customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

just purchased the MSD street fire box 5520, i didnt want the 6AL... the street fire box gives me alittle extra power for the spark and has a digital rev limiter as well as multiple sparks below 3000 so i decided to try it out. Has anyone got any experence with this box?

looks very simple to install, ill be running a ford duraspark distributor on a 521 BBF stroker in my bird with MSD street fire wires, MSD blaster 2 canister coil and the MSD street fire box. Where does everyone mount the their box? on the firewall? prob is that my new motor the distributor is out front tune ups and setting timing will be sooooo easy

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

it's nice and small. That's about it, most usable is the rev limiter and the ability to use a trigger type dizzy and the box to fire the coil. For the money, i'd perfer the 6AL2, it's smaller than the AL and digital too. Much better piece.

I have my box on the back of the bumper bar

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

yea basically im going to use it to fire the coil. recieves the signal from the duraspark magnetic trigger and goes to the box which will charge and fire the coil.

you got a pic of where to mount the box?

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

I put mine here but it's much larger than yours


it's also hard to reach without the bumper removed

Here's where I put it on the 92 GTA:

Gumby

Just note the wires on the MSD boxes run out of different ends for a reason, don't bundle them all together when routing, they can cross talk.

Also you need a regular induction timing light, fancy digital ones get screwed up by the dual spark.

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

yea i was reading about the wires... unsure tho if i have to split up the wires that are bunched together. the purple/green wires are for my magnetic pickup... these have to be twisted together and seperate from everything else. MSD gave me a harness that has this already done but i went farther and twisted the wires in the dizzy. i will of course cover these with heat shrink and that wire tubing stuff. but the other wires like the orange/black that are the coil positive and coil neg... these are run together in tubing from MSD... is this ok?

should i isolate the tach wire as well? also the wiring instructions state with the duraspark to use the grey wire as the tach wire and not to use the white wire. will the stock 350tpi tach work with this MSD box? does it require the white or grey wire from the box? the MSD instructions state that i will have to bypass the tach inline filter, is this correct? and where is the filter if i need to/wat does it look like?

can u tell me the difference between the 2 timing lights? the one i have my dad says is inductive bc u have to put a inductor sensor clamp over the number 1 cylinder wire for it to work.

sry for all the questions i have to build my harness by hand and rewire the fuel pump, starter, ignition, alt, cooling fans, basically the whole engine harness bc they cut it all out when they took my engine/trans.

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

twin turbo, what kind of rad is that in your GTA. ive been looking at the summit/jegs/procomp universal rads, 2row, 1 inch cores

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

that's what it is, a direct fit summit rad that doesn't fit directly LOL

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

haha nice. how does it work? hows the quality?

the procomp one looks better imho but thats just from pics. i dnt like how its formed on the sides... looks like an old type rad but with welded hose connectors. still they all cost about the same. i wouldnt get the trans cooler since i have 2 external ones and one has its own fan/thermal switch.

you have any idea about the tach/tach wires in the previous post? im trying to finish the wiring right now so i want to tuck away one of the wires now if i can. thanks

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

if you can fabricate and can live w/ the way it's tight next to the lower hose and it doesn't fit the rad frame and sits at an angle (it's too tall, it sticks out on the top) then it's okay at best. If not, spring for a BeCool or similar. Myself, I would buy a better rad if I were to do it again.

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

yea i figured it was too tall. i can see the angle in the pic. what was the overall demensions of yours? when i do mine ill be making my own top mount (cut off the stock shroud bolt part where your aluminum top rad mount bolts too).

what brand is that rad top mount btw? whered u get it and how much!

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

It's homebrew brand

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

damn! lol i want one!

are you running the stock tachs with your boxes? how did u work that out? im alil worried that i wont be able to wire the MSD box into the stock tach

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

The box has a wire for tach signal so you just hook that one up to the tach wire that was on the coil originally (grey plug, white wire)

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

ok thanks... should be fun trying to find the wire since they cut all the connectors off

Gumby

I did similar using the magnetic pick up and acidentaly at first bundled them with the coil wires across the engine. Big mistake. Why those 2 set of wires come out of different ends. Ended up running the mag pick up across the engine and the coil wires in front of the rad. Which might sound strange but I modded my V8 so the dizzy is in the front so that routing was best as it was the shortest path to the coil and not run across the front like the mag pic up wires. [I run the better external oil filled/cooled can type coil with the MSD conversion HEI cap]




Induction timing lights are the cheap ones. Fancy digital ones with dialback cost $$$. Thats how I know

Read my timing tips for using an induction with no dial back.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...ing-notes.html


The MSD help forum is a good place to search, but you can find wiring diagram there or do a google image search to hook up the tach.
I didn't use that option yet, didn't buy or come with any pills.
http://www.msdignition.com/forum

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

yea ive read horror stories of running the wires together. Im gona run the power wires by themselves (since the box is gona be 3" from the batt lol) But can i not route the coil power/neg wires with the pickup wires? they both cam with heavy rubber tubing around them? reason is that they are going to the same spot (distributer and the coil will be close by). Im also gona be runing the MSD blaster 2 coil #8205, which is oil filled canister type.

hmmmm... my timing light does have a dialback ****! but i just checked and its a craftsman professional... "advanced inductive timing gun" lol so i guess im good. is using a dialback type inductive timing light a problem with CD multiple spark ignitions?

WEll the box cam with instructions for about 12 different ignition systems lol but i think i might have it figured out, it says to use the grey wire for the tach but says on GM vehicles u have to bypass the tach inline filter... what and where is this? also the street fire box has a digital rotary dial rev limiter so no pills for me!

Tobias05

any updates? I was thinking of buying one of these...

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

not rly, i have the box installed in the car, but the engine wont be ready for at least 6months. Box seems to be good tho. Its better than the 6AL bc it has a digitial rev limiter but it puts out alil less power, but at the same time consumes less power as well. It should help a street car nicely... if your going race i would suggest something alittle more like a mallory hyfire etc, perhaps something with some timing retard. but for a street car the 5520 street fire box is great from what i hear

Gumby

just say no to mallory

If your going to cheap out and not go MSD [ they are king for a reason]
just buy Summit boxes, they are made by mallory, just a different sticker.

Tobias05

Do you consider the "street fire" series cheaping out? I know they're MSD's budget line. I'm just in a toss up between the street fire and a 6A.

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

why say no to mallory? If msd is king why are most of there products made in china?

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

not sure if cheaping out would be the word id use. I think budget is more correct, the street fire box is what it is... its a ignition box that will help with a street driven car. Most street cars have adequate ignitons and an example would be the stock remote mount coil/in cap HEIs. These work great on the street, they are reliable and put out a good spark. They can be improved by a simple box like the ST 5520. Most street cars dont need a 6AL or a crazy ignition box, most are overkill on a street car and will cause parts to wear out faster. You need to decide wat the plan is for the car, if its mainly a street car with slight drag use (not running a poweradder like over a 100-150shot) i would suggest the ST 5520, but if your gona be hitting the track and running a good hit of a power adder i would think about upping your game to the new digital 6AL... or better.

you just need to match the ignition components, overkill wont help or increase power... it will just eat up components faster. Also the quality on the ST box looks great, and i also purchased the ST assembled wires and they look great too... better than my mallorys/accels ive used before.

Tobias05

I couldn't agree more. I'm not one to jump on a bandwagon. I don't have the budget either.

My distributor is a reman HEI from autozone. The only qualm i have with it is that there's some unknown brand of module stuck up in there.

I run an MSD coil/cap/rotor/superconductors and a crane HEI advance kit.

I've had the car for 6 years. I figured the MSD box would show the quality of my module i have been running for some time now.

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

what kind of module is it? and what type of distributer? an incap HEI or a remote cap?

the best modules around are the DUI ones. i had issues with my stocker above 4000rpms and that was with a MSD blaster coil, new wires, new MSD cap/rotor. I replaced the stocker with an accel module which lasted maybe 1 year before it died. I then upgraded to the DUI module with there cap/rotor kit.. made a HUGE difference. the engine ran better (i opened the plugs from .035 stock to .045") and it spun to 6500 without any hicups. that was behind a 500hp 383 with 9.8:1 compression. I would have left it at that since that was a upgraded system for a street car, but im goin in uncharted territory now with a ford duraspark and oil filled coil lol, so i figured a simple street box would be wise with the 521cuin ford big block in my bird.

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

and no one seems to notice that in bang for the buck the mallory box is hard to beat, especially if you get the summit branded one. check the specs, same box.

I've never had probs w/ mallory stuff. MSD on the other hand.... billet dizzy pickup crapped out this week.

T/A IN PA

My MSD 6AL2 stopped working. The red light just blinks when i try starting it. Car cranks but does not start.

oguin_studking

iTrader: (1)

I've compared the specs from the 6AL to the Streetfire box & for $120-$130 i would throw the money at the Streetfire box....great box....even greater deal! If i hadn't lucked up on my MSD HVC box i would've bought the streetfire box.

UnderCover89TBI

iTrader: (25)

So is installing a box with a stock ignition setup really worth it?

oguin_studking

iTrader: (1)

I believe installing a MSD box with stock or aftermarket...its def. an upgrade worth doing. When you can run 87 octane and it burns like 93...its a good thing to do for ur ride.

Tobias05

sorry to necro this thread, but i finally ordered my 5520 last night from amazon.
(100 bucks after using xmas gift card)

in the online instructions it says to use supplied 8861 harness for 4-pin module. but, at the top of the instructions it doesn't include that in the contents list?

I've noticed the instructions are very similair to the 6A series, in which it does state the 8861 is supplied in the contents for those boxes.

so...whats the word?

...trying to prepare for a possible EZ-EFI installation.

thanks

EDIT: Just received my 5520 in the mail today. Wasn't expecting till friday. Anyways it does come with the harness in question, despite the semi-confusing "parts list" in the instructions.