Author Topic: Msd Distributors  (Read 3079 times)

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Offline James Buchan

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« on: November 22, 2003, 10:55:24 AM »
Anyone out there running the MSD Billet Dizzy? If so any likes/dislikes - I gotta get my Xmas wish list together!

I already have a 6AL w/ blaster coil to go with it.  

Offline Shane

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« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2003, 08:33:38 PM »
Sell me the 6AL as I owe Jim one...
 
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Offline James Buchan

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« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2003, 08:54:27 PM »
What does jim need one for, his engine is on display and his car is nowhere near done - heck even I'm closer!!!  :D  

Matt

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« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2003, 10:09:36 PM »
Quote
... heck even I'm closer!!!  :D
lets not get carried away now.

Offline James Buchan

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« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2003, 10:13:30 PM »
But I'm the official airspeed shit disturber!

Offline AlanU

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« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2003, 07:27:49 PM »
Mallory Unilite will not have timing scatter even at ungodly rpms. Magnetic pickups like pertronix and msd will scatter at high rpms. LED have a the square wave signal that it outputs compared to a \"not so\" clean signal. the LED pickup only sees ON or OFF. Any magnetic pickup can start to output an almost sine wave signal.

I know its easy for me to pop in an MSD dist. in my digital 6 but I'd spend coin on a mallory. I'd stick with a 009 or 050 with pertronix if I'm not going with a mallory Unilite. I see no huge benefit buying another magnetic pickup like the MSD. Less chance of cross fire with the msd but I never had a problem. Maybe if your one of those dudes that never change the dist cap and rotor(conductive oxidized dust in the cap will promote cross fire) will have a problem but James I cant see you neglecting simple tune up stuff like that.

Oh and you dont have to buy any different VW wireset to accomidate the mallory dist. Use your existing wires. What kind of wire are you going to use??? I say taylor 8mm or MSD. 7mm bosch will work but \"you know they gotta look good to right???heheheh\" Buying the thickass 10.4mm taylor wire has absolutely no performance benefit except more insulation which is nice but you wont notice a thing in performance. I dont think anyone has ever complained about 7mm plugs insulation so I cannot see using super thick stuff from taylor except for cosmetic purposes. HMMM maybe I should just buy a 10.4 mm taylor just for the heck of spending money.

Jake raby and John (aircooled.net) seems to like them compared to other distributors. Jake has seen more HP on the dyno using a Mallory Unilite. I dont base my views on there comments. I know theoretically that LED/hall effect  will provide better timing signal than a magnetic pickup.  Actually its fact not fiction.  Another method of cleaning up the sine wave crappy signal of a magnetic pickup is to put the \"analog\" signal into a shmitt trigger cct that will clip the voltage signal into a square wave.....bla bla bla. thats why people dont bother with extra circuitry and just use the better system. But whatever you buy it will work magnetic or led.

my anal opinion.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2003, 09:34:00 PM by AlanU »

Offline Hansk

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« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2003, 08:23:09 AM »
Great info Alan!  Are there no LED conversions for 009 ? I have
an 86 vanagon form Germany that has a factory 2 barrel carb.
The dist. looks just like a f.i. vanagon but has vac. and mech.
advance in it . Are the vanagon dist. LED or magnetic ?
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Offline AlanU

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« Reply #7 on: November 30, 2003, 10:21:24 AM »
Quote
Great info Alan!  Are there no LED conversions for 009 ? I have
an 86 vanagon form Germany that has a factory 2 barrel carb.
The dist. looks just like a f.i. vanagon but has vac. and mech.
advance in it . Are the vanagon dist. LED or magnetic ?
Hans,

Pehaps someone can shed some light on vanagons.  I'm not familar with 86 Vanagons. More than likely it'd be a magnetic pickup. In your vehicle I dont think you'll have any benfit going LED.

I'm not slamming magnetic pickups since I have a pertronix in my 050 dist in my engine right now.  I was just responding to James question.  The magnetic pickups work well but its at extreme high rpms that I comment on quality of spark signal to coil or CDI box. For the most part I think magnetic pickups do a good job (not excellent)for general purposes.   I personally wouldn't go from one magnetic pickup to another MSD magnetic pickup. Maybe the MSD magnetic P/U does a better job than pertronix but it still works on the priciples of negative pulses from a magnetic field. I'd say LIGHT is a fast form of information dontcha think? :P   Then the LED pickup is the last device that triggers the coil to spark. I'd say propigation delay(electronic devices, chips etc) of what 6-10 nanoseconds sounds pretty fast to me? and to top it of its precise regarless of RPM of the engine.

I'd say pertronix has their issues but its probably one of the better ones out there for aftermarket electronic ignition. Some LED aftermarkets have proven to be a POS and not super reliable.

If the intention of UPGRADING is the main reason LED is an upgrade. Cross fire in distributor caps always makes me think of how badly a car is in tune.  The shear size of the MSD dist cap (hmm what 4 cyl tempo??) will prevent potential of crossfire but I think if you do proper maintenance you wont have any problems with any \"stock\" distributor.  Your only getting around/aprox  7-12 KV of spark energy in there anyways so its not a tremendous amount of energy. BUT if your terminals in the distributor cap is corroded and the gap of the rotor and inside terminals of the distributor cap are large that creates more KV energy with a larger gap(sound good but its not). This is what creates more potential of cross fire.  Thats why proper tuneups are very important.  

Offline Hansk

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« Reply #8 on: November 30, 2003, 01:20:13 PM »
Thanks again for the info Alan! I was thinking of the vanagon type dist.
as an upgrade for my IDA'ed 1904 as I'm using only a 009 with points.
Also that they may be avialable from Germany and be a nice option
 for peaple if they are LED .
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