[NovaSS396L34]

I spent some $$ on a brand new ignition system hopefully to solve my past spark plug fouling problems. Once again we checked out the motor and it all checks out fine. I now added a MSD crank trigger, MSD 7 Digital Box, new harmonic balancer, new tach, new coil, new distributor cap, stud girdles, also put the Wilson carb spacer on. Fired the car up and now it idles better than it ever did! Will idle now at 1,200 and drops to 1,000 in gear. The MSD box and the coil are now inside the car.

All I have to do now is check all the bolts over and put the slicks back on the car. Racing starts April 18 which is a test & tune date and race day is the 19th.

 

[Little Red Wagon!]

What was your problem B 4?

 

[NovaSS396L34]

What was your problem B 4?

Fouling the plugs in #1 & #2 cylinders. Seemed like it would happen in the 1-2 shift. When we tried timing the motor last year, the timing mark was all over the place and we never really knew exactly what the timing was. Now with the crank trigger, it doesn't move. It's set right at 40 degrees now.

 

[tbills66]

Crank triggers are nice to have for sure. I could set the timing on our old drag car with it idling and the timing wouldn't change when you brought the rpm's up. Hope that you got your problems fixed.

 

[73dragnova]

Fouling the plugs in #1 & #2 cylinders. Seemed like it would happen in the 1-2 shift. When we tried timing the motor last year, the timing mark was all over the place and we never really knew exactly what the timing was. Now with the crank trigger, it doesn't move. It's set right at 40 degrees now.

May I ask if you had your distributor locked out before? I have a different problem but I too am ready to just replace the entire ignition system in hopes of fixing it.

 

[cody rusow]

im sure you checked it out but i had a similar thing happen. i would chase the timing all over the place, i would also chase the carb tune around. i couldnt figure it out. i tore the motor down to check some stuff and the gear drive was broke and letting it move around like 7 degrees.

 

[NovaSS396L34]

May I ask if you had your distributor locked out before? I have a different problem but I too am ready to just replace the entire ignition system in hopes of fixing it.

No, it wasn't locked out before. Before, I was running a MSD 6AL, Blaster coil and a 2 step. Also MSD billet distributor. It's locked out now with the crank trigger and now I run the larger Ford style cap.

 

[NovaSS396L34]

im sure you checked it out but i had a similar thing happen. i would chase the timing all over the place, i would also chase the carb tune around. i couldnt figure it out. i tore the motor down to check some stuff and the gear drive was broke and letting it move around like 7 degrees.

It's not in the carb. I replaced the whole carb last year. I also put a rubber hose across the vent tubes. We just re-checked the way the cam was degreed and it was dead on. Not the timing chain stuff either. We had the whole motor apart last year and found no problems. It's been doing the spark plug fouling for the past 2 years. I never had problems when I was foot-braking but it all started after I started using the 2 step. 1st test and tune last year it ran great with no problems. 9.94, 9.94, 9.93. Shortly after those runs at a different track the problems started again. Compression check was OK too.

Right now we all seem to think it was a problem with the MSD box. I had a bunch of wires running behind the distributor before but now all that has changed. We re-wired that whole area and moved everything inside the car. Also the new digital 7 MSD box has a built in rev limiter and 2 step.

 

[NovaSS396L34]

Pics

Since you guys always like pictures here ya go.

A new steering wheel disconnect was put on and also the tach was replaced. This is a drastic improvement from the old POS wheel disconnect I had.

The digital 7 MSD box and coil were mounted to the passenger side kick panel area under the dash.

The spark plug wires are now all mounted nicely apart from each other and you can see where the current comes through the firewall.

Here's the MSD crank trigger. We had to add a spacer to the alternator mounting stuff to get it all to line up again.

 

[cody rusow]

glad to hear it is running better. i was just saying in my experience i thought it was in the carb and it was in the cain. you ran some impressive numbers. i hope i get there with this car. good luck

 

[NovaSS396L34]

Just got back from test & tune

I just got back from test and tune. My problem is fixed. Car ran great! No fouled plugs. Ran my best 1/8 mph. My 5th run was 6.254 @ 113.40. I spun a little off the line since my 60 foot was 1.438. I checked the conversion table and that equals about a 9.75 in the 1/4. We took 2 degrees of timing out of the motor after that run and it ran a 6.274 @ 113.33. I now have to get some colder plugs. We read the plugs after a pass and saw we need to make the spark plug change to colder. Overall a good day...I came home in one piece and so did the car! Most of my 60 foots were in the 1.44 range. The car has a lot more in it once I get those 60 foots in the 1.3 range. Some other passes were 6.28, 6.26, 6.29, 6.29

 

[Little Red Wagon!]

Congrat's man.............sounds like you had a good time. So do you think you will pick up an ET with some colder plug's?

 

[NovaSS396L34]

Congrat's man.............sounds like you had a good time. So do you think you will pick up an ET with some colder plug's?

That's what we're hoping for. That's why we changed the timing 2 degrees (40 degrees to 38) also after looking at the plugs. They're hot by the ground on the plug.