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Mr 5 0 · 04-19-2002, 11:16 AM

Mustang cain:

You wrote:

Everyone tells me that the stock this and the stock that works fine but a friend of mine has an 87 GT and he put a MSD blaster 2 coil, msd wires, and some platinum spark plugs in and said he noticed a noticable difference in power and throttle response.

You have a stock engine and aftermarket ignition upgrades won't do much for you at all as your engine has no need for them.

A 'hot' MSD coil and wires are fine and won't hurt a thing, but any real performance improvement you 'feel' will be mostly imaginary, although you may pick up a small gas mileage increase if your original coil and wires are tired.

Platinim plugs are expensive and pointless. Save your money, buy Autolites and change them out every 10 - 15,000 miles.

As Chris pointed out, old car ignitions were weak and didn't deliver maximum spark at higher RPMs, that's why you had to either change the whole distributor or else change weights, springs, etc and add 'hot' coils and plug wires to get maximum spark. That ended around the mid-80's when electronic ignitions hit the production lines, especially on Mustang V-8's.

Race cars use the stock Ford ignitions! Sure, engines with big mods will benefit from a MSD box but not anything near-stock. Why waste the money? Save it for a set of rear gears that will do about 300% more for performance than fooling around with the already-improved ignition.

If you insist on playing with ignition, add MSD wires, Autolite plugs (#25), a brass-terminal cap (new rotor too, of course) and if you must, the MSD coil. Minor upgrade that will - at the least - help you to start well and maintain good spark at high RPM, which you won't see much of, anyway, but what the heck, it's fun to work on the 'Stang and these mods are fairly easy to do and won't hurt you a bit. Have fun.

04-19-2002, 11:16 AM	#10
Mr 5 0 Conservative Individualist Join Date: May 1997 Location: Wherever I need to be Posts: 7,487	Ignition facts and myths Mustang cain: You wrote: Everyone tells me that the stock this and the stock that works fine but a friend of mine has an 87 GT and he put a MSD blaster 2 coil, msd wires, and some platinum spark plugs in and said he noticed a noticable difference in power and throttle response. You have a stock engine and aftermarket ignition upgrades won't do much for you at all as your engine has no need for them. A 'hot' MSD coil and wires are fine and won't hurt a thing, but any real performance improvement you 'feel' will be mostly imaginary, although you may pick up a small gas mileage increase if your original coil and wires are tired. Platinim plugs are expensive and pointless. Save your money, buy Autolites and change them out every 10 - 15,000 miles. As Chris pointed out, old car ignitions were weak and didn't deliver maximum spark at higher RPMs, that's why you had to either change the whole distributor or else change weights, springs, etc and add 'hot' coils and plug wires to get maximum spark. That ended around the mid-80's when electronic ignitions hit the production lines, especially on Mustang V-8's. Race cars use the stock Ford ignitions! Sure, engines with big mods will benefit from a MSD box but not anything near-stock. Why waste the money? Save it for a set of rear gears that will do about 300% more for performance than fooling around with the already-improved ignition. If you insist on playing with ignition, add MSD wires, Autolite plugs (#25), a brass-terminal cap (new rotor too, of course) and if you must, the MSD coil. Minor upgrade that will - at the least - help you to start well and maintain good spark at high RPM, which you won't see much of, anyway, but what the heck, it's fun to work on the 'Stang and these mods are fairly easy to do and won't hurt you a bit. Have fun.