think my MSD 6012 died
#1
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Have a 5.3 in a jet boat. Took it out this weekend for the second time since a new carburetor.
Friday night i hit the water and made some hard passes. Ran the living **** out of it but motor only didnt have the bottle in the boat. After abouyt 7 or 8 runs i had a distinct rubber burning smell. (its a jet boat... no rubber to burn lol)
Still ran real nice, so i ended up putting it on the trailer and had some beers.
Fast forward to saturday. Took it for a cruise to an event that was going on, about 6-10 miles up river. Hung out for a bit, turned the nitrous on and made a couple of passes. So far the engine has been running fine. But on the bottle it felt really soft, and pulled rpm very slowly. I was backing 6 degrees out via the step retard at the dash. Was down about 8 mph from my previous nitrous runs.
I chalked the power loss to the heat. it was about 115 outside.
After a couple hours, i had the key on but the engine off and i could hear a weird noise. Kind of like a buzzing. Thought maybe it was a bilge pump or someones boat echoing through the water.
Loaded the family up and headed back to camp.
At about 3k rpm i had what i can only describe as a knock sound. But at 3500 it was gone, and below 3k it was gone (3k is where my timing ramps up at). The retard was off.
Get to the beach, unload the boat and decided i was puting my old tune in it because it ran much harder on the bottle with it than it did today. Figured i would try it.
Went to program the MSD and it took a VERY long time to write, about 5 minutes.
Pushed the boat off and started heading out. Idling fine goosed it a couple times and everythign was normal. Then all of a sudden it kind of backfired/revved up a few hundred rpm and died.
Got it to a beach, and it popped the msd's ignition fuse. Never done that before, and the wiring is all brand new when i put it together. All over kill on the gauge as well.
Changed the fuse, and it popped again... WTF
So i put a 30 amp in just to check it out, and it didnt pop, but i noticed the same buzzing noise and the volt gauge was around the 9-10 range.
I shut the key off and noise went away. Towed it back to the truck.
Got it on the trailer, and started trying to figure out wtf happened. Pulled the harness/wiring and saw nothing was cut/wore/burnt. Everything looked fine.
It would start with the 30amp fuse, but it would idle really poorly and backfire through both headers. With key on, motor off the buzzing noise was from the coils. I disconnected the coils and the noise went away and my volt gauge back where it should be.
Plugged the laptop in thinking maybe something went bad with the update, and it will not recognize or communicate with the MSD box.
It is not blowing fuses anymore, but will nto start.
Im guessing something let go in the box and was causing it to fire at the wrong time, and maybe thats what that "knocking" noise was that i heard. Now nothing works, itll crank but i just have a buzzing noise no real spark.
The coils have 3 trips on them, they are brand new AC Delco units. Engine ran perfectly prior to this.
Thinking about getting a Daytona smart spark. Any recommendations?
Friday night i hit the water and made some hard passes. Ran the living **** out of it but motor only didnt have the bottle in the boat. After abouyt 7 or 8 runs i had a distinct rubber burning smell. (its a jet boat... no rubber to burn lol)
Still ran real nice, so i ended up putting it on the trailer and had some beers.
Fast forward to saturday. Took it for a cruise to an event that was going on, about 6-10 miles up river. Hung out for a bit, turned the nitrous on and made a couple of passes. So far the engine has been running fine. But on the bottle it felt really soft, and pulled rpm very slowly. I was backing 6 degrees out via the step retard at the dash. Was down about 8 mph from my previous nitrous runs.
I chalked the power loss to the heat. it was about 115 outside.
After a couple hours, i had the key on but the engine off and i could hear a weird noise. Kind of like a buzzing. Thought maybe it was a bilge pump or someones boat echoing through the water.
Loaded the family up and headed back to camp.
At about 3k rpm i had what i can only describe as a knock sound. But at 3500 it was gone, and below 3k it was gone (3k is where my timing ramps up at). The retard was off.
Get to the beach, unload the boat and decided i was puting my old tune in it because it ran much harder on the bottle with it than it did today. Figured i would try it.
Went to program the MSD and it took a VERY long time to write, about 5 minutes.
Pushed the boat off and started heading out. Idling fine goosed it a couple times and everythign was normal. Then all of a sudden it kind of backfired/revved up a few hundred rpm and died.
Got it to a beach, and it popped the msd's ignition fuse. Never done that before, and the wiring is all brand new when i put it together. All over kill on the gauge as well.
Changed the fuse, and it popped again... WTF
So i put a 30 amp in just to check it out, and it didnt pop, but i noticed the same buzzing noise and the volt gauge was around the 9-10 range.
I shut the key off and noise went away. Towed it back to the truck.
Got it on the trailer, and started trying to figure out wtf happened. Pulled the harness/wiring and saw nothing was cut/wore/burnt. Everything looked fine.
It would start with the 30amp fuse, but it would idle really poorly and backfire through both headers. With key on, motor off the buzzing noise was from the coils. I disconnected the coils and the noise went away and my volt gauge back where it should be.
Plugged the laptop in thinking maybe something went bad with the update, and it will not recognize or communicate with the MSD box.
It is not blowing fuses anymore, but will nto start.
Im guessing something let go in the box and was causing it to fire at the wrong time, and maybe thats what that "knocking" noise was that i heard. Now nothing works, itll crank but i just have a buzzing noise no real spark.
The coils have 3 trips on them, they are brand new AC Delco units. Engine ran perfectly prior to this.
Thinking about getting a Daytona smart spark. Any recommendations?
#2
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The MSD box powers the coils. It is not inconceivable that something shorted out in a coil and/or coil harness and that is what took your box out. Only reason I bring that up is it could take out your daytona box if you don't find the source of your problems.
Did you see any arcing? Like from a coil high voltage breakdown? that could account for the buzzing
Did you see any arcing? Like from a coil high voltage breakdown? that could account for the buzzing
#3
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The MSD box powers the coils. It is not inconceivable that something shorted out in a coil and/or coil harness and that is what took your box out. Only reason I bring that up is it could take out your daytona box if you don't find the source of your problems.
Did you see any arcing? Like from a coil high voltage breakdown? that could account for the buzzing
Did you see any arcing? Like from a coil high voltage breakdown? that could account for the buzzing
Coils like i said are new. My harnesses are not new, and could probably be replaced. But i would think you would see arcing no?
anyone have a link on building a LS1 coil harness? They are almost 100 each new
#4
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The MSD box powers the coils. It is not inconceivable that something shorted out in a coil and/or coil harness and that is what took your box out. Only reason I bring that up is it could take out your daytona box if you don't find the source of your problems.
Did you see any arcing? Like from a coil high voltage breakdown? that could account for the buzzing
Did you see any arcing? Like from a coil high voltage breakdown? that could account for the buzzing
With them both unplugged, there is no buzzing.
I was thikning maybe they are firing on their own, or the msd is shorted causing them to fire and thats what im hearing?
#5
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Wow that's weird. Maybe if you get it running again you can ride around with the laptop and watch the timing as you increase rpm. As for coil harness you could probably get one cheap at junkyards