Anyone here ever use an MSD Pro Billet distributed?

[cazsper]

Though this is in a stroked Windsor in my '68 coupe, I considered getting one for my 4v Cleveland. I noticed that the rotor is totally different that what I have seen before. Also, it has a magnetic pickup. Almost looks like points. It's strange. I was just wondering if anyone else is familiar with this type of distributer and your opinions. My specific one is part #8478. Thanks..

 

[Mesozoic]

It's crap. Total overpriced crap. If you're going to run a distributor, use a Mallory unit.

 

[JimNiki]

Ouch! You may have just offended people wholesale! He he

(PS, I have also read many horror stories which put me off, eg, unreliable, made in China but ridiculously overpriced, etc)

I opted instead for a billet pertronix 111 with many similar performance features....

 

[Mesozoic]

Hehe, I only say such harsh words because I've had an MSD billet distributor leave me stranded in the remote wilderness of the Canadian Rockies before. To date, it's the only distributor failure I've ever encountered... and it was electrical as well. I've run Mallory Unilites for literally 20 years without a single problem before.

 

[turtle5353]

I am running a MSD probillet on my 408 Cleveland and its worked well for me. I did have one time that the pickup burnt out. but I did have it hooked up to a cheap china knock off box. The box fried and took the dizzy and coil with it. Since I have bought a MSD 6AL digital box and the Pro-billet dizzy It has ran great.

I also like the mechanical advance timing curve that can be customized inside with different weight springs. No need to run a vacuum line to the dizzy.

When I built my first motor for my car I put in a cheap set up from Ebay that looks like MSD but is VERY cheap. It didn't last long. the bearing went out of the dizzy shaft and the roll pin sheared and left me stranded. Don't recommend the cheap ebay stuff....Procomp.

Here is the dizzy I am running, not overpriced in my opinion.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-8577/overview/

 

[Paul of MO]

I like them - have built a dozen or so engines with a pro billet and a 6AL box and never had an issue.

We had a customer that had one rust up on the inside and froze the advance. Even though it was 8 or 9 years old they replaced it for free.

Mallory is good also - they are roughly the same price when all is said and done.

- Paul

 

[cazsper]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate your info. "Made in Mexico" doesn't always mean it's a bad thing. My Tremec T-56 was made in Mexico and I loved it..

 

[Mesozoic]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate your info. "Made in Mexico" doesn't always mean it's a bad thing. My Tremec T-56 was made in Mexico and I loved it..

There's nothing wrong with the quality of components from a lot of foreign places, including Mexico and Taiwan (on par with Japanese quality now), but I would steer clear of China. Their quality control is really not ISO 9001 yet.

 

[turtle5353]

If I remember right MSD's tech line was out of Texas.

 

[Mesozoic]

If I remember right MSD's tech line was out of Texas.

Texas doesn't mean diddly squat when you're out of cell range in the remote wilderness. What I like about Mallory is that they don't have to boast about some billet component (all of their distributors are billet anyway) and you can rely on them. Regardless, distributors are very old antiquated news. Time to move along to EFI and benefit from immediate starts, much improved fuel economy, no more fuel odors, and a lot more power and torque.

Although... and I looked into this before jumping into EFI, there are a few distributors out there that allow you to adjust the timing curve with a laptop, but still use vacuum advance for economy (if you want that). Mallory makes the best, IMHO, with something like this: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/maa-1256704/overview/make/ford. I don't know how much spark advance tuning you intend to do, but if you're trying to maximize your power output you're going to have to do it. I just can't stand opening up the distributor and changing the advance curve, it is such a time suck and PITA in many cases. It's so much easier plugging in a USB port and adjusting spark advance via laptop.