Hi gang-
FWIW I called a speed shop in Massachusetts ( Indy Auto Parts
978-535-8100) that carries both MSD products and Crane and asked about
their point of view of both. I have no financial intereste ect.
Their stated preference was for MSD, due to build quality and
durability, updated technology, features, and upgradeability. They said
the M6 was the way to go for a non-ballasted points system and that the
M5 was almost obsolete at this point. They said that the MSD operated
off a regular set of points installed with no gap. The long duration of
gap closure signals the MSD unit to fire up a stream of multiple sparks
throughout the compression top cycle rather than one ( Thus Multiple
Spark Discharge) . I am not sure, but I think they said that the Crane
units do not do this multiple sparking. They also said the Crane units
are solid state and can be damaged by leaving the ignition on for
extended periods of time while the MSD's are digital and do not suffer
this damage potential. They also said that at the M6 level a hot coil,
in their opinion, was not all that important-they really expressed no
preference for what coil was used in the application.
The price of the M6 unit at this shop was $169 complete, vs $139 for
Crane's XR-3000 ( non-ballasted upgrade from the XR-700). British Parts
Connection can get the XR-700 from Moss for $103, by way of comparison.
Assuming that they are fair in their perspective, an MSD M6 can be had
for not much more than a combined cost of an XR-700 plus Lucas hot coil.
This speed shop did not recall selling an XR-700 recently enough to find
a current price in their computer.
I thought this was interesting enough to share but I am sure there were
lots of questions I did not ask and answers I did not fully understand.
My apologies in advance for not being more thorough.
BTW MSD's website www.msdignition.com is pretty cool, certainly superior
to Cranes www.cranecams.com ( IMHO), thoguh both are informative.
Keith Ehrlich
74 TR6
Back to finding a waterpump %$#*&!
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