New MSD Eight Coil Ignition System

I wonder if that’s what’s Stevie fast has been testing on the shadow and promod. Sure seems like the days of a mag are numbered. I ran FuelTech all last year and love it.

 

It gives you seven more coils to go bad. In all seriousness, one coil per cylinder is ideal right? We have a much short spark plug wire, with less resistance, so more spark makes it to the plug?

I’m not sure why, but every team that I have seen change over to a coil near plug setup struggles for a little bit. In the end they always seem to end up running better than before the swap. It may entirely coincidental and it’s possible that they changed other things as well that made them inconsistent, and eventually pick up. I haven’t been close to anyones program that has made the switch, I would like to hear some real world input on this one, no so much the new MSD deal, but the coil near plug in general.

Mike, on a miss fire are you meaning that the coil itself might be misfiring? Isn’t the racepak optic sensor supposed to pickup each time the coil fires? How often have you had points box failures?



Good topic on promag coils, points boxes and such.
http://www.insidetopalcohol.com/threads/pro-mag-44-ignition-issues-experiences.59750/

 

When I was thinking of changing I started to question some things like why doesn’t a turbo car use a mag anymore? Or a Procharger car? Then I realized that the mag is built for nitro engine and was design in the 70s. Have we not advanced since then ? When I made my change I was scared as hell. Throwing away everything I knew and starting over. And I seen the horror stores About it being setup wrong and kicking the rods on the burnout, two step, etc. but when we finally went to start it. FuelTech walked me thru every step to guarantee success. I made the choice to use them after talking with Brandon pesz. And he said that never would he go back. That it’s the same coils on the car from day 1 and it’s been 3 years! Can’t say anything will last that long in a mag setup! Also the fake points boxes or Chinese coils failing almost instantly. And you have to trouble shoot your own stuff, why? Or own 3 complete ignition system in the trailer ? I couldn’t afford that. After making 4 runs we were already faster to the 330 than I ever been with the exact same combo from last season. And I don’t have to carry one single spare ignition part. It’s self diagnosing and if a trouble code or anomaly happens it’s logged and isolated. How do you beat that. I can text anyone from FuelTech and ask what it is and get an instant response. I unloaded all my Msd stuff before it became a clutch and you’d never get rid of it. That why I made the change.

 

To touch on your mis Fire theory, there really isn’t an easy way to tell if an engine fired or mis fired. A lot of the OEM’s now days are able to pin point which bank and cylinder has an issue, so I did a little research and Saab has been using technology that they refer to as Ion Sensing since the early 90’s. They use the spark plug to sense ions in the combustion chamber after combustion. This seems like it could be the check and balance we would be looking for to ensure that each cylinder is not only firing, but not detonating either. Maybe the technology hasn’t caught up to us racers yet.


Interesting read:

https://www.searchautoparts.com/mot...vice-repair/making-sense-ion-sense-technology

 

...........Very interesting

 

Just did the same thing as you for next season, good to hear, power grid killed me and the motor once never again!

 

My whole setup lost about 20 lbs when the change over was done. FuelTech coils go rich when the battery voltage starts to drop. That’s their failsafe for coils. My only downfall I see is the FuelTech has to turn over 8 times before it will start. But they are working on a update for that.

 

Hmmm, I've been saying coil near plug (CNP) is the way to go for about 19 years. Glad to see that others are catching on now.

One small aspect does concern me though. If these are truly "Smart Coils" then a Smart Coil can fire of it's own will at a time that is not desirable. A "Dumb" coil is a better option, and will only fire when told to. I'll have to call them tomorrow to explore this further........

Now picture 24 coils and 24 spark plugs .

 

Brand new box was no good, long story short the Car wouldn't shift or the Rev limiter was hitting on one cylinder and cutting out and I lean out #2 and torched the head. sent to msd after being on the phone for hours with them and they send a new box and it fixed the issue, then told me to buy a spare for the trailer aas they had no idea what was wrong with it.

 

Update is 4 turns now before it starts!

 

how are the MSD coils packs holding up?