Ignition upgrades for Fiesta?

[Mike Graves]

Howdy,
I've been thinking of upgrading the ignition on my '80 Fiesta S. I am currently running the stock Duraspark unit and an upgrade Bosch electronic distributor. I don't know much about the different types of ignition boxes like MSD boxes and the like, but I'd appreciate any information anyone cares to share.

Also, thank you to Fiesta Frank and others for responding to my question about the Fiesta heads.

[JeffYoung]

Lots of different opinions on the MSD box. You'll hear some on this board say it doesn't do much good, others swear by it.

Somewhere, someone posted a long article on the box and its advantages. Gist of it was that with cars that have imprecise air/fuel mixtures (i.e. carbs), the added spark makes a different.

My personal experience is precisely that. I have a carbureted V8, the only one in IT. Before I intstalled the MSD, I had bad miss issues and couldn't really get the motor to rev. With the box, motor runs great and pulls cleanly to the redline. I've been very pleased.

Are the early Fiestas (great cars by the way, was my first car) carbureted? If so, I think you will see some gains.

[joeg]

Yes, they are carb motors.

Actually, Ford motorsports used to sell a box and coil swap for the DuraSpark. I used these in all my race cars. They were simple bolt/ plug ins being dimensionally the same to the Duraspark box.


They were made by MSD!

Now that they are no longer made, I will have to go with the regular MSD boxes, which will probably need to go inside the passenger foot well.

Why MSD?

They are readily available and do work. Do not think, however, that the DuraSpark is that inferior.

Cheers.

[Mike Graves]

Thanks for the replies.
The setup Joeg mentioned sounds like the same system sold by BAT. The dang thing sells for $250 IIRC.
I recently bought a parts Fiesta which has an MSD5 box, but I was wondering how it compares to a CDI unit like Jacobs Electronics sells. Does anyone have experience with those, or should I just use the MSD5 box that I already have?
Thanks a bunch! -Mike