Hey'all!

Still good Fall weather and I wanted to take advantage of the warmth and complete my ignition upgrade project on Ruby.

(Relevant comments are below each image.)



I thought about where to place my new MSD 6AL Ignition and this seemed to be the best, unused location. (The passenger side fender well was already reserved for my OBA.) I made this bracket and mounted it to the cowl forward surface. The ignition, bracket and tach adapter weigh close to 5lbs so there is a 1/8" steel plate behind the cowl access cover that the six bolts are anchored to.




This photo shows everything wired up! I ziptied the extra lengths of wire together for the initial install. When I am satisfied with everything I will cut the long wires to a more appropriate length and house them safely in plastic wire loom. 8-)




This MSD Ignition wiring harness for my particular application was the BIGGEST time saver. All that I had to do was insert this harness between my stock ignition and the MSD 6AL without cutting into any wires. True plug-n-play. Shweet, very shweet. I can bypass the MSD 6AL in less than five minutes if ever needed for diagnostics. You can see the wiring harness in the photo above the MSD diagram.




Also installed some new ACCEL 8.8mm spark plug wires. Beefy! New ACCEL cap & rotor also.




Lastly, I also installed a MSD Blaster GM Coil for the total package.




Final (except for the shortened wires) install! Isn't Ruby a She-Beast now?!!

Impressions: WOW!!! Ruby had some ignition stumble before that was getting to be a real PITA. This is now completely cured. Consistent and clean power is really noticeable throughout the RPM range. Low RPMs have more power and it is more difficult to accidently kill the engine. Ruby feels much more zippy, almost like a sports car now. (If you can believe that.)

Looks real nice...

That's on your 2.8 right? What was the cost involved?

Jay <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/mrt.gif" alt="" />

Thanks! It runs even nicer. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Yeah, this is on the 2.8L engine. I invested in this because it is also can be transferred to the 3.4L engine upgrade.

The ignition components were kinda pricey, but I looked to cut costs where possible with eBay and a friend's gracious help. Let's see, I got the 6AL on eBay, new, for ~$185. eBay for the coil, ~$36. The tach adapter ~$35, wiring harness ~$30, cap & rotor ~$25, and the wires took an ~$55 chunk. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />

Would do it again with the results yielded. You could save some money by going with the MSD 6A instead. Also, less expensive plug wires. The Trooper is MUCH more enjoyable to drive now though...can hardly wait to get a 3.4L in there though. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/mrt.gif" alt="" />

Sweet...I've wondered how much of a difference the MSD would make, considering that the stock GM HEI is a pretty good ignition (right?).