What is the Best Ignition System for a 340?

[cuda6pak]

First off, It's going in a 69 Barracuda 340. Balanced and blueprinted 340, Edelbrock 750, Edelbrock intake, 280/474 MP purple cam, "O" cast heads with 3 angle valve job, stock exhaust manifolds going through turbo mufflers. 727 torqueflite with B&M Transpak shift kit, 3.91 sure-grip 8 3/4 rear end. It's good for mid 14's, (I can hang good with a 02 GT 5 speed until 55mph.)

The current ignition setup is pretty much stock - Single point distributor with vacuum advance, Accel wires, etc.

The setup I will most likely get is the following - MSD Billet Distributor, MSD 6AL, MSD Blaster 2 coil, new spark plugs & new wires.

I'm not sure what Spark plugs & wires to purchase. Any Ideas? Does this setup look pretty good? Anything I'm missing? Is there another setup you guys would reccommend over this?

[Rug_Trucker]

Use the MSD distributor and Jacobs Prostreet ignition and wires.

[rumblefish360]

The MSD dosn't have a vacum advance on it. Right?
The stock or better yet the performance distrib. from MoPar has allways work great for me. I have the Jacobs pro street in the wifes car. Works quite well. The MSD works fine in the Cuda. Both systems are excellent.
Plugs...AC or Champs. Still investagateing them.

[cuda66273]

I use the Mopar Perf. dist. with a Crane HI-6', 3 step and Moroso blue Max wires with 12" of heat shield on each plug wire. This all plugs into Autolight 66's, which match the vin tag

You WILL have to have the distributor reworked, bottom plate welded and curved.

[HankL]

The ability of the new MSD Digital 7 Plus system to set a different ignition advance for each of the 8 cylinders is probably worth 10-20 hp.

This system also has the ability to do vacuum advance and has several launch options to protect over-reving.

Downside - it costs about $600, or about $250 more than the MSD 6AL system you mention.

[dewme5]

mopar elect dist. and orange box with a decent coil is going to give you everything that you need as far as the spark goes. What you need to consider, is what extras you want. rev limiters- just one, or two, three??, do you want to use a pill, a dial, or hand held controller. do you need any rpm switches.. stuff like that is really helpful to get off the start, compared to adding it on later.

I run the holley strip annhilator p# 800-200, just beacuse of the features it has. 3 seperate rev protections (over rev, burnout, and stage), it also has 2 rpm switches (use one for a shift light), and a few other options included that i'm not using, but it was cheaper then getting the msd, and adding on the parts needed to get every I got.

[70AARCuda]

I would agree that the Mopar Vacum advance with the orange box would be more than enough ignition for a 14 second street machine...

In fact I ran those components in a bracket racer that ran low 12s for years

tony

[cuda6pak]

Originally posted by 70AARCuda
I would agree that the Mopar Vacum advance with the orange box would be more than enough ignition for a 14 second street machine...

In fact I ran those components in a bracket racer that ran low 12s for years

tony

Hoping for 13's somewhere in the future I'm planning on headers sometime soon, and a new exhaust system. Probably the TTI ceramic headers and the TTI exhaust system.

I heard the orange boxes go out fairly quick so thats why I went against buying one. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Vacuum advance vs Mechanical advance?

[cuda66273]

Todays technology has allowed all the aftermarkert ignition box manufacturers to build some pretty dependable stuff for a very reasonable price.

The MSD, Crane, Holley, Mallory and other systems all deliver good spark at the right time when set up right. Dependability with some of these is excellent and some leave a little to be desired.

You can shout "My Mallory works perfect!" but, have you ever put it on a distributor machine and run it up to see if it's right on? I thought my orange box was great until I tested it...it was pulling 8 degrees out of my motor at 5500 RPM...not good for max performance. It really equates to a mear few of thousands of a second at the stripe and for most of us that means nothing.

I will state emphatically, get rid of the points and condensor, we have progressed beyond there praticality, as for the others, it's your car, therefore your choice. We can all tell you stories of success with everything from $89 Petronix swaps to $600 super deluxe MSD 7 series systems. They all work, are you trying to set a National Record? If not, go with what you can afford and what you feel comfortable using.

I thank the members of the jury for their time and plead that in your infinate wisdom you will make the right choice in this matter.

[myduster360]

cuda66273 is right. ANYTHING will be light years ahead of what you have now. And you''l be simply amazed on how much easier it starts and smoother it runs.

with that said i use Jacobs on both my duster and daytona. both were easy 3 wire hookups.

your choice really

dave

[70Challenger R/T S.E. 383]

Terminator, the orange box works fine, they don't go out quick like people say, I think it's just that MP is having such quality control problems that those people got the bad ones. I think HPM did a MP electronic ignition swap a while back and had a bad orange box, well, out of the box. I had one on my Challenger that looked about 10 years old, worked great, it did start to break up at about 6 grand, but thats the limit of the box. My uncle had one on his RR, it worked fine, but then he decided to go to the MSD 6AL box(under the battery tray, how sneaky). I am going to either the Crane HI-6 or Holley Strip Annilator box with the MP dist(I gotta find a place to weld the bottom plate and set the curve).

Like Dennis Gage says, Good luck on your next project!

[pauly055]

my entire system is MSD w/ the 6al box. i just completed it with the 8.5mm wires which are fitted to the motor of your choice and come with bendable boots that are a VERY NICE FEATURE, especially if you're goin w/ headers down the road.

[Dart]

I personally don't think the dough for the MSD is really worth it unless you were a 10 sec 1/4 car.

I use the stock electronic with a 2.2 turbo coil. I jumped the balast resistor so I get 12v at the pickup. This ignition is hot enough for a 12 sec. 1/4 machine and really cheap. You can buy the electronic conversion plug from Mopar and then all you need is the ECU (Orange box) and the distributor. Or you can pick this stuff from the boneyard for around $25.

[cuda66273]

MSD 6Al ....$189.00

Yes your right a orange box will fire your ignition but, like I said before how accurate? 10 seconds or 14 seconds 99% of us are bracket racers and the name of the game is consistancy, and if your box fluctuates 8 degrees or more at 5000-6000 RPM how will you keep the car consistant...sorry Orange box or chrome box gets no votes from me, we've tested them and the MSD or any other multiple spark system is just way more reliable.

Shop Ebay I just sold a perfect MSD box for $125

[pauly055]

my car had the MSD box when i bought it, and not wired very nicely either. when my MP rotor destructed itsef i decidedto go with the billet dist. and blaster2. when i got abunch more parts and time to thrash i finished the sys. with the 8.5 wires.
my opinion, budget included, it was money well spent.

[George G. Leverette]

Cuda6273 is stating the same problems I have experinced. The Orange boxes are failure prone on a regular a once a year replacement is not acceptable from an expense or realibility prospective. I recently upgraded to the Chrome box on the 340 and it failed in less than 500 miles and with the "P" prefix there is no warranty from Mopar. On the 318 Coil 04176009 and ECU 04111850 have performed as expected with no problems on a daily driver. Making this comparsion I will never purchase an Orange or Chrome box for my cars.