MSD Ignition
 

As of now there are a couple of solutions that we currenty have for as upgrading the ignition that we have on the rx8. Such as the BHR unit and so on.

I've check the searches but i have yet to seen any one run an a MSD Ignition box setup on their turbo RX-8, or any pics or reviews on anyone doing it on there car.. Do u think MSD over kill for the 8 or no one wants to get to much involved with the unit.

charles beat me to it, but MSD coils don't necessarily have the lifespan of other coils on high revving engines. Not that MSD bad, just they are designed to be replaced on race cars; and might not be worth it on an 8 for the little extra spark.

I do think the msd has a high failure rate. I run with a lot of people that use the ls engine --vettes v/8 rx 7's etc and they have told me that they are not worth the money. Plus within their community they hear of a high failure rate.
I am sure they have a purpose for a highly built recip engine ( although that escapes me) , but a street driven rx8---dont think I want to go there. They are purdy.
Juan runs them but he does not drive his car on a daily basis. They have worked very well for him.
OD

We, i know something like 20 RX8 running those coils in Europa, stock one, modified NA ones, FI'ed ones, no failure, everything i can say.

My own 8 got it, + heatness shield, runs perfectly, nice gains on the NA engine compared to stock ignition system, big gains in T°, but by the way, the stock stuff is so much crappy... Erm...

The most impressive thing is the change of the power curve's appearance, that's crazy.

your post is whats crazy, as in insane.

gains over decent(new) OEM coils are minimal, as is nearly every other simple NA bolt on.
you make it sound as if the power curve is magically transformed, far from the truth.
assume that T° refers to exhaust gas temp? I'm not even gonna touch that one unless you wanted to expand on what you mean

Oh boy...................go check out some of the old "Mazsport" threads about ignitions systems.
Of course this is before Scott screwed most everyone!
I believe it used the MSD and igniter box..........however I could be wrong, my memory fails me from time to time.


Here is the original thread................. https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...light=mazsport

I will caution you though that I believe there were dwell issues with this system in relationship to running in FI applications that apparently took out motors. Now, I may not remember my fact svery well and Mazsport is loooooooooong gone now, but be advised.

You'd be much better off listening to Ray(Charles Hill) at BHR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Want to know more........then use the advanced search function, select titles only(on the left), and put in "Mazsport ignition"

If you give a look about the first video in my signature, you can see what those coils gived to my car, with a whole new OEM ignition system and our ancient remap version wich wasn't adapted to that ignition system, it was running about 11,8/11,9 s on that exercise ( 50 km/H => 150 km/H, with the MSD, i'm running 10,6 seconds, nothing else different on the car, with the last version of my remap, i'm running 10,6 s with electronical slightly "castrating" the power when i turn on the third gear in straight, means i could do a 10,2 approximatively, no pulleys, no aftermarket clutch, no flywheel, juste exhaust line and ignition.


Friend of mine with a nicely NA modified Renesis is running actually around 9"6 seconds, you don't get those numbers with 170 whp you know, and i've seen the curves of his car, i know the numbers and the way it keeps on growing where the ancient curves were fading, there's videos of his car on track in europa, he's equal in straight lines performance to quite bigger cars ( and he destroys mine in straight lines too, and mine is actually quite fast for a NA slightly modded ).

But i'm not here to debate or to sell anything as it's not my job, i just tell what we all found, and i agree with other advices, this is not a good upgrade in my mind for daily street used engines, lots of things changes, lowering most of temps and we don't know really how and why, modifying the engine and making it really different in revs...

In one or two years, i'll be able to tell what finally results of this modification and then i'll come back to say what i really think of some aftermarket ignition system as we actually have in our club BHR, Okada, MSD and even an Esmeril one. I guess that a good re-maping as we have here across ocean is necessary in addition, specially for the MSD for their specs.

Now it's rebuild, streetport and other heavy mod's time. Always NA ;)

ok..

No i don't think of course on a stock map that they would change anything, or the driver wouldn't just feel it.

But the before/after on an allready custom maped car is really surprising ( the guy working on it changes lots of factors, he did a great, long and hard job, and tested everything on his own car for months ), i've installed all the stuff with a friend leading a garage and we're gone testing it just after, together in the car, he instantly noticed the changes, and me too but i've said " no it's in our mind " lol :s, two days and 300 kms after , i did my usual test always on the same road, and when i saw the numbers, i said " oh putain ! "( but you don't need to know what it means in our langage. :p ).

But yes, the car had a first remap before the ignition changes, and it worked in addition to make the HP gain, coils alone won't really change anything, the stock ones couldn't deal with it, specially on high rpm.

Whatever, with the new map we've loaded recently, i feel good with the renesis, this isn't no more the lazy stock engine it was at the beginning, still not a monster of course, but it runs very well and allows me to engage really bigger cars on track days, i'm not a great driver, i wouldn't do anything good on tracks with a FI'd engine > 300 WHP, as i have to rebuild it, i will take my chance and make internal changes, but it is actually really nice to drive, a daily pleasure.

so do you actually have a map to see the curve change, or is this just what your 'feeling'?

No curves for my car ( there's no serious places or ti's too expansive and not adapted to rotary engines, and NA engines most of times ), curves are for the other car i'm speaking of, my car is beeing following only with performances tests, always on the same track in quite similar conditions, i've got a nice bank of data following her evolution for two years since i started to modify it, allows me to gives gains numbers with mods, or losses sometimes... :s


Next year i'll get curves, as we are starting heavy mecanical mods, 800 kilometers to do this, so i can't make it each month you know...

To make sure Im think im understanding u Leandrys is that u say going with an msd setup is useless on a street car but better suited for a track . Jave u endured any typ of electrical problems running the setup.

You don't need fancy tests to see how the coils perform. Their specs are all over the web.
Trading reliability for something not even remotely noticeable is not smart either :)

What kind of electrical problems ? :confused:

No, i have nothing, it's effective you know, their specs are better, they are heavier, bigger, and red ( dont laugh, ;) ), time will say how long they'll stand, even if i know a good number of cars with those coils and no trouble, but nothing's better than a personnal experience, i hate people saying " it roxx/it suxx" but who can't exactly answer the question " why ... ? ". ( my car killed a whole new OEM ignition kit in 2500 kms approximatively before those.. :s and then, i had electrical problems, ye )

Okada's ignition on a friend's car also, i like the incorporated heat shield + plug and play on stock support concept, but not enough kilometers to give an advice on it about reliability, by the way, you know, the oem system is crap in performance AND reliability on modified cars, so...

MSD setups are for Rx-7s. BHR setup is pretty good for the 8s...

Ok, thx for the info, i didn't know, i'll change it, works way to much well anyway for a 8.

What did i say just upside...