Thinking about purchasing a new box. I've had my issues with MSD stuff failing before but wondering if anyone uses this box and they had anything good or bad to say about it.
I like some like features of it over the digital 6 especially for not much more cash.

Thanks

 

So weird! I just took on a side job installing a shift solenoid on a car with one, so I've been researching them. From what I've found, it doesn't do what I need (rpm activated output), but does have a 3 step retard/limiter. I found the software for the laptop this morning, but am waiting on a cable. The box has a RS-232 on it.

 

I've been running one on a street car for ... 10 years or so? Perfectly reliable. Needed the timing control for my particular setup.

 

I had one for a few years on a street car, easy to program and no issues. I used it with the original FAST EZ-EFI, since it didn't have timing control and I wanted more than just weights/springs.

I removed it when I went to EFI and let the Holley Sniper control timing.

 

Well some positive feedback thats good news, RS 232 not exactly state of the art but if it works.
I was interested in the timing control being able to try and run different octane fuels
All the other stuff - is nice 2 step for trans brake and the start retard
Not sure if there is another brand that is comparable.
Fuel injection would be nice but I wouldn't be sure with a low vacuum engine but I really have not experience with FI

 

If anyone has a tune that works for a modified 455 please share.
I had no luck with throttle body FI systems from 3 manufactures with a low vacuum engine. And i have tried everything including paying a tuner.

 

Since its cold as hell up here I was surfing the net and came across an alternative to MSD with a a made in America ignition system CD-1 Daytona Sensors. I have not heard of them before but have seen some good reviews, it even includes data logging, not that I'm into that but its another tool to use. Maybe someone on here uses it

https://shop.daytonasensors.net/

Sorry to hear your FI is not working well for you Alaska, hopefully you get it cured. What system are you using ? Have you tried locking your timing out to smooth your idle and give yourself a bit more vacuum ( it helped may carb engine to smooth out the idle) , perhaps this is all taken care of by your fuel injection system already

 

My issue with FAST EZ EFI where I believe Heat soak but they kept saying i was getting interference from my distributer but i re-routed everything more than once, Use shielding and shielded circuits spent money on signal cleaning filters and unit never worked right., second was Fitech and after a year long fight it was a bad ECU from near the beginning- two tow truck rides and a factory remodel, did it again - I tried the Holley Sniper last with timing control and it worked good from the start but never made it out of the garage but im still not sure the problem. It seemed the timing control feature faded or changed and the engine would over heat.
I spent a good 3 summers messing with them and not cruising, spent at least 5k between them all and tuners, installers. Luckily i had my other cars to drive during this time.
Some people have good luck with them and they work- I say the word Luck again because i believe it is the luck of draw on if you get a build that has operational components to begin with.
Everyone should experience it on their own and not take my word for it, could be a fine upgrade but not my experience.
I will never try one again.

 

Wow sorry to hear the luck, Extremely frustrating for sure. A few guys have the Fitech stuff around here and when I asked how they work I usually see a grimaced face and shaking head, then I get an OK. So not really an endorsement for sure.
I guess I'll keep working with the 850 DP

 

I have a fiturd 800 on the shelf; I'll sell it cheap! Got tired of f-ing with it. Put a Brawler 950 on and haven't looked back.

 

I don't know if your still looking at this or not, but I also have one. I just got my car fired up but have made several initial baselines to try. Once you get used to moving the dots around, you can make changes quickly as well as store multiple curves on your laptop. The downside was finding the cable adapter (amazon) to hook to my laptop, then I had to get the IT guys at work to hep me activate a com port as my laptop is 4-5 years old. But now having solved those issues, it hooks right up, automatically calls up the port and is good to go. The built in start retard is nice and last night I fired the car up after retorquing the heads and adjusting valves. It fired right up with outside temp in the 50's and no choke. The "dial" page allows you to see the curve move in real time as well. So far so good from my perspective but much more tuning / experimenting to come. Granted EFI is way more flexible, but I am still running a carb.

 

Whatever brand of ignition control you choose, make sure you install a capacitor on the 12 V supply wiring. MSD calls this a Noise Filter, but it's just a capacitor that will also protect the control box from voltage spikes.

The damaging voltage spikes come from faulty voltage regulators, jump starts, etc.

Of the dozens of MSD installations I've done, the only two that failed didn't have a capacitor. (The first failure was on my own installation, which led me to this solution.)

The capacitor is cheap insurance against this failure mode.

 

Now that I have been using mine for a while, I want to make a correction to an earlier statement I made. . This box does not have a start retard as I thought, but you just program it in on the graph. I ended up with a 15 degree retard below 500RPM and then go to full advance after that which is what the motor liked the best for idle. MSD tech line had an example I copied. So far I really like the system. Cheers,

 

That is the cutest little girl behind the wheel of your car!!

 

How did you prepare your distributor, was it removal of weights, springs and vacuum. How did you set total timing before retarding it with the program.
This is very interesting.
Thanks

 

I run a Mallory comp 9000 I bought many years ago. As part of the adjustment it has the ability to lock the advance out.

to set the timing, I set the graph with no retard at all and then set base timing on the balancer to 10 degrees advanced. Then I made a new graph with 10 degrees retard and verified it moved on the balancer / factory pointer. Then I set the base timing back to 10 advanced, made a new graph at 20 degrees retard, and repeated the process stair-stepping until I got to 34. Then I made the curve I wanted. I verified it all with the laptop as it shows you a real time graph when it’s running. Another way to verify is set a retard to the same as
base at idle and your balancer should read zero. I just took my time as I was learning plus it gave me practice loading new setups.

if you have a degreed balancer, you could just set it to what you wanted base and work your curve from there.I bought an Innova timing light with advance function but it did not seem accurate or I was using it wrong.

Did that help?

Like I said, so far I really like the adjustability.

 

Here is a video you might like too

 

Cool so you physically set you max advance and then program the retard into the unit.
Thanks for your information