The 510 Realm

I was just mulling over some ideas for down the road and was looking into the MSD stuff. I know that there is a myriad of opinions on MSD devices, but let's put that aside. I got to thinking about using one and then thought about my distributor and it's tiny cap and how much larger the later style distributor caps are.

So say you were going to work up a performance engine; it can be either N/A or boosted. IN either scenario you might possibly retard or boost timing more than a stock ignition system. In these cases do you think there would be a significant possibility of the spark jumping to more than one terminal in the distributor with a smaller capped distributor vs with a conversion to a larger diameter capped later model distributor? If not is there any other advantage to switching to a newer style (electronic) distributor with an MSD?

If the cap, rotor and wires are good quality and in good shape the spark has no choice but to jump the spark plug gap. The L20B came with points and EI and both had the slightly larger diameter cap. Get an EI distributor and forget the MSG.

Short answer - Like Mike said, get an EI distributor and you'll be fine. CD ignition amps like an MSD 6-series are not necessary.

I can testify that the Dizzy works just fine, mine has been in service for 34 years now, never missed a beat and has propelled my engine, under 16 PSI boost, to 8,000 RPM no problem.

MSD5 works well too...oh hey...I think I saw one in the classified section!

hehe