Any recommendations/experiences/advice what works well, especially with boost? I would like to hear stuff like X wouldn’t fire reliably but Y did or X kept dieing every 3 months…

I was happy with the Accel 300+ on my project car, but on a whim I tried it on my truck and found that I got an extra 2mpg with it on a road trip, so it’s staying there and I’m getting something new for the formula. As far as I can tell, every published comparison test that I’ve ever seen has showed the 300+ making the most HP, but the most recent that I’ve found was from ‘96

My only bitch about the 300+ is the funky ticking that they make. Published numbers wise they seem to be a solid middle of the road. Head and shoulders above the MSD boxes but half a step below crane and Mallory.

I’ve seen way too many MSD returns and even the boxes arriving DOA, so that’s not even going to be considered. They also seem to be the lowest rated in every category.

A few people I know swear by the Crane Hi6, mostly sighting stuff like “it will fire a bigger coil then the rest,” but if you check the published specs I don’t really see a reason for it. They also claim that it will fire coils that only the 7 series boxes will fire reliably, but again, I’m not sure that I see any evidence for it or reason why. Their recommended coils appear to be very similar to the recommended coils from accel and Mallory.

I’ve heard good things about the Mallory boxes but when it comes down to it I don’t know of anyone using one or much about them. Their E core coils seem very similar to the crane coils with higher turn ratios but without the potting option.

Jacobs, well my brother has been running one of their pro street boxes forever with boost and never had any issues, but price + bulky coil + no experience with current production pretty much takes them out of contention.

I’m open to other suggestions also.

 

This post probably wont be worth much considering MSD is already out of the question, but I've been using the MSD 6BTM on my 91Z with a S-Trim and its been working great. I'm not really pushing the motor very hard, so I cant say its the best/strongest out there, but I haven't had any problems so far. You can set it to retard the timing per psi of boost, works good with the stock 730 ECM w/ stock code and stuff.

 

I'm considering trying a crane Hi-6 soonish. Cheap, and seems to have decent reviews.

-- Joe

 

From my perspective: I don’t know anyone that trusts the digital 6 and other digital boxes, since the originals were flaky, we had 3 6AL’s show up AFU out of the box (one was a bear to diagnose because it would change what it did if you tapped on it, it got to the point that I was starting to believe that the shop mechanic was an idiot until I had him repeat to me what he’s checked out and how he had it hooked up, which is a no brainer with an MSD distributor), and I’ve never seen a 6BTM work long term (really, not even a year… usually after about 6mo to a year’s worth of use and the owner finds that for some reason it’s not retarding the timing anymore).

Secondly, from what I’ve seen, MSD is the only ignition box manufacturer that gives any hassle about repairing/replacing their stuff, and takes forever to do it. Crane and Accel are at the opposite end of the scale, no hassle, no questions asked, they just send you a new one.

Crane _used_ to have durability problems, back with the original gold and blue boxes (the blue ones came with the 4th gen blower kits and failed regularly, the gold ones would quit when exposed to vibration in something like a 4x4), but as far as I know, those problems are long gone and I haven’t heard of one failing since.

Accel, you hear of the occasional failure (I killed one by mounting it switch side up behind the headlight of my WS6 so when it rained it dumped water right into the open end), but not unless it was abused or something dumb was done to it.

I haven’t seen enough Mallory’s to have an impression one way or another. Sold a few, they’re EXACTLY the same as the MSD boxes WRT to wireing, same color wires and all, and have never had one come back or anyone bitch about it.

 

Which Model of mallory are you refering to. I need one for my new turbo project . I am in the same boat as you .....trolling for feedback on which to get. I had NO idea MSD was THAT bad....or Accel was THAT good

 

I think your info is a little outdated. From the last comparison I saw all ignition boxes where with in 1/2 percent from each other. Also I usually sell 1 ignition box a week and hardly ever have problems. I have alot of personal time with the 6al and the crane hi fire I would take either one.

 

C&D, who’s/what info are you basing that on? (not that I don’t believe you, but I’d like some impression of how much of this is advertising hype…).

As far as the returns and other numbers, what I posted is what I’m seeing at the shop, where we probably sell 5 MSD 6AL’s for every other box that we sell, and I’d bet that less then 50% of the ones that we’ve sold in the last 6mo worked correctly out of the box.

 

I had a 6A last 5 years then I sold it. Another 6A lasted 2 years until I sold it and put in a 6AL which is still working. Out of all the serious car people I know, from Sportsman class up to NHRA Funny Car, most use MSD and have little to no problems with them. And those that don't use MSD, use Mallory.

So I guess since MSD is out, I'd say go with Mallory.

 

Most of what people that run cars more serious then sportsman class cars will not be an MSD6 box, but usually a 7 or better or a Mag setup, none of which are streetable. That being said, there’s no argument that MSD has probably the major portion of the ignition box market.

Doing a little bit more poking around I noticed that the MSD6’s are pretty much the only boxes that will not fire some of the higher turn ratio/lower resistance CD ignition coils…

You know, that’s the thing, I don’t know that I’ve seen anyone run a Mallory box, but the Mallory distributors are pretty popular, even thought I know plenty of people that HATE them also.

FWIW, last night I found out that the stock ignition in the formula will not fire the Accel coil in the car, where I know that the stock ignition in my truck (K1500, L05, basically the same ignition that the formula has) does, but it doesn’t run well.

Of course, part of the problem is that I really need a street setup for race use, well, more accurately, a race setup for street use, strong enough to work well at the track but not so much so that it destroys plugs and other parts every few passes.

 

Crossfire I was basing my info on the horsepower being within 1/2 percent of each other on an article from car craft.

 

Yea, well, I pretty much narrowed things down to Crane or Accel and then got a hold of an engineer that used to work for accel that currently works for crane and bugged him for about a half hour (one of the benefits of working at a speed shop…, you make some useful contacts). After that I decided that I’m going to give the crane box for a try and I’ve got myself a HI-6TRS and an LX92 coil coming. Since there is no harness to run that combination on the external coil HEI I’ll have to figure something out, but these things are pretty simple when it comes down to it.

Huh… now I have to figure out why when I pulled the Accel box out and hooked up the stock stuff again I have no spark… oh well…

 

Whats the difference between the HI-6 and the HI-6R ?

I know the HI-6S is inductive, not CD. BUt I can't figure out what the difference is in the R version, other than the $30 price increase?

-- Joe

 

I went through wondering that also.

Output is the same.

The R is fully potted, comes with some extra doodads/hardware in the box, different connectors, supposedly different/better rev limiter but I haven’t figured out how its different, and it’s the one that comes with all the “special” features, like my 6TRS is a 6R with the TR2 timing module (****, harness… other goodies to do adjustable, triggered or proportionate to a MAP sensor retard).

Honestly, I probably wouldn’t waste the money on the R unless you needed one of the extra add ons, and if you don’t it’s probably a street app and the S is probably more appropriate anyway.

 

I've been running the Crane HI-6's for a while now. It works good with only one issue. That is the tach. The tach works normal until I floor it then it goes crazy. I have no tach filter so I'm not sure what to fix it with nor have I really spent much time really trying to figure it out. I well get to it though. Anyway crane does have have a plug in harness for a remote coil on a TPI car. No wire cutting. It al plugs in. Also the box has a self diagnostic feature to help figure out problems. On a side note I have run a Jaacobs Ultra Team ignition on my daily driver truck for about ten years with no problems as well.

 

I bought a refurbished mallory off of ebay and it died in 1 day. I sent it back to mr gasket and they replaced the board for $60. It ended up costing me the same as a new one, but I basically got a new one, minus the housing. It's worked fine for over a year now and I have absolutely no complaints. I was running 9psi thru a procharged L05 with no problems at all. Actually I was thinking of getting rid of it because I'm selling my truck... As they say you get what you pay for, especially from ebay tricksters.

 

Any probs with the tach?

I called them today and asked if they have any known issues with tachs, such as MSD has. They said they've never heard of such a problem.. hrmm

-- Joe

 

No problems with the tach here... this is what I ended up doing:
https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=320695

 

no tach problems. The instructions are available online on MR. Gasket somewhere.