My Spark Died (MSD)

[dave w]

The pic below is of a popular aftermarket cap and rotor kit. The kit is very low mileage, less than 10,000 miles! I'm not writing a product review, but I'm firmly convinced this is typical of the quality provided by this aftermarket supplier? Maybe the factory parts are a better value?

dave w

[srobertsfsj]

Wow, never seen that one before, thanks for sharing. What did you have your plugs gaped to?

[EagleMark]

I've seen that before, usually with an MSD box, on MSD cap and rotor and stock cap and rotor. Three times the spark equals 1/3 the life span... also equals faster green corrosion on pick up coil and wires to EST...

[dave w]

Wow, never seen that one before, thanks for sharing. What did you have your plugs gaped to?

The plugs are AC Delco's Conventional (copper core?), set to factory gap. Plugs were not in the best shape (lots of carbon build up), but after cleaning with some brake cleaner they seem to work fine.

dave w

[one92rs]

i had a miss problem on my tbi as well. the cap and rotor kit had only 1000 miles on it. gold terminals on top and carbon underneath. put an accel cap and rotor kit back on it. gold top and bottom. miss went away. i have a cold miss here and there. i then replaced my MSD coil with an accel unit. guess what. cold miss went away.
now i have used msd for years. a buddy of mine ( professional racer ) said he got away from MSD about 5 years ago and went to a mix of mallory and accel and has not experienced the problem since. i am doing the same. as a matter of fact i went to TAYLOR wires also.

[RobertISaar]

sounds like a perfect excuse for some DIS fun!

also, i run Taylor Spiro-Pros that i made myself, awesome wires. really low resistance, yet no kind of RFI issues.

[dave w]

sounds like a perfect excuse for some DIS fun!

Agreed!

I don't think an LSx PCM with MPFI conversion is in the budget.

dave w

[Six_Shooter]

I use Taylor wires on a lot of my cars, when I don't use factory replacements.

I've never experienced any premature problems with caps or rotors when using high voltage CD ignitions, so I do not blame the increased spark potential, for ignition system failure, since I've seen parts in applications without the increased spark potential fail just as quickly.

[TheApocalyptican]

Figured I'd add that I had this problem too. 1st cap I found it on, I never adjusted the tang on the rotor, as I didn't know it was necessary. 2nd one(which I am currently using) I adjusted the tang, and I still have blown thru 3/4 of the carbon button on the cap, and done so in maybe 400 miles. I've got Jegs 8mm wires, msd cap, rotor and coil. Definitely no reason for the caps to do this. Factory parts are going to be installed instead very soon.