Mallory, ignition problems, and my last good nerve

jwinkler · #1 (**permalink**) 06-20-2004, 09:07 PM

A while back, I (apparently) cooked my Hyfire IV - I mounted it where the CR battery usually goes, which is under the heater hoses, and when I filled the system, as far as I can tell, the heat made the box shut down. When the box cooled enough, I could start the car again, but it would only be a matter of time before the next shut-down.

I sent the box to Mallory, who kindly returned it with a "we found no problems with the unit" note. In order to continue to use it, I blocked the heater hoses, and for a while faired OK. However, just this Saturday, the shut-downs came back. I am guessing that it may be due to a combination of having recently taken the time to secure the box at all four corners (the fourth is a royal pain to reach, so I had driven it for some time without it, but got a whim to try the fourth, and managed to on Friday night), and typical Texas summer heat, which may have stretched the main circuit board.

However, given Mallory's less than useful tech support, I've lost interest in resolving this through them, and the Hyfire is on its way to being a paper weight or a doorstop.

I had planned to replace it with an MSD 6AL/Blaster combination, and mount the 6AL either where the Hyfire is now in the old battery tray, or against the passenger firewall (but inside the engine bay). During my last round if ignition issues, I had asked about this, and Don has mounted the 6AL on the firewall.

In the picture Don posted of a red car with the 6AL on the firewall, the coil was mounted near the distributor. Currently, the Promaster coil I'm using is on the firewall as well - how are the cannister-style coils mounted on the engine? Any pictures anyone has are greatly appreciated.

For the moment, I'm planning to retain my Mallory Unilite - both MSD and Mallory discuss running the two together, so I'm hoping there won't be any problem, but I'll throw that out for opinions as well.

Finally, I'm feeling less sure of my MSD decision after doing a quick search on MSD at clubcobra. Apparently (and naturally, now I can't find the thread) one owner with a 428 had nothing but trouble with the 6AL. Anyone care to recommend something other than MSD or Mallory? I definitely want some sort of electronic ignition - there's a marked difference in the car's character when I'm running with the Hyfire and when I'm running the bypass. Is mounting the box against the firewall or tucked under the passenger fender (not in line with the headers, and where a battery is expected to live happily) subjecting it to too much heat?

Thanks,

JLW

REDSC400 · #2 (**permalink**) 06-21-2004, 03:42 AM

Hello:
I suggest that you mount the MSD inside the cockpit, behind the passenger side dash. It is much cooler there. What kind of distributor are you running? Is it a Mallory as well?

I run the Mallory distributor in my FE with the MSD 6/AL. The thing is rock solid. I had to be careful to route the signal wires all by themselves from the 6AL to the distributor and coil so that I would not get Tach cross talk (bobbling tack or wandering).

I also used a ballast resistor and the Mallory Active Power Filter to protect the ignition "eye" inside the distributor.

Good Luck and I am sorry to hear about your heat problem. It goes with the territory I guess.

Double Venom · #3 (**permalink**) 06-21-2004, 05:35 AM

JW,
May I join your club of 1 ? I'm having a nightmare of a problem with a Mallory Dist. as we speak. Rotor destroyed it self as it became unseated and wiped out the cap in the process. Giving Mallory the part number of the distributor, we are now on our third attempt at getting the right rotor!

We have bought so many parts for this "NEW" Mallory I could have practically paid for -another- new distributor!

We've used dozens and dozens of MSD units with seldom a problem. Absolutely no more MALLORY's in our future!

DV....this too shall pass

dscott · #4 (**permalink**) 06-21-2004, 07:22 AM

I have been using the MSD system for about 12 years without a problem. I have mounted them on the engine side firewall, on the battery tray and inside the cockpit. I quit using the Mallory distributor because of how touchy it is. I always seem to blow at least 1 module every time I use one. I now run the MSD dist and coil setup. I use the coil bracket that Ford sells and mount the coil on the manifold or the front of the head if you have room. I use the Blaster 3 coil with the tower.
Don

petek · #5 (**permalink**) 06-21-2004, 07:38 AM

I'm using a Holley box (I think the name is "Laser shot" or something silly like that). I've got it mounted up on that tiny shelf area where the hood latch receiver is. Seems to work fine.

ce1287 · #6 (**permalink**) 06-25-2004, 09:41 PM

I am also having problems with my Mallory Hyfire VI-A. I have been having a problem where while I'm driving along and the engine cuts out for a second and then fires back up. I thoguht that it could have been a fuel delivery problem so I replaced the fuel pump, fuel lines, fuel filter, and switched from an Edelbrock carb to a holley that I had left from a previous project, but the intermittent dead miss continued. I have since replaced the distributor cap, rotor, coil, plugs, plug wires, magnetic pick-up, and battery and have checked for any lose wires or open circuits but the problem persists. I'm ready to switch to an MSD 6-A and if that doesn't work I'm afraid I may end up taking a baseball bat to the car.

Art Burtt · #7 (**permalink**) 06-26-2004, 04:28 PM

I mounted my MSD /6al inside on the pass. side firewall. I have a Ford dist. with a Petronics system. So far so good!

jwinkler · #8 (**permalink**) 06-27-2004, 05:07 PM

Your symptoms sound just like mine, except for the fact that it fires back up quickly - when mine dies, I've got to wait a few minutes (I'm guessing that it has to cool off to operate again). Mallory tech assured me when they "found no problem" that part of their test was to run it in an oven of some sort, but since I managed to make it a little more reliable by disconnecting the heater hoses that cooked it in the first place, I have my doubts.

At any rate, this last failure has pretty much sealed the deal, and it's MSD for me.

I did like the fact that I could bypass the box when it died - I hope MSD has the same fail-safe option.

Good luck,

JLW

jwinkler · #9 (**permalink**) 07-04-2004, 02:44 PM

Now I just have to figure out where to mount them.

I'm leaning towards putting the 6AL in the battery tray, but the isolator mounts that come with the unit appear to need to mount to something that is 1/4" or less thick and where I've got access to both sides of that something.

Given those two requirements, is the battery tray an option? The tray itself (which I haven't removed) looks like fairly hefty (maybe 1/8" thick) metal. That combined with the thickness of what it's on (the top of the passenger footbox?) makes me think it won't work. How is the tray attached? Some epoxy of some sort? Can it be taken off?

So if the thickness of the tray/shelf combination doesn't rule out this location, do I have access to the underside of the tray? Is it, in fact, the top of the passenger footbox?

Thanks,

JLW

PS - once this is solved, I'll ask about mounting the blaster coil. The front of the driver's side head would be a logical spot except that the power steering pump doesn't seem to leave enough room in any direction.