i was cruising around other sites and someone said "msd ignition is worthless"...is tghis tru? cuz i was about to get one for pretty cheap next week...

 

for a stock Accord? yes

The ignition can handle some power increase. From what I've been told the ignition starts to lose effectiveness when you start revving higher into the RPM's like 8k or so. Since you won't be revving that high on a stock motor it's not going to be any gain for you.

But if you need to replace the ignition parts anyway and can get the msd products cheaper, it's not going to hurt anything.

 

Just by installing the msd ignition... you can tell by the way the engine idle how the noise is lower. So yeah, there's a an improvement with it.. (it's not worthless).

 

well i have a short ram in now and i just recieved my headers today and theyll be put in tomorrow and the week after that the rest of my exhaust so how will all that come together i kno the gains of my intake, headers, exhaust but im not really familiar wit ignition how will the msd play in wit all that?

 

For I/H/E changing ignition isn't really going to get you anything. Honda has very eficcient ignition systems.

 

I installed my MSD SCI Ignition right around the same mark as you are doing with the other mods you mentioned. I saw huge improvements, not only with the way the car idled, but all the way thru the power band. The engine became way snappier with its' response time and didn't seem to lose power thru the mid-range like it did before.

They way that they explain it is that anything over 3k rpm's is getting a bit too fast for the stock coil to keep up with. The coil is a capacitor that charges and discharges to the plugs in a fraction of a second, and it can only charge and discharge so fast. When you start getting up in the rpm range that won't allow the coil to fully charge up, then you start decreasing the amount spark that makes it to your plugs.

The MSD is a "Multiple Spark Discharge" system that, instead of sparking one time per piston stroke, it sparks 3 times with much greater current. Although this system is made for high-revving engines, it too is a capacitor that can only handle so much speed, so anything over 3k it starts to drop sparks. Instead of 3 you will get 2, then higher in the rpm bad, you get 1. I've even heard that it will start to drop the spark in alternating cylinders all together really, really high up in the rpm band.

Something cool to do is, before you install it, take one of your plugs out, leave the wire on it and lay it on the valve cover so it's touching the metal. Have a buddy crank over the engine a few times and watch your stock spark. It's so small and faint, that you will hardly see it (compared to the MSD). Then install the MSD system and do the same thing. Where you had to really look for the spark before, it now lights up like a welding machine! It actually makes a nice ball of blue plasma right at the tip of your plug that is about 50x bigger than before.

If you do install this device, I suggest using Iridium plugs, as they rock. You can't gap Iridium plugs, so don't try... They come ready to go, right out of the box. Also, while you are installing this thing, cut the main power wire going to the unit and toss in a switch inline with that hot wire, and now you have a kill switch on the ignition box!! All you will get is cranking with no spark and it is just enough to frustrate a thief and hopefully make him move on without pissing all in your interior.

-I went to radio shack and got a small project box and put 7 switches in there that have to be in a certain sequence for the ignition box to become active. That's something like 5,040 different combinations it could be, and unless they are Rainman, they ain't getting it started.

 

tru thats wassup....i got bosch platinum 4+ plugs in now....still think the switch to iridum is nessesary?

 

+4 is such a gimmick

 

I did the MSD cap and external coil on my 98 over a year ago and I as soon as I started it up after putting it on my dad was amazed at the difference in idle quality. I also think my mpg increased slightly.

People w/out it can call it worthless all they want. I noticed a difference and thats all that matters to me.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DiZwHaT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">tru thats wassup....i got bosch platinum 4+ plugs in now....still think the switch to iridum is nessesary?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Bosch +4s suck. Just get regular NGKs.

MSD ignition may make your car idle smoother, but you run a risk of the box cutting out on you at any time. I have had 2 ignition boxes in the past (MSD and Jacobs) and they both randomly died and left me stranded. Do it if you want, but IMO it's not worth it unless your stock ignition just doesn't cut it any more.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BlkChryKord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I did the MSD cap and external coil on my 98 over a year ago and I as soon as I started it up after putting it on my dad was amazed at the difference in idle quality. I also think my mpg increased slightly.

People w/out it can call it worthless all they want. I noticed a difference and thats all that matters to me.</TD></TR></TABLE>

So you changed only the cap and the coil? If you had replaced them with OEM Hondo you would have had the exact same results. Your old ones were probably.....old.

 

Quote, originally posted by DiZwHaT »
tru thats wassup....i got bosch platinum 4+ plugs in now....still think the switch to iridum is nessesary?


Yea, I just changed my plus 4's out for NGK Iridiums because only after 2 months of use, plug #4 gave out and starting having blow-by and just plain crapped out on me. After taking them all out and inspecting, I noticed that they looked all chewed up. I'm not sure, but it appears that the extremely hot spark produced by the MSD proved to be too much on the platinum element and electrodes. Yea, they suck.

 

I did, cap, coil, wires. And the oem parts weren't that old. I've done rotor, cap, wires, plugs before and it never made as big a difference.

 

It is true the OEM ignition system is incredibly effecient. However, if you upgrade to MSD (coil and box) you will notice how the idle and acceleration quality improve. However, if you do this keep your OEM coil in the engine bay as MSD boxes do not like vibration. After having one fail inside the engine bay due to vibration i mounted mine under the pax seat behind the vent, So during long drive i can turn on the ac or cool vent and blow the air over the fins keeping the unit cooled. Bottom line...it's not worthless but definetly not a first mod to go with.

 

you guys have it all right... MSD is not a first mod thing, but if you want a better idle, a little better MPG and some better pull when accel, these units are for you... the reason people like them is because they work great in V8 applications and when you have gone the distance in mods and need more spark... but on lightly modded hondas and acuras stick with stock because you will have less problems down the line... i have a H22a1 with light mods and 206k miles on the engine... and my ignition is goin out slowly so i might go the MSD just to help with idle... so its one of those parts that some people love and some hate and its totally up to you on how you feel about it... my thing is i am running rich so i might go with the MSD or other mult. spark unit to help burn all the fuel... its just up to you tho

 

MSD ignition parts arent going to do anything for you HP wise and gaining acceleration...maybe a smidge..the only reason you people are seeing a change is because your old ignition parts were probaly worn out and worthless so when you put the MSD parts on their it just fixed the idle and made it run smoother..if you throw some MSD parts on there and run a dyno before and after I guarntee the HP gain will be minimal to nothing..probably nothing