MSD 6AL Over heating issue

[ROKN69]

Hello all,

I have an MSD 6AL that I purchased new from Summit Racing a couple of years ago, along with a Blaster 2 coil. The problem I'm having with it (relatively recently diagnosed) is it is overheating and causing the engine to stumble and die. At first I thought the problem was other things, such as carburator issues, other electrical issues, etc. I worked on resolving those issues for quite a while before I had it pointed out to me...

I was at Sacramento Raceway in November of last year and two guys there were having similar issues - both were 65 Mustang guys. Both were really NICE guys, too. Anyway, one of them suggested that I put a bag with ICE on the MSD box, and whalla! The stumbling and stuttering issues went away in about 3 minutes. We figured it was because of the mounting location (high up on my firewall with the headers down below it) and that heat from the headers was causing the unit to overheat.

So, I moved it to up behind the right headlight (my battery has been relocated to the trunk) where the battery would normally be and it's still overheating. I had someone else mention that it could be improperly grounded, so yesterday I had my wiring guy rewire the negative ground directly to the negative battery cable (which ends at the Starter). This seems to have helped a "little", but last night in 87 degree weather, idling in a McDonnald's drive through line, it overheated again! I was in line for about 15 minutes, but still, my water temperature was 180 the entire time, and it was not "hot" out.

I've been asking around at various events and found that I'm not the only one having these overheating issues with their MSD boxes. Both of those Mustang guys bring ICE in bags so they can ice down their MSD boxes, between laps. This to me doesn't sound like it is the way it should be. I'd like to have mine fixed, RMAed, or whatever.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing, with their MSD box? If so, how did you get it resolved?

Thanks for taking the time to read my lengthy post, and I appreciate your help.

--Roger

[Vegas69]

Nope...but thanks for the heads up. I have mine behind a headlight as well and it gets a bunch of air. I've intenitoinally got my car as hot as possible in the garage as well. Not ideal if I got caught in a rain storm that's for sure. How are your connections? All tight and with the proper gauge wires? What does MSD have to say? I'll sure be on the lookout for this if I encounter problems. Good luck.

[tyoneal]

Originally Posted by ROKN69

Hello all,

I have an MSD 6AL that I purchased new from Summit Racing a couple of years ago, along with a Blaster 2 coil. The problem I'm having with it (relatively recently diagnosed) is it is overheating and causing the engine to stumble and die. At first I thought the problem was other things, such as carburator issues, other electrical issues, etc. I worked on resolving those issues for quite a while before I had it pointed out to me...

I was at Sacramento Raceway in November of last year and two guys there were having similar issues - both were 65 Mustang guys. Both were really NICE guys, too. Anyway, one of them suggested that I put a bag with ICE on the MSD box, and whalla! The stumbling and stuttering issues went away in about 3 minutes. We figured it was because of the mounting location (high up on my firewall with the headers down below it) and that heat from the headers was causing the unit to overheat.

So, I moved it to up behind the right headlight (my battery has been relocated to the trunk) where the battery would normally be and it's still overheating. I had someone else mention that it could be improperly grounded, so yesterday I had my wiring guy rewire the negative ground directly to the negative battery cable (which ends at the Starter). This seems to have helped a "little", but last night in 87 degree weather, idling in a McDonnald's drive through line, it overheated again! I was in line for about 15 minutes, but still, my water temperature was 180 the entire time, and it was not "hot" out.

I've been asking around at various events and found that I'm not the only one having these overheating issues with their MSD boxes. Both of those Mustang guys bring ICE in bags so they can ice down their MSD boxes, between laps. This to me doesn't sound like it is the way it should be. I'd like to have mine fixed, RMAed, or whatever.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing, with their MSD box? If so, how did you get it resolved?

Thanks for taking the time to read my lengthy post, and I appreciate your help.

--Roger

================================

Call MSD Tech.

I'm sure they can help you.

Ty

[GregWeld]

Where's your coil mounted? Wonder if that could be "breaking down" and getting heat soaked?

My buddies MSD is mounted where the glovebox used to be - it's TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT fit... in his 56 Chevy big block car... he's had no issues. Mine is mounted under the front seat (bench style) and right next to my Accel ECU - I've not had any problems with either. I've seen hundreds of cars with the MSD box mounted just where you have it - high up on the firewall - above the passenger side header... I would think that if there was a big problem with this location - or with these boxes overheating - there'd be a huge brew-ha over it. So I'm thinking a call to the MSD tech is in order. There could have been a bad batch of transistors or something like that - and they may be aware of it - or not... Either way - if it's acting up like this - I'd consider it defective!

[ROKN69]

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate your feedback.

I have the Blaster 2 coil mounted up on the intake manifold in front of the distributor. It is in a coil mount and is mostly vertical, kind of like the "Leaning Tower of Pisa". I don't think my issue is the coil, as all I have to do is ICE my MSD 6AL (or put a bag of ICE on it and leave it there) and all the problems go away.

All connections have been triple checked - the proper AWG wiring is used, and the proper voltage is present (at input). My Alternator is a PowerMaster 140amp single wire.

I've called MSD Tech. support, and have an RMA # for the 6AL. I'll be sending it in some time next week. MSD said they would bench test the unit, under load and hot, and see what might be going wrong with it. The MSD technician I spoke with (Joe) said that it could be outputting too much voltage, and may need adjusted. He said too much voltage could cause the unit to overheat. This would be a problem internal to the MSD unit, so they need to test it to see.

Thanks again!

--Roger

[wedged]

what type of distributor do you have ?

[ROKN69]

Originally Posted by wedged

what type of distributor do you have ?

The Billit MSD distributor, rated up to 10,000 RPM.

I purchased a new MSD Blaster 2 coil and a Summit digital Multi Spark box (I was in Reno this weekend) and my mechanic and I are going to redo the guts of the distributor as well, just in case!

I am extremely tired to chasing this gremlin around... I had a hell of a time getting home as traffic was stop-and-go outside of Rocklin coming in to Sacramento on Highway 80. 20 minutes of stop and go and my car trying to stop running ever 2 minutes, for about 1 minute. Very nerve racking. But, I made it home, and I won't drive it again until the entire ignition system has been overhauled and it's working properly.

I'm sending my MSD box in to MSD on RMA just to make sure. They will fix it, I'm sure, and I'll have a backup.

[lfrie]

I have the same problem, I have a 88 s10 blazer with a 383, if I get caught in traffic, the truck will stumble and shut off. If I put a ice pack on the MSD it will start right up and run fine as long as the ice remains. I added a blower from an inboard boat, ran the intake below the front light and have the discharge right on the MSD. It has never shut off again. It added about 1lb to the truck but it is worth the weight.