quote:

Originally posted by Camaro80z:
SCDIV1,

I had the same issue you are describing 2 years ago running a Pro Power and a 7AL2. My car was really lazy coming off the stop and slow on the top end.

It turned out my Pro Power was not working at all. I was told by MSD to NEVER use a Pro Power for anything that runs more than a few seconds at a time.

Switched to the HVC-II coil and I gained my 5 m.p.h. back.
We did the same thing on my dad's car, which was not having any issues, and gained 2 m.p.h.

How did motor run if pro power wasn’t working at all? Not trying to be a d1ck but it must have been working somewhat if motor was running.

I have an MSD ignition tester..

I can and have fired a Pro Power coil using the tester and the spark is extremely strong and has no problem running for a long time.

In a short time the custom spark plug that comes with the tester will be so hot you can't handle it...

I prefer oil filled coils and the Pro Power I believe is an oil filled coil


Modern dry e-core coils fail at a far higher rate than any old oil filled coils.....that's a fact and I see it regularly on machines I fix.....

The coil everyone including myself used for years and years with any MSD ignition or any other igntion was a Mallory 28880 oil filled coil.....They pretty much never failed.....

I had an ignition issue in my old dragster and at the time was using a then new Holley Annihilator ignition.....It had a hand held programmer and you could change rev limits with it and other things.

Worked great but I had 2 that were No Good out of the box.....3rd one worked fine.....

One day I developed a miss under load and chased it for a few weeks......Gave up and replaced the Holley ignition....

The last thing I replaced should have been the first.....the crank trigger pickup.....It was rubbed on by the trigger wheel from a semi panic thrash the first day I ran a Ron's Terminator.....Pump pulley set screw was loose causing loss of fuel pressure.....Pump was mounted same place as trigger bracket.....I was thrashing between rounds trying to find what the issue was and trigger air gap got too close....

S-H-I-T happens.....Its part of why I love drag racing.....crazy stuff happens.....

A Ron's Terminator injection pump drive shaft is smooth....no key and the only thing holding the pulley tight on the shaft is set screws.....at least back about 2000 that's how they were....

When your going rounds and your car is shutting off and doing crazy stuff you don't always have time to do things right...…

That episode cost me an entire ignition system....

Diagnosing anything is the hard part.....

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:
When your going rounds and your car is shutting off and doing crazy stuff you don't always have time to do things right...…
That episode cost me an entire ignition system....
Diagnosing anything is the hard part.....

I agree that correctly diagnosing problems with race cars, especially ignition related, can be tough and expensive.

This is where MSD 7730 Grid can be of great help. The Grid Data Acquisition can show you much of what the ignition is doing. And for $400, that’s a powerful tool besides all the programmable features it provides.

Tech West found my Bad Top End Skip.....after I replaced everything....

quote:

Originally posted by Richie:
Tech West found my Bad Top End Skip.....after I replaced everything....

Considering what you wrote, imho, having a spare ignition control, would have been a less expensive troubleshooting exercise.

How much did it cost to fix one?

quote:

Originally posted by Richie:
Tech West found my Bad Top End Skip.....after I replaced everything....

So was what ended up being bad one of the parts you replaced? If so then I would assume the part you replaced it with was bad also?

My experience with tech west wasn’t great.... had to send it to msd anyway

quote:

Originally posted by green1:

quote:

Originally posted by Camaro80z:
SCDIV1,

I had the same issue you are describing 2 years ago running a Pro Power and a 7AL2. My car was really lazy coming off the stop and slow on the top end.

It turned out my Pro Power was not working at all. I was told by MSD to NEVER use a Pro Power for anything that runs more than a few seconds at a time.

Switched to the HVC-II coil and I gained my 5 m.p.h. back.
We did the same thing on my dad's car, which was not having any issues, and gained 2 m.p.h.

How did motor run if pro power wasn’t working at all? Not trying to be a d1ck but it must have been working somewhat if motor was running.

I am just going off of what MSD told me. They said the coil was not adding any power and the car was running off of what was coming from the ignition box.

Markemark & Green1, It ended up being the HVII coil had an internal short (Tech West found it after testing all my stuff), started the 2019 season w/ 8251 coil, no more problem!

So was that something you didn’t replace when you were chasing the issue before Tech West found it? I am just trying to get the big pictures for future issues I may have because you said you replaced everything and then Tech West found the issue.

Green, The trigger wheel & coil were the only things I didn't change in 2018, the coil was 2 yrs old and fine in 2017 so I changed other parts that were 23+ yrs. first...
At the end of the 2018 season I still had the miss/skip, sent 7AL & coil to Tech West. They tested box first, that tested alittle hurt but not enough to cause my issue, then they tested my 7AL & My HVII and found it, huge draw as RPM increased. I was told that you can find the short by using a heat gun on coil housing and there will be a 10 - 20* hot spot. Bought the new coil for 19 season and all was fine.

Can someone post the contacts information for tech west? When I googled it I got a dental supply warehouse and air compressor sales.

You would probably have just as good of luck contacting them through numbers you found on google at least that’s my experience.

quote:

Originally posted by Wooley:
Can someone post the contacts information for tech west? When I googled it I got a dental supply warehouse and air compressor sales.

Here is their website, the phone number is on it: http://techwest.ipower.com/index.html

Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by green1:
You would probably have just as good of luck contacting them through numbers you found on google at least that’s my experience.

Truth

Wooley, you want to speak w/ Pat Collins

Thank you will try to call him Thursday or Friday. Working third shift puts me on a schedule that is opposite the entire world it seems.

Called Techwest on Monday 01/06/20 left a message and they called me today 01/08/20. Everything there is good. I have a MSD-3 box that is in a car I bought and need it looked at. All my boxes since I heard about Techwest years ago have been serviced by them. My experience has been steller. I have recommended to others with same outcome as they have thanked me for telling them about Techwest. I have no indication if this box is good or bad but for peace of mind I will send it and make sure. They do have up dates for the MSD-3 which addresses the intermintant retard problem.