Just thought I’d share my experience with all of you on my recent ignition upgrade. I am not a technical writer, but I’ll give this a shot.
Equipment
MSD 6AL $172.95
www.summitracing.com
NGK Wires $57.50
www.coximport.com
MSD Blaster 3 Coil $31.95
www.summitracing.com
MSD Pro Cap Distributor Cap $29.95
www.summitracing.com
Coil Bracket $5.95
www.summitracing.com
TOTAL $298.30
The Vehicle
2000 Civic Si
see signature for mods…
The installation is pretty straight forward. I do recommend that you have Helms manual or some sort of reference just in case. The hardest part of the entire installation was finding a spot to mount the 6AL itself. The box is a mammoth. I finally decided to mount it in the cabin. Its mounted on the passengers side firewall. Its out of sight & out of kicking distance (thanks again GSRwBOOST for the idea). The installation shouldn’t take more than about 2 hours. Time for the test.
After letting the car warm up, I noticed that it idles very smoothly. Another thing you will notice (depending on your mounting place) is that the ignition makes a ticking noise. At first this really annoyed me, but I eventually got used to it. Now I even listen to it as I rev the engine (it gets faster the higher the RPMs go). As I rolled out on to the street, everything seemed the same as before. “Oh great. Another worthless mod.” So I took it to the highway.
My opinion changed. The car accelerated very smoothly. The gear transitions were very fluid (this was done prior to my short shifter & bushings). Though no drivetrain upgrades were done, there was a noticeable difference between shifts.
I decided to test the built in Soft Touch Rev Limiter feature next. I used the 8000 RPM module. The 2000 Si redlines at 8200 RPM. The difference between the Soft touch Rev Limiter & your existing rev limiter is that your existing rev limiter is a fuel cut off while this is spark based. Meaning that rather than choke your engine but stopping fuel flow, it alternates cylinder firing. Much safer than fuel cut off (especially with forced induction or nitrous). Let’s just say you will definitely know when you hit this. A rather horrid sound comes from your engine.
Gas mileage. All I have to is wow. I am very amazed that it improved my gas mileage. MSD does state that it does increase the gas mileage, but how times can we believe the manufacturers on this claim? This time we can. My average miles per gallon went from 22 to 29. A seven mile per gallon increase. I am not a grandma driver either. My right foot is made of solid lead (my traffic record backs me up on this one).
Overall I would have to say that this is a very worthwhile purchase. As far as power gains go, there are little if any to be gained from this. So if you’re looking for a power mod, this isn’t it. This is definitely a smart purchase if you are running nitrous or forced induction. So do I think its worth the $300? Most definitely.
If anyone has a questions, let me know. Hopefully someone will get some use of this.
**********EDIT
Pictures of the ignition
