Shane Porter

Theres plenty of guys on this board complaining about their MSDs , which is too be understood if your having trouble.
But how many guys are having trouble free running in a daily driver ? .
They must have thousands of these boxes out there now , so you would expect them too be pretty well sorted by now .

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (25)

I have only used one out of the ton of them I have purchased that is not used daily. The first one is still going from 7 years ago on a friends Malibu and the second one that was on my 89 RS is now on my mustang and daily use and other failure has never been a problem for me.

Horsepwraddict

iTrader: (12)

I wouldn't exactly call my Buick my daily driver, but last summer I drove it at least down the street almost every day and on the weekends I drove it everywhere. That box was purchased about 3 years ago. The box in my s10 was purchased about 10 years ago and at the time it was raced a lot. Never had an issue with either.

Shane Porter

Its good too hear some good news for a change , If new guys only hear the hard luck stories a lot may be put off going for a carb set up .
The alternatives all seem too have a lot more too go wrong and only time will tell if the same sort of issues pop up.
I also notice the loom supplied with the speedmaster box looks identical too the msd loom which is responsible for a lot of boxes being falsly declared broken

LS1-450

iTrader: (33)

Most likely 99% of MSD ignition controller users have no idea that any problem exists, cuz' they're not on technical boards reading about it & their lightly modded or stock engine that uses the MSD works fine.

Will say that MSD better get on the ball in terms of programming & data logging because the carb crowd, of which already hold a mechanical technical advantage, are catching on to the benefits of fine tuning MAP/RPM points, A/F ratio & knock sensor logging. When we swapped from PCM to carb, if I had known about the Daytona Sensors unit, would not have used the MSD.

RabidStreetRacer

iTrader: (1)

I have daily driven mine for 2 years and never had an issue that I noticed. I do not use the pills, i have a custom tune and I use the MAP sensor.

VLS1

Or the guys who've made close to 600hp with them without issue.

Shane Porter

Is data loging and tuneability a big deal with a daily ?
I would have thought a safe advance curve and reliability would be more than enough for any normal person.

RabidStreetRacer

iTrader: (1)

That would be like going to the gym and working out for hours a day but not eating healthy. Yeah it will work but why not take full advantage of the benefits. It will get you better MPG, burn cleaner, make the engine last longer, better throttle response and it goes on.

Shane Porter

Like a well tuned carb and distributor ? . For some of us that's just fine and older carbed engines seemed too last pretty well if correctly tuned and maintained .

I would only attend a gym if I could find a park close too the door anyway

VLS1

The tune-ability of the MSD 6010 unit well and truly EXCEEDS that of an off the shelf distributor, unless of course you are going to a full digital MSD race ignition box to be used in conjunction with their distributor.

Why bother? Because a few punters may not have been clued on enough to fault find something properly, or lack the eye for detail when inspecting things during the installation process perhaps??

Shane Porter

Well said .... Seems too be a lot of people racing off too buy different boxes with features many of them will never use because a few semi skilled people on the internet told them too.
No offence intened too those who have had genuine broken boxes intended .

LS1-450

iTrader: (33)

Agreed that those who don't understand what they're getting into should stick w/ a simple ignition controller. However, there are real benefits to being able to log WOT fueling & set timing based on multiple (meaning dozens) of MAP points through the whole RPM range. Although, I still see not having the ability to log WOT engine knock as a limitation to most of the more advanced ignition timing controllers. Probably due to the cost associated w/ adding an the internal mic capable of picking up the frequency.

For us, having the ability to set dozens if not hundreds of timing points is part of what's needed to put low end TQ to pavement on the street (very light car, high torque). This aspect was lost when we went from PCM to carb. The 6 tuning points offered by the MSD just isn't enough.

VLS1

For a naturally aspirated engine 6 tuning points is well enough.

One for cranking and one for high idle rpm, one to ramp timing up in lower rpm range, two to drop back around torque peak, and one back up for top end rpm range.

LS1-450

iTrader: (33)

That'll be your little secret...Why do I even bother posting in the carb section?

Pop N Wood

iTrader: (1)

I only go to the gym because it allows me to eat more...

There is room in the market for full on race boxes as well as something to let people get their cruisers cruising. Data logging, individual cylinder timing, even retard switches, all that stuff is nice and maybe a necessity once you get to a certain level of performance. But it all adds cost and complexity for the average hot rod. Getting back to the gym analogy Schwarzenegger didn't rise to the level he did without excessive attention to detail (and a few roids) while a half hour bike ride a day allows me to stay in excellent health while still knocking back the occasional beer and cheeseburger.

Personally my wideband has enough data logging capability to tune what I need. I don't know enough to make use of individual cylinder timing and I will never spray so don't need the retard feature. Suck dogs ***** that MSD boxes aren’t more reliable, inexcusable really. But I have had zero issues running mine for the last 8 years now. Much more tunable than a distributor.

TXsilverado

iTrader: (18)

I ended up with 2 points. 10* cranking ramped to 31* at 400 rpm and flat lined from there. runs great. played with a ton of timing curves and map settings and a solid 31* at all times has done best so far. not to say that I wont learn something that works better one day, but all that fancy timing bullshit just introduced normal driving issues and did nothing for me on the track.

cuda620

Been running my 6010 fora year,daily,road trips,4 wheeling ,etc. No issues,never a failure. I bought an extra for a "spare" just in case. Never been out of the box except to look at it once and verify all parts were there. I put it in the back and take it with me everywhere. Kinda like a spare tire. BTW, They are both for sale as I'm changing direction with my build.