Ford F53 7.5 with TFI Ignition adding Ignition Box?

[Irishbleueye]

Has anyone added a MSD, Crane, Mallory, etc ignition box and coil? Please, would love to hear anybody's experience with it.

[keymastr]

Not to that particular engine but have added MSD boxes to many hotrods in the past. Generally speaking the factory ignition is plenty of fire until you go way up in fuel delivery capability. You likely would not see much difference unless you have upgraded all the other systems, (intake, exhaust, cylinder heads, injectors).


Adding more fire really only helps if you have so much fuel capacity and flow volume that the stock system cannot keep up. The improvement on an otherwise stock engine would be almost impossible to detect in my opinion.

[sknight]

I agree, you're not going to see much if any improvement unless you've really modded the engine.

If it's not misfiring due to a weak ignition system now, your factory setup is fine. Why are you interested in adding the box?

[Nick-B]

Unfortunately, the stock EFI system is not easily modified since the entire engine control system works in unison. Ignition, fuel injection and even transmission shifting is all interconnected and interdependent (as I understand it). Change or disconnect one system and the others suffer.
Fortunately, the stock ignition is quite sufficient. Use a high quality cap, rotor and plug wires. Splurge an platinum plugs if you wish and that's as good as it gets.

[Irishbleueye]

Interested in the box because I do have an MSD on my SBC 283 in my 65 c10 and wow what a difference it makes. I saw that MSD and crane both make a box that interlinks into the factory wiring loom. But not sure how or if it would really do anything being that the module still stays connected. Or at least it doesn't say to remove it, just to plug the loom in between the coil and hook to the box. Thought I would see if anyone hooked one up.

[keymastr]

Yes, the difference between a '60s era points based ignition and a modern solid state ignition are huge. The coils for a points system put out around 12,000 volts at full power and they do not always get a full power discharge due to timing differences between cylinders. A modern "Breakerless" ignition puts out over 50,000 volts and has much more even power distribution between cylinders so there is not the large difference that you saw with your 65.


The MSD box,(and others), provide multiple sparks per firing sequence because racing engines put so much fuel in the cylinders at a time that they can "put out" the fire. A crude explanation of what is really happening but close enough for this conversation. You do not have that need. As an example, one race car I worked on would use around 8 gallons of fuel from engine start, burnout and 1 quarter mile pass. We are talking about garden hose amounts of flow.


Put your money in something that improves your driving experience like new shocks or a stereo upgrade. Your engine is not going to benefit from a box.

[Irishbleueye]

Probably right, new Pioneer head deck on the way...