ukgeza

I have a 71 454 with an incorrect distributor installed (no tach drive). Thinking of getting new MSD distributor and 6al ignition module. This will improve performance, but will this affect car value? Should I stick with OEM?

Thanks
Russ

Gordonm

Here we go again. If the stock ignition is in good shape and working well there is no performance gain by going to MSD.now the stock system will degrade with points going away and out of tune sooner. For a stock motor the stock stuff works. That being said I have not run stock stuff for a long time. I run lumpy cams and lots of high rpm. I like the rev limiter and have used it many times. I run a cd ignition on most builds. It's up to you. Value? Who cares it is your car. Drive the heck out of it.

Waiting for Mike ward to chime in on this.

RickyBerg

I dont think a distributor without tach drive was stock on a 1971 Vette..

flyeri

I've got MSD because the previous owner installed a Mallory Unilite with no vac advance and I wanted it. Had I knew then what I know now I would have installed a HEI one wire distributor with a mechanical tach drive and a vac advance. IMO anything is better than points, even if just for the convenience. You will see little or no performance gain on a stock to mild performance motor. It is your car and you should do exactly as you wish, regardless of the posts you are about to read shortly.

cv67

Put an MSD on mine to do a pretty rumpity cam
May help against fouling but honestly plan on getting an AEM 02 kit to fine tune and will probably toss it all for a good HEI/coil w/rev limiter

System works fine but I know one day its going to strand me most of them will.

Forced induction nitrous maybe it will help other than that forget it.

Mike Ward

You beat me to it. Well said!

Sunstroked

I have all MSD stuff too. I dont care what the naysayers say. My money, my choice on my car. Its reliable, modern, and works. The old distributor needed an overhaul. Same price to rebuild as a new billet msd unit. Coil was pretty rough looking, new msd blaster coil comparitively priced to a stock unit. And the 6al, good stuff too. I had one on my 73 Camaro back in the 80's. It was reliable then, and no complaints with the new stuff now. You'll get the waste of money blah blah blah. Bottom line, points suck. In fact the only original engine part to my car is the block it was born with. I guess I just like to waste money.

Jeff_Keryk

What do you want? Either will work. For me, the nice stock 1968 distributer works fine. But I am partial to original. I guess I would say, unless your engine is way past stock, there are better ways to spend money.

cagotzmann

I would not spend any money for what the next owner might like or thinks what is of value. My 1978 I removed the L48 350, installed a GM ZZ383, I could have used the original HMI but I wanted to be able to re-curve without playing with springs/ cam / rotate the dist just to fine tune. So I installed a MSD 6530 programable with the MSD distributor (locked with no mech / vach advanced) Installed a GM 1 BAR Map sensor connected to the MSD so I can program any run curve and any vacuum curve. After using this ignition system plus a Zeitronix AFR data logger I will never do back to the stock stuff. I just connect my PC and fine tune away. AFR to fine tune the carb and the MSD to match the best advance based on the AFR and RPM.

chevymans 77

If it were mine it would already have modern technology firing it but then again I'm not a keep it stock kind of guy.

71 technology was good back then but today's technology is better.

Neal

Mike Ward

I'm a do my research properly and spend money wisely kind of guy. I'd convert to modern technology if it provided any sort of performance gain. Since it doesn't and opening the hood and checking dwell once a year doesn't bother me, I'll keep the money for something else.

cv67

as more time goes by more inclined to agree with Mikes thinking

Got a good friend who still runs a 12.5:1 350 with a massive solid lifter cam. Stock points ignition wiht a good curve/coil painted black
Been that way since I was a kid still runs today. One ride in it would tell the story

think most this stuff is a crutch for **** poor tuning for the most part.

gerry72

There's one upside to a point inductive ignition that I've not seen before: Carrying around a spare point/condenser take up almost no room and will essentially fix about any ignition problem you're going to encounter. If you go with the MSD distributor, you have to run it with their CD box, which means you'd have to carry around a spare box and trigger module to have the same level of backup. Also, with a factory distributor, you can still run it with a CD box and, if the box fails, you simply bypass the box to get back on the road.

There are upsides to converting to full electronic but that has no doubt been covered abundantly in other threads.

widowmaker221

You could also carry just the HEI module as a spare. I don't even carry a spare tire! Cell phone is your friend! MSD ignitions are awesome and there are gains to be had by using them such as limitless tuning capabilities, rev limiters, quicker throttle response and definitely a more complete burn on ignition. Points are a pain, been there done that !

brianPA

I was reading this topic in an Vizard book the other day and I think he stated that the stock HEI is good up to 5500rpm redline so unless you are spinning faster there shouldn't be a performance gain.

keithinspace

Well...I'm not sure I would go quite THAT far.

I agree that a well tuned "regular" system can perform, by nearly all measures, as well as a $1k digital ignition system.

I will politely offer that as your engine build gets more extreme, the comfort and assurance provided by knowing exactly where the timing curve will come in...exactly how much and exactly when...is very comforting when you're toying with degrees of advance on a 10.6:1 pump gas engine.

I will politely offer that the comfort of a rev limiter is pleasing to me.

I will politely offer that having many sparks over a greater amount of the timing circle DOES make a difference in the amount of fuel smell dumping out of a high duration cam car.

And I will politely offer that a system that provides a high degree of "tunability" by a person without a great deal of experience is a good thing. This would allow someone who would otherwise HAVE "**** poor tuning" to "crutch" themselves into being able to have pretty darn good tuning by eliminating the variables of dwell, point gap, and point condition.

I have an MSD system not because I am lazy or feel it has a performance gain. I have an MSD system because it takes a whole bunch of variables out of the management of my car's performance and allows me to focus that attention on other items.

And the MSD system allows me the comfort of knowing that the parameters related in spark and timing will not degrade over time the same way a points based system will. Sure things break. I had a 2 month old MSD coil fail in my system. Would/could have happened with a points system also.

I will never poo-poo on the old way of doing things. Worked for plenty of years. And still works. But that doesn't mean the new way of doing things is worthy of poo-poo either.

Mike Ward

Somebody should politely do a search to find Lars' dyno tests comparing stock points and coil vs. a zoomy-blasto ignition system where it was found, politely, there were no extra ponies in the barn.

keithinspace

I never said there was. And I totally agree there are not. Extra ponies. In any barns.

A well tuned ignition system, be it a digital capacitive system or an 'analog' inductive system, will perform very, very very similarly. Similarly enough that there is essentially zero power gain.

My point was that a "less capable" person (me) can 'tune' a digital capacitive-discharge (MSD 6-AL based, for example) system fairly easily.

This allows a "less capable" person (me) mimic the function of an analog (points based) system tuned by a "more capable" person (you).

These are all points I freely admit.

I take exception to the statement "this stuff is a crutch for **** poor tuning for the most part." On the contrary. I believe "this stuff" (digital capacitive-based system) allows a less capable owner to mimic the tune of a more capable owner.

A bad tune is a bad tune, be it points or "new stuff". You can tune "new stuff" crappy just the same. And the car will run just as crappy as if you don't tune points correctly.

That was really my point (no pun intended). That I need to spend $1,000 for an ignition system that I can tune as well as YOU can tune your $0 stock system.

Yay for me.

If I was going to offer a tangible benefit to a digital capacitive-discharge system, it would be that it HOLDS tune better. There are no real wear items. The spark quality and timing on the "new stuff" is, essentially, the same at the end of Year 1 (or 2 or 3) as it was at the beginning of Year 1. Where a points-based system requires periodic maintenance. FUN maintenance (like me checking the valve lash on my solid lifters), but maintenance nevertheless.

7t9l82

the factory points are fine as long as you don't get into point bounce then you might go electronic. being you don't have a tach drive and need one to run your factory tach you pretty much have a choice to make, if your car is a driver an h.e.i unit is basically maintenance free. but there is no performance benefit.

Mike Ward

Even polite ponies.