Any feedback on the Mopar Performance Electronic Ignition Kit? I am looking to change over from the stock points distributor. Seems like there is alot of kits out there to choose from, I've had pretty good luck with other Mopar Performance stuff. Any comments???

Mine's been working great since installed in 2000.

Go for it!

I've had alot of bad luck with MP quality control. Myself I'd step up to MSD or talk to Don at FBO

I would use it.

I've had very good luck with the Mopar electronic ignition. I have it in 3 cars with no problems!

The MP Electronic conversion kit used to be a good deal when it cost $100 (or less), but they jacked the price up so much ($218) that you can get a better quality setup for about the same cost.
The Mopar kit is pretty much a factory electronic setup with a re-curved distrubitor, and the last one I bought (about 10-years ago) had really bad quality (rotor was out of phase), so I have not bought another one since.
The last distrubitor I bought was an Accel Street Billet distrubitor. It is a billet body, magnetic trigger, internal electronics distrubitor with vacuum advance and the advance curve is adjustable. Summit has the small block one for $253. It will be hard to find on summits web page because they have the description wrong.
The Accel part number is #52300. Summit has it priced at $322. I actually have the older 71300E series, but the electronics are the same, the newer 52300 series moved the mechanical advance to the top making it easier to re-curve the distrubitor. I think the 52300 series also comes with the HEI style tower dist cap, but they sell a regular female socket cap if you want it to look more stock.
There are some places that still sell the older #71300E like I have been using, and they are priced a bit less than the 52300 if that matters.

Doing a quick search, I found Northern Autoparts is still selling the 71300E for $260.33. Well worth the extra $40 over the MP unit.
http://www.northernautoparts.com/ProductDetail.cfm?ProductId=480

More Info on the Accel distrubitor.
Accel Dist Catalog with info on the 52000 series:
http://www.accel-ignition.com/pdf/DistributorsElectronic.pdf

Anyhow, it's just another option.
If your bucks down, there is a neat kit to adapt an HEI module to a stock magnetic distrubitor.

The distributor's are ok but should be visually inspected and checked for phasing.

The Orange Control boxes are junk & the chrome ones are questionable. While some FBO control boxes have had failures, it's still the cat's meowww.

The problem with the mopar box is that you really don't know there is a problem till you try either a FBO box or convert to a Capacitive Discharge type ignition. I tested 5 boxes on the same car, same test run. Mild 360 4 bbl. Napa box, 2 chrome boxes one vintage 1980 and the other 1990,an orange box vintage 1999 and a FBO box.

All the boxes had problems except the FBO
The timing retarded as the rpm went up and for no extra charge the orange box would not let the engine go over 4500 rpm and it misfired like crazy. I thought the car ran pretty good on all the boxes exc the orange one until I installed the FBO box. Noticeable difference from idle to redline.

I am running the orange MP ign control ECU and it has worked flawless for years. I shift at 6200 and it traps at 6300 with no problems at all. Ron

I run the Mopar electronic ignition installed last year and it ran flawlessly.

is a nice and reliable upgrade for the price BUT MANDATORY... CHECK THE GAP ON EVERY RELUCTOR POINT, not just one one. Mostly sure some reluctor point will need to be milled to keep the gap the same.

then make the cheking ALSO ON VACUUM ON POSITION. Thats a moment where tipically pick up coil will get closer to reluctor and will bite the reluctor. if it does, the pick up coil bracket will need to be bended to save that and then readjust the gap on rest position. Will need to be checked twice or three times... I made it allthe times needed up to get a GOOD calibration on both positions

I had to check that BEFORE mount, so won't be a plug and play job

If you have money around to spend, MSD dist will be a great and better upgrade and you'll be able to match with Mopar ign box. MSD dist WORTHS EVERY PENNY. Quality build is noticeable.

If more money available, then go with complete MSD system.

I didn't have the money to go for some "better" upgrade, and beside that I want to keep the stock Mopar look all around.

Dunno about another brands

The MSD read to run billet distrubitor is nice too, but costs $380.

A street/strip car, MSD is the only way to go.
Yes the MSD set up is 3 times the cost, but it
is very tuneable and easy to use.

For an everyday street car that is takin to the
track once, the MP kit will do just fine. It just
isn't as easy to tune as the MSD.

I've ran Both in small blocks and big blocks.
I go with MSD unless it's just a street only
driver.

Never really had any problems w/ them. FWIW I "upgraded" to an MSD box once and saw zero improvement accross the board. Summit even sells a "shelf brand" kit. You can also go to any parts store and pick up a re-manned distrib for around $50, a ECU for $40ish. Then you could just order the wiring kit.

We went from a Mallory dual point to a MP Elect Ignition and the times didn't change much but was a lot more reliable. We didn't have to deal with the points after every run (exagerated of course). Sure beat dealing with burned points. We ran the 440 with dual points for about 10 years then the MP Elect Ign for about 8 years without any problems and never needed to adjust except for timing of course. We always used the orange box.

O.k, from the above posts I gather that the MP elec. ign. w/ the orange is Great and Junk but more economical...or it used to be. MSD is the best set up, but not really any improvement for a lot more money .The Mp job Works great out of the box for years, yet may need adjustment before mounting. I think I follow you now.

LOL

I think all depending of MP dist generation you get... old days MP dist apparently were better units out of the box and thats why they were great out from the box, for a while actual ones are being made apparently by Mallory. I got mine a few months back, and I just can tell from my experience. Needs to take care of gap on every point and pick up coil position on rest and vacuum.

ANOTHER DETAIL... number one is not on same position, so you can either relocate spark plug wires or change the oil pump dirveshaft slot position to keep same number one location on cap.

Dunno if thats on earliers too.

About box... for just $10 more, chrome box does look to be better option


At the end you can:

-Get an MP kit ( dist, box resistance and wiring required ) on less than $300 and take care of dist adjustment. wiring is not a problem, just need one splice, or...

-get an MSD setup ( dist and box ), on around $800-900 without headaches out of the box, needing wiring mods, to get rid off the ballast, and needing some adjustment for custom advance purpouse.

-Get a READY TO RUN dist from any brand you choose. Lot of prices and varieties. I can't tell about.

My car has an older MP distributor before they changed from the stock type to aftermarket type advance mechanism, combined with the $20 wiring harness (which is a great deal), and a Wells control box. Its certainly better than my single point distributor...can't say much for performance yet since I haven't got this thing dialed in yet, but it certainly idles more cleanly.

its a lot more difficult to find big block electronic distributors in good shape, but if you have a small block, the used ones are easy to come by.

The Mopar unit is very easy to set up and on a street car runs just fine--DO check the gap--if it is too big your timing will seem to "jump around" when looking at it with your timing light--The neat part about the Mopar unit is that with a torx driver you can adjust the length of the slots and add more initial timing which really helps if you have any mods like cam, etc Many folks work like crazy to try and get the carb to idle when all it needs is more initial advance
Shorten the slots a little, check the gap, get any box except the orange one and you will be fine