MSD - is it worth it?

[lifesnotfair]

I'm gonna change piston rings on my motor. It's 7M-GE, I hear the price difference between aftermarket ones, and Toyota factory ones, is huge. Should I spend more and get the Toyota ones? I wouldn't mind if you guys say so, but if the difference is like, from 50 thousand to 80 thousand miles, I wouldnt care, as it'd take me really long to run even half of that.

Anyways, while I'm doing so, I wanna buy a few things for my car. I think I will buy the K&N FPIK for the non-turbo, I've heard it's good. I already did a 2.5 custom exhaust. So it should improve everything altogether, right?

Ok, now to the MSD issue... I have some $30 cables that I want to change, they were just too cheap, heh. I'm thinking of buying the MSD 8.5mm cables from 935 too (along with the K&N FPIK). So, I have two questions:
1. What spark plugs should I get? Mines are not old at all, I changed them like 3 months ago. Does this really matter....? Should I get those iridium ones?
2. Is the MSD really worth it? It's over 200 dollars, and for all I know, what it does is make the spark plug discharge more than once, when the car is below 3,000 rpm. I assume above this RPM it has no effect, but since most of the time the engine is below this, if there is any improvement, it should be noticeable, right? Does it improve performance? Gas mileage? Or just "smoothens" the ride? ... I was thinking of this: http://935motorsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=79_14_40&products_id=198
In here http://www.msdignition.com/sci_6.htm it talks about it.

I don't know much about MSD's... How is it that the voltage sent to the spark plugs is 45,000 volts instead of the usual 28k or so? Is this thing that does it? Because I've heard the term "coil blaster" and it's got me confused. Please enlighten me, you wise ones

I was also thinking of those OBX headers....

Anyways, thanks in advance for any help

 

[whudafux]

I'm gonna change piston rings on my motor. It's 7M-GE, I hear the price difference between aftermarket ones, and Toyota factory ones, is huge. Should I spend more and get the Toyota ones? I wouldn't mind if you guys say so, but if the difference is like, from 50 thousand to 80 thousand miles, I wouldnt care, as it'd take me really long to run even half of that.

Get the Toyota one.

Anyways, while I'm doing so, I wanna buy a few things for my car. I think I will buy the K&N FPIK for the non-turbo, I've heard it's good. I already did a 2.5 custom exhaust. So it should improve everything altogether, right?

If the engine breathes better, it will go faster.

Ok, now to the MSD issue... I have some $30 cables that I want to change, they were just too cheap, heh. I'm thinking of buying the MSD 8.5mm cables from 935 too (along with the K&N FPIK). So, I have two questions:
1. What spark plugs should I get? Mines are not old at all, I changed them like 3 months ago. Does this really matter....? Should I get those iridium ones? Iridium plugs.

I'd say NGK or Denso

2. Is the MSD really worth it? It's over 200 dollars, and for all I know, what it does is make the spark plug discharge more than once, when the car is below 3,000 rpm. I assume above this RPM it has no effect, but since most of the time the engine is below this, if there is any improvement, it should be noticeable, right? Does it improve performance? Gas mileage? Or just "smoothens" the ride? ... I was thinking of this: http://935motorsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=79_14_40&products_id=198
In here http://www.msdignition.com/sci_6.htm it talks about it.

Not worth it, IMO.

I don't know much about MSD's... How is it that the voltage sent to the spark plugs is 45,000 volts instead of the usual 28k or so? Is this thing that does it? Because I've heard the term "coil blaster" and it's got me confused. Please enlighten me, you wise ones

No clue :nono:

I was also thinking of those OBX headers....

I've heard good things about them.

Anyways, thanks in advance for any help

 

[IJ.]

I ran MSD Dis4's on my car when it burnt a piston on the dyno and even with the entire IC and intake full of Oil it still fired the plugs for my 50 KM trip home! (I have a brand new Dis4 here if you're interested)

 

[JesseH]

I'm gonna change piston rings on my motor. It's 7M-GE, I hear the price difference between aftermarket ones, and Toyota factory ones, is huge. Should I spend more and get the Toyota ones? I wouldn't mind if you guys say so, but if the difference is like, from 50 thousand to 80 thousand miles, I wouldnt care, as it'd take me really long to run even half of that.

Anyways, while I'm doing so, I wanna buy a few things for my car. I think I will buy the K&N FPIK for the non-turbo, I've heard it's good. I already did a 2.5 custom exhaust. So it should improve everything altogether, right?

Ok, now to the MSD issue... I have some $30 cables that I want to change, they were just too cheap, heh. I'm thinking of buying the MSD 8.5mm cables from 935 too (along with the K&N FPIK). So, I have two questions:
1. What spark plugs should I get? Mines are not old at all, I changed them like 3 months ago. Does this really matter....? Should I get those iridium ones?
2. Is the MSD really worth it? It's over 200 dollars, and for all I know, what it does is make the spark plug discharge more than once, when the car is below 3,000 rpm. I assume above this RPM it has no effect, but since most of the time the engine is below this, if there is any improvement, it should be noticeable, right? Does it improve performance? Gas mileage? Or just "smoothens" the ride? ... I was thinking of this: http://935motorsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=79_14_40&products_id=198
In here http://www.msdignition.com/sci_6.htm it talks about it.

I don't know much about MSD's... How is it that the voltage sent to the spark plugs is 45,000 volts instead of the usual 28k or so? Is this thing that does it? Because I've heard the term "coil blaster" and it's got me confused. Please enlighten me, you wise ones

I was also thinking of those OBX headers....

Anyways, thanks in advance for any help

First, when your hearing blaster, its refering to the blaster II coil that is sold seperate, the controler ex. MSD 6A, 6AL...etc. whichever, adds volts, and also has two sparks per cylinder (i think) but its says you can get up to 45,000 volts, with the combo. The control box is anywhere from 200-240$ and the blaster II coil is around 40$ you can just use the coil to addd some volts (thats what I did) and i did notice a small gain. And I also have the OBX headers and they are nice, the only probem is some people have trouble with the oxygen sensor fitting, but its not that big of a deal.

 

[lifesnotfair]

Thanks guys.

 

[mrnickleye]

On 2 Chevy V8s and a Ford, I had great success.

I put the Mallory Hi-Fire (exactly like the MSD 6A) on my N/A. I had to get an adaptor (MSD because it looks better) to fire the injectors and operate the tach.

After NO NOTICABLE POWER GAINS, and a tach that danced around at times (many during the drive), and and idle that floated 200rpm, and timing that floated 5-10* at idle, and several email and telephone conversations with the techs at Mallory and MSD....I unplugged it. :evil2:

It only has about 100 miles on it.

I'll remove it from my car and sell it to you cheap if you want to mess with it.:love:

 

[jetjock]

Why would you expect power gains from any HV ignition? I'm guessing you haven't done much secondary waveform analysis. Except in special cases aftermarket HV ignition is little more than snake oil.

 

[mrnickleye]

The MSD (Multi-spark) ignition advertises that the spark plugs fire 15X per, instead of once. The idea is to ensure ALL the fuel is burnt, as there is always some that escapes the flame. This would naturally give you more HPs, as you would receive the full power from the fuel charge.

The system worked great on my '70s' carberated Chevies and Fords. The engines started "instantly", got 2-4mpg more on the hiway, and gave it more HPs, as you could 'feel' the acceleration difference by using MSD, then old system, then MSD.

The only draw-back was it wore out regular plugs twice as fast, due to the multiple sparks. I liked it fine.

But, it just would not work right on my Supra (as I stated above). I was actually looking for a cheap way to get 2-4mpg more, which it did give me 4mpg more on the one long 1000 mile hiway trip with it hooked up.

But I town drive mostly, and the tach jumping is very annoying.

PS. So now that I remeber that trip, I would say my system has about 1100 miles on it.

 

[jetjock]

So it's a multi-strike system. Ssssssss....sorry, no sale