MALLORY OR MSD?

[JOHN G]

I see that both companies make a hyfire 6 ignition box and advertise the same specs. The Mallory is cheaper-would it be comparable to the msd in performance?Thanks-JOHN G

 

[WhitePony]

I looked into that myself, and I guess the performance is pretty similar. MSD is THE name in performance ignition systems, just like ARP is THE name in fasteners, although there are other companies who make high performance fasteners. I know that the Mallory unit does not need the the seperate limiter chips like MSD does. The unit can be adjusted to cover a wide range.

That said, I went ahead and popped for the MSD 6AL. MSD has a great reputation for reliability, and are easy to deal with when there is a problem. I don't know if Mallory is the same.

Kris

 

[addo]

Former poster "Whittey" once tabled a huge comparo/shootout of aftermarket ignitions. Unfortunately it was in a previous incarnation of the Forum, and Ron may or may not have saved it.

Some went backwards against the Duraspark; only two achieved significant gains, being the MSD and (from memory) Crane Hi-6.

I really suspect the GM module would do most people fine, but it lacks the nice presentation and cachet of the MSD.

Regards, Adam.

 

[JOHN G]

I have been told by a fellow tech around the corner from me that a non-delco ignition module may have some problems in allowing full advance characteristics-I am going to look into this and will report back. So the general consensus is that the higher grade system may not make any difference?

 

[MustangSix]

A flaw in some generic GM modules is that they are not robust enough to support rapid switching at high rpm. At some point they break down and cannot fully saturate a coil before firing in the very short time alloted. A high performance module would eliminate that problem.

Another good performance options would be to use a Mopar module. The "Orange" module has a good rep for performance and reliability.

All these distributors work the same way - a magnetic reluctor swinging past a pickup. Any of these modules should work with any of these distributors.