My MSD failure

[mreid]

For years I have been defending MSD. I've used their products in over 2 dozen vehicles with no significant problems. Today that changed. Sorry in advance for the length of my story.

It was a beautiful day in PA. 75 degrees, no humidity and sunny skies. My wife said she wanted to take her first ride in the cobra and we should drive to this English pub about 25 miles from home for brunch. It is a great drive through the rolling hills and twisty roads of horse country in Chester county. We were about 5 miles from home, still on the main road when I made a right turn and the car started bucking, backfiring, and stalled. I coasted into a Comfort Inn parking lot.

My car has about 200 miles on it and was just registered. Brand new Ford Racing 427w with a 750 Holley, Performer RPM air gap, MSD distributor, coil, and box. The blaster 2 coil (non-vibration model) is mounted to the front of the head with a 1 " spacer and is painted black and yellow as you can see below:



I checked the fuel and carb, fine. The spark test worked fine, distributor rotor turned, and all connections were good, so I let the engine cool for a a few minutes and it started, but ran poorly eventually stalling. Symptoms were a bad coil, but I left my box of spare parts on the workbench as I removed them yesterday to put them in a small padded bag to carry them in and forgot it as we were leaving. Fortunately, there was a Pep Boys about two miles down the street with a speed shop. The one nice thing about breaking down in your cobra is that everyone wants to help and this guy from the hotel took me down and back. I bought a new black high vibration MSD coil and a mag pickup just in case. Swapped out the coil and it started right up, but we drove back home and got the DD and only lost an hour.

Bad coil with only 200 miles??? Could painting it cause a problem? Heat from the head? I've used this same set up on several cars with no problems. Has MSD quality really gotten this bad? Anyway, definitely a case for carrying spare parts and the right tools. I'm kind of bummed that my wife's first time in the car was not a good one and while I may have lost a corner of the man card for using the word "brunch" above, my wife now thinks I am a genius for fixing the problem so quickly!

[FFRCobraMike]

MSD is famous for heat issues in both the 6al box and the coil. My experience with their coils was a brand new out of the box coil being bad out of the box. However, my next coil has lasted 6 years. So i guess it is just quality control. As for the 6AL box, NEVER put it under the hood of a Cobra. They have a very small engine compartment vs. engine size and tend to get very hot. It is always recommended to place it under the dash where it is not subjected to the engine heat. Since Cobra engine compartments are typically much hotter than say a 60's muscle car, perhaps painting it held in extra heat. More likely though it was just a defective coil. Mine is mounted exactly where yours is and without a spacer. As I said it has functioned just fine for 6 years. Much of American parts are now made in China. Comp Cams is a perfect example. I bought one thinking it was a made in USA part. It failed dramatically in 150 miles costing me $5K to repair the engine which Comp refused to cover any part of. They did not even cover the cost of a new cam. I then found out the cam was made in China.

[mreid]

Thanks for the feedback, Mike, and good experience. The box is under the dash and I'm hoping the new coil gives me as many trouble free miles as yours.

[decooney]

My MSD Blaster-2 coil went bad while driving a few months back. Most say coils never go bad, and they do especially if they are the oil filled type and get hot in the engine bay - especially when mounted to the engine or heads, etc. Popped a new one in, and all was good again. They DO go bad.

[Tom Wells]

mreid,

Get the epoxy filled, part no 8222.

You have lotsa company: MSD Blaster2 Coil failed while driving

The engine mounting location probably tends to shake the oil enough to short out the coil. The epoxy type should last a lot longer...

Tom

[mreid]

Thanks, Tom, that's the one I bought at Pep Boys.

[kevin12973]

Now, how about those Holley electric fuel pumps

[Dwight]

yea, I have one of the Red Holley pumps mounted on my frame next to the tank. 34,000 miles and 11 years it still works but I expect it to fail anytime.

Dwight

I need to add that I have fuel injection, high pressure pump and a return line. And my computer turn it off when it charges the system. Maybe that help prolong the life of the pump.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Hi,
We were 3 cobra's heading north out of Reno, WSCB II, Fred's superformance started smelling bad infront of me and died, 2 lane road 40 miles from Reno.
I had a meter and tested his ignition, bad 6A so one cobra went back to Reno to get another one while we tore out the old one on the gravel at the side of the hwy. Put in a new box and were back on the road in about 4 hours.
AWAYS HAVE A SPARE AND TOOLS.
Perry.

[D-CEL]

If you going to carry a spare, you might as well wire it! LOL

JASON

[decooney]

Originally Posted by D-CEL

If you going to carry a spare, you might as well wire it! LOL

JASON

Well, if you are going to take it that far, might as well add a 2nd distributor and extra coil while you are at it.

[D-CEL]

I do have two coils, but no second dist..... dam it...

jason

[scottj]

Originally Posted by decooney

Well, if you are going to take it that far, might as well add a 2nd distributor and extra coil while you are at it.

That's not that far-fetched... I always ran dual ignitions; one off a crank trigger and the second off the distributor. The crank trigger is for max power while the distributor is retarded 5 degrees and is used for traction control and starting/warm-up with locked advance.

[dpmac]

After losing a 6AL a couple of years ago (mounted in engine bay) I wired the new one up so I could simply disconnect it from the system and use the stock ignition system. (FFR with FI). After reading the above I guess I will need to throw a spare coil in the bag.

[mreid]

Coil, pickup, cap, rotor, but I draw the line at a spare box (wired or unwired).

Damn, I hope I don't come to regret that comment!

So, here is the setup:



Bag on the left contains 12v compressor, hose, flashlight, and tire plug kit. The Shelby toolkit (kind of cheap tools) also holds the spare coil, pickup, cap, and rotor. Just to the right is a spare Holley fuel pump. The tool bags are sitting on top of the 158 piece mechanics tool kit from Lowes as recommended in the other thread. Not bad for $39.95. Now, I just need to find a way to strap it all down.