I am looking at building up my carb 500 HPs over the winter with heads and cam. With higher max operating rpm projected I will need new ignition with higher rev limiter. On paper the Crane HI-6M looks like a good product b/c of rev limit built in, several advance curves and I can use the stock merc hall effect distributor. Anyone have experience in the real world with this product???

I run them but on custom engines, Trouble free for several years

Thanks. I am putting good heads and a better cam that will need higher rev limit. Hotter spark should help idle, etc. Good to hear someone has good luck with the Crane product.

I used them on my boat for 3 season's now and have sense changed out 4 others that had MSD with all kinds of issues over to Crane with no problems what so ever. I the only issue with merc distributors are that you have to re clock the rotor (not to bad) but make sure you check the lower bushing for side play and take a good look at the gear.
Brian

I have used mine for 3 seasons now. I bought it used from a board member. No trouble with it. When you re-clock the rotor be very accurate with it. When it comes time to change the rotor you can remove the metal and swap it on to another rotor. There is an old thread on the Crane and if memory serves me no one has had a failure.

When I installed mine I kept the original Merc parts mounted in the boat along with schematics on how to put it back to stock. The tools I carry would make it about a 15 minute job to go back to stock. Nothing like carrying a spare ignition system.

Thanks for the input. The second ignition system is a great idea.

I have used the Crane ignition box system---I think it's called the "Crane Hi-6M" or something like that. I only have about 65 hours on mine over a 4 year period and use it with a MSD billet distributor and an MSD crank trigger system on a custom pair of 540 cubic inch engines, but after building the new engines we were out water testing the boat and a high pressure water hose came off. When this happened one of my ignition boxes, and the Crane PS-92 coil got drenched with high pressure water (long story). Despite the drenching, the igintion boxes and coils still work and haven't given me any trouble and I am very pleased with the system.

OK, who has the best deal on the crane box and coil??

I've been using my set set of 6Ms for three years (@250 hours) with no problems. But I went through at least 2 Crane PS-92 coils each year. This year I went to the MSD Blaster coils and haven't had any failures.

I've used the Crane HI-6M on last boat and current boat, hands down better than MSD. Rotor re-phasing is a bit of a pain. Summit was as cheap as anyone I found. Another bit of information, the stock Merc. plug wires do not last long, they "dry out" inside. I went with Taylor 8mm spiral in the blue that is similar to the merc. blue. Order the 90 deg. boots and get a plug wire crimper. Make a nice custom length set.