

Same thing happened to me.
Distributor less than 2 years old and boat stored inside. Freshwater use only.
Looked just like yours.

I'm done with anything that says "MSD"

If that's the case I'd think they'd package the crc-sp400 right with the distributors. Otherwise MSD needs to do a little more R&D on materials used for their products. Do cranes and others do the same?

I recall their boxes being junk too. Idk why anyone buys them anymore. Definitely cashing out on the brand name.

i have 3 year old engines also and had one not fire last weekend over the same issues . i read on a car forum that it happens on cars also. something about the high energy created and no vent. they said to drill holes in cap and it fixed problem but that won't work in a bilge.

Yes. So if you don't run your boat, they won't rust out. Great fix MSD ! LOL.

BTW: I've done the vent thing in cars.even multiple vents. Doesn't help.

It's all Bullchit ! For some reason, people keep buying them. MSD is a very lucky company !

It's been this way for years. They don't care.

I hate to say it, but I'm in the biz, and there are many parts companies that don't care either.....and I'm including replacement parts in this too.

This is 98% of the reason for forums...so people can see stuff like this and avoid it.

Two I use are Merc Tbolt IV's and GM's EST (Merc's Voyager) distributor's. Box of choice, if needed, was Crane HI-6M. It is now replaced by Daytona Sensor's marine box.

going to thuderbolts , mark from mer flying in to do new daytonas , and now new distributers ect .. I'm done with msd . suppose to fly in Tuesday . now we got to get some more parts . I'm glad I pulled them caps before he got here ..

Make sure to get the Tbolt rotors from Daytona as they index them for you.

Actually, Mark (MER) knows this as he sells them.

that sucks! i gave my thunderbolt dist away. I have read about daytona sensors. you live and learn

been waiting all summer , now we were good to go . n chit another short delay .. were a long way apart , so have to make sure we got all our apples in order for him to do his magic and send him back to sc ..

Could the distributors be stripped down and anodized or powdercoated? I'm using the t-bolt IV but I hear all the replacement parts for those are Chinese junk now.

Rob,
Yours look just like the 1 I had to replace in the Talon earlier this year, (MSD "Ready to Run" dist P/N: 83606). On the new dist. I took the cap off and coated the whole thing in Boeing T9...... We'll see how long it lasts...

Glad i sold mine and went w merc hall effect distributors and Daytona boxes! That is a shame !!!

Thunderbolts are the way to go, I had them on my Chief Blower Motors, made 700HP and never had an issue with them. I have seen them look terrible on some neglected boats, they looked like they came up from the bottom of the swamp and they still fired and did the job. MSD, you look at it funny, and POOF. Dead in the water...lol

I agree msd blows.

As SB stated, i used the crc coating on mine. Just had the cap off last week in loto, as i had a slight miss i was chasing. Distributor still looks brand new inside.

Sucks that you have to do it, but its 5 bucks for a can of the chit and takes 30 seconds to do, and it works.

Mine looked the same too....crapped out over Labor Day weekend.... Ordered new cap/rotor/ign pick-up/plugs....hopefully will fix the issue...
I want to take the boat to Key West again this year!

If you google msd distributors it doesn't take long to find numerous auto forums to see the issues they've run across also and are questioning where they are manufactured. Very quickly within a few post on the few forums I looked up there is a member on each representing msd and quickly goes through the whole spiel of this that and the other thing. Personally I wouldn't use them if you gave them to me. All I seem to hear is problems with them. Well where are they at on this forum? I'd like to hear what they have to say.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]559324[/ATTACH] o[ATTACH=CONFIG]559324[/ATTACH]h boy mail man brought me some tool and these today. Now some new distributers. And a little help from mark Mer . And hopefully the motors will roar again. :-)

Oops I guess double posted the pic. I'm such a rookie at this.

I'd say it sucks is right. Top of the line chit shouldn't be bottom of the line with top of the line pricing. Those slip collar msd cost me 800 bucks or something close. Glad I got 40 hrs out of them. ����

I replaced some MSD's last season for a buddy, with mallory units (basically same as MSD pro billet). You can see why they needed to be replaced. I coated them with the CRC SP-400 before installing them. Mine still look like the day they were coated after 6 years. I have not had any trouble with the MSD pro billets, besides the corrosion issues, which is easily remedied. Not going to help if they are already rusted out obviously. You can take them apart, and replace the magnetic pickup, sandblast the trigger wheel or replace that as well to clean them up, new bearing, and get them working again. They are pretty easy to rebuild.

First pic is the new mallory coated and ready for install. Second was old msd that got chitcanned, third is a comparion of the two

Have to admit that billet stuff sure is pretty :-)

Totally agree. Question is, if you need a slip collar distributor for a tall deck, who do you call if it isn't MSD? I think petronix makes one, but looks exactly like the MSD unit, same billet housing, prob using same pickup and reluctor.

You call mark from Mer. He's tooling down the t bolts so I can run them. I'm running tall decks. Had to send him the old stuff. So he can measure the shaft length to cut them down to make them work ?? I'm glad I met mark few years ago. I bought my Konrad 540s from him. Great guy so far.

Let's get someone to make a "CRC 400 spray the MSD Distributor" sticky thread."

Get adapter run a ford style cap will help with carbon tracks.

Have welded distributors up and turned them in lath for a collar before works well.

Mark's a great guy. He'll get you straight!

What's the scoop with the t-bolt internal electronics only available in the form of Chinese junk that doesn't last now?

looks normal to me from what most MSD's look like after a few seasons, seen them before looked the the nut under the rotor almost gone, and have seen advance springs rust in 1/2 ! hate anything MSD anymore, the cheap HEI's I've been running for years still look great season after season, so makes NO sense why they cannot fix this **** ! even if the rust issue does not get you the cheap chinese pickups will now days, old ones used to last forever, then they outsourced and went to crap...