3rd gen Engine/Drivetrain Engine/Drivetrain Modification Discussions for 1999-2003 Models Only (BJ chassis)

MSDs?

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Old December-1st-2002 | 09:12 PM
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MSDs?

I was wondering, does an MSD work in our Protege's. My friend had given me one from his civic and I called the MSD ppl for installations and they Basically said that MSDs don't work on Mazdas'. Is this true. I also just recently seen a P5 w/an MSD on an Import site that someone posted on this board (I'm still looking for it) so thats why I brought it up. Please say yes!
Old December-2nd-2002 | 08:38 PM
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What is an MSD?
Old December-2nd-2002 | 09:50 PM
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An MSD is a common aftermarket capacitive-discharge ignition box. (it stands for Multi-Spark Discharge, FWIW.) In basic, non-electrical terms, it's a spark amplifier. They are commonly used to increase ignition-system performance of cars with weak stock electronic ignitions, or cars with increased cylinder pressure (i.e. forced induction or high compression), which increases the amount of spark power required to ignite the fuel-air mixture.

My understanding is that a regular MSD 6A or 6AL box cannot be used on a Protege because they can't understand the ECU's signal to the ignition coils. The only way to add a more powerful ignition to our cars is to bypass the ECU's signal and use a stand-alone ingition system that reads directly off the crank trigger. It can be done, but it's a lot more expensive and complicated than tapping the ignition coil input on most older distributor-equipped vehicles.

Hope that makes sense.
Old December-3rd-2002 | 12:33 AM
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Originally posted by carguycw
An MSD is a common aftermarket capacitive-discharge ignition box. (it stands for Multi-Spark Discharge, FWIW.) In basic, non-electrical terms, it's a spark amplifier. They are commonly used to increase ignition-system performance of cars with weak stock electronic ignitions, or cars with increased cylinder pressure (i.e. forced induction or high compression), which increases the amount of spark power required to ignite the fuel-air mixture.

My understanding is that a regular MSD 6A or 6AL box cannot be used on a Protege because they can't understand the ECU's signal to the ignition coils. The only way to add a more powerful ignition to our cars is to bypass the ECU's signal and use a stand-alone ingition system that reads directly off the crank trigger. It can be done, but it's a lot more expensive and complicated than tapping the ignition coil input on most older distributor-equipped vehicles.

Hope that makes sense.
Yeah, thanks. That really sucks though.
Well, at least I got my answer.

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