lonestar7

iTrader: (1)

I've been thinking about replacing the ignition coil and module on my 1988 Formula 350. As best as I can tell, it has the original parts in it now. The original owner kept maintenance receipts and I can't any indicating that ether was replaced and they certainly look old. The car is stock, I just replaced the plugs and wires. The wires that were on it were fried by heat from the exhaust manifold (especially cylinders 5,7, and 8) so I put a set of Accel 9MM temp resistant wires on and routed them to clear the exhaust manifold as much as I could. Again, the engine is stock, not looking for a racing ignition but I'm thinking having a little hotter spark wouldn't hurt. I've been looking at the MSD and Accel coils and modules, anyone have excrescences with these? Are they any better or worse that the stock A/C Delco parts?

The main thigh I'm looking for is reliability, definitely want to stay away from the Autozone/Pep Boys cheapo parts.

ASE doc

Of the choice between ACCEL and MSD, I would go with MSD. My car runs the ACCEL DFI gen 6 fuel and spark controller, which is a very well made early ACCEL system. Because I was running ACCEL DFI, I went with the ACCEL 300+ Ignition module and coil for easy plug and play. The coil ended up leaving me with no warning. Fortunately it died in my driveway so I wasn't stranded. I ended up replacing the entire ACCEL ignition with an MSD digital 6 and MSD coil. No problems since. I still have the ACCEL Billettech distributor installed but it uses a very good Ford style PIP coil and since the dist mounted module only serves as a crank reference for the DFI and MSD module with very little load on it, it should last for many years.

The concern I have with running a high output coil on the dist mounted ICM is that high output coils generally always have lower primary resistance in order to ramp up current and with it, induced voltage. This places much greater stress on the ICM and I see a much greater failure rate in these applications. That's why I don't recommend a high output coil without an ignition controller such as the MSD. The analog units(6A) are actually fairly inexpensive. As far as the ICM itself goes, I don't see where any aftermarket performance unit is better than AC Delco(OEM) or Standard Motor Products premium line. The high perf. units are designed to handle the higher current load from the high output coil but since heat is the issue, I don't put alot of faith in them to be reliable.

charliem

Thank you for this information, ASE doc! this past winter i replaced my stock wires, spark plugs, and ignition coil with aftermarket Accel parts on my 1989 GTA. The coil being an Accel high output super coil. The first ~100 or so miles were fine, but just last week I fried my Ignition Module. Today I bought a new module and it fried within 15 minutes of first start up (I did coat the bottom side with white thermo electric grease).

I am really hoping it is the Accel high out put coil that is frying the modules. I am going to put the stock coil back in tomorrow, along with a new module, and hope for the best.

lonestar7

iTrader: (1)

I installed a mildly higher voltage (compared to stock) MSD coil 2 weeks ago. So far, it's fine but I'm watching it closely since I read about how they can sometimes cause the ignition module to over heat. I'm going to install a supposed stronger than stock module soon, just haven't had time to do it yet. From what I've read, if you install a really high voltage hot coil, you have to get a stronger module to handle it. I've also read the the Accel super coil is not very reliable even with the matching Accel ignition module installed, one or the other components seem to fail frequently.