Where to mount MSD box?

[Crimson Thunder]

Santa was nice enough to bring me a new MSD Pro Billet Distributor for Christmas to replace the aging Mallory Unilite without Vac advance that has been in my car since I bought it. I need some advise on where other owners have mounted the required ignition box. My personal preference is to somehow install it behind the passenger dash pad.

 

[TimAT]

I went down low behind the gills on the left inner fender. Good airflow. Not that it makes a lot of difference under the hood on my 69, that BB throws off so much heat it's crazy. I looked at inside, but was being a little lazy. The factory TI amplifier is on the front of the core support. Tough to get to it. I'm back to the TI anyway. Easier starting and better idle. THe only thing I lost bypassing the aftermarket CD box was the rev limiter.

 

[Hib Halverson]

I'm a little confused. If Santa brought you an MSD distributor, you usually put distributors in the engine and not behind the passenger dash pad.


If Santa also brought you an MSD ignition to go with the distributor, know that while MSD makes really good stuff, the ignitions are like little arc welders. If your car has a radio, especially high-end audio, you want to mount the MSD ignition box as far away from the interior as you can get it.

I have both the MSD Pro Billet dist and an MSD Digital 6 AL on my 71. I cut an aluminum plate and mounted it on the front end bracketry, in front of the bottom of the radiator core support. Then I installed the MSD on that.

 

[Crimson Thunder]

Thanks Hib and Tim for your help. I will start looking near the core support for suitable location. Did you guys run the 6A power leads all the way to the Battery?

 

[Hib Halverson]

I took power from where the battery cable bolts to the starter solenoid. It was a much shorter run that going back to the battery. I used 8-ga. cable because that's also were I get the power for my fans. If you're not running big electric fans, you can just run 10-ga cable from the solenoid up to the MSD. Then just ground the MSD's black wire to the frame.

See your MSD instructions for additional details.

MSD is some serious ign for stock or near stock engines. You may be able to open up your plug gaps a bit and, also, you might be able to go colder on your plugs, too, if you felt the need.

You didn't mention of your distributor is the Corvette specific unit with the tach drive and the vac. advance can but, if it is, and you opt for an aggressive centrifugal curve, you may need to limit your vac. adv. to 8-10 deg.

Good luck.

 

[tektrans]

mounted mine on back of passenger front fenderwell.

If you use the MSD extreme shock coil you can mount it like this if you want to.