I found the MSD setup to be a very nice upgrade. Might have just been a mental thing, but I felt that it gave the motor a little more pep and it revved a bit faster.
I went with MSD. I can say that the car definitely runs a bit smoother, but I did it for a different reason. I figured in the long run it will be cheaper. If one of the coilpacks goes bad I 'll only be spending $42 instead of having to buy an entire coilpack. Even if all three went bad all at once it would still be less expensive than the cost of a new "oem" coilpack.
Since reinstalling the stock cam and ECU chip in my motor all has been running very well. Even with the raised 10.7:1 compression, the car has zero issues. For the longest time, I've had my plugs gapped to .032". I'm running an MSD Blaster SS coil and Magnacor 8.5mm wires. I was "told" to run a colder gap because the coil is too much for the stock (.024") plug gap. So on Sunday, I put the gap back to 24thou to see how it ran on my Monday commute. It honestly felt bad. Getting on it in a higher gear at lower rpms, I could feel what felt like the ignition being cut back by the knock sensor. It felt like it was missing briefly till the knock sensor retarded the ignition. There was slight power loss as well. It just felt like it ran poor, overall. So last night I put the gap back to 32thou. The ride today felt like it did before I messed with it. None of that iffy feel, just power with no complaints. So, with an aftermarket coil anyway, I would suggest a wider gap on your plugs. Motor runs way better IMHO.
My car now runs smoother, starts quicker, and revs quicker & I have a cool red coil under my hood.
mine was stubbling like crazy too and it was the coil... i used an msd 8202 and wired it up to my ignition module... problem solved for $45
i had a MSD 6a with blaster 2 coil installed on my turbo ABA. it did drive much better/smother. the hardest part was to take apart the stock coil. but after that it was quick.
the car does seem to idle smoother but I can't really make a valid comparision since I installed a new dist. rotor along w/ the coil. The real reason I chose this coil is because it was about 60-70 bucks cheaper than the oem unit and who knows... maybe the hotter spark will help out.
Definitely gave it more spark because my car idled higher and the inside of my coil wire where it connected to MSD had all types of bright green/blue corrosion starting. Definitely noticed a major difference in idle when I took the MSD out. Car was a lot quieter and idle was smoother.
I have a 1776 and was running the pertronix with the bosch blue. Rebuilt the top half of the motor and now have a MSD coil (because it was the only one I could get on the weekend), and I have noticed no changes in engine performance.
I ended up with this MSD when I bought Tim's motor and the MSD finally crapped out after about a year of me driving with it. In running a coilpack, I notice no tangible difference between the two. Yes, the MSD looks really, really cool...but if you ain't worried about looking pretty, spend your money elsewhere.
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