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MSD Atomic EFI #2415737
12/09/17 02:56 PM
12/09/17 02:56 PM
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AndyF Offline OP
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AndyF  Offline OP
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Helped do an EFI conversion on the dyno the other day. Engine is a nice little 331 inch SB Ford that is going into a Bronco. AFR heads, 9.2 compression, small hyd roller cam, etc. Started with a 600 cfm Holley carb and made a little over 400 hp then switched to the MSD Atomic. The engine ended up losing a few hp with the EFI but it sure is smooth. Starts right up, idles smooth, etc.

The Atomic is super easy to install. Just need a wideband in the exhaust and a coolant sensor in the hot water. The computer needs power and ground and it needs a fuel pump that can put out 40 psi. It only took us a few minutes to have it installed and running on the dyno but obviously in a car it would be a full day project if you had to mount the fuel pump and weld a bung in the exhaust.

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Re: MSD Atomic EFI [Re: AndyF] #2415740
12/09/17 02:59 PM
12/09/17 02:59 PM
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Posts: 30,947
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AndyF Offline OP
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You can't do much tuning with these low end kits. On this one I started off with the camshaft entered as "mild performance" and everything else as default settings. The engine make okay power but was lean when we went to WOT and took awhile to catch up. So I changed the cam to "stock" and added some fuel to the power valve setting. That seemed to solve the issue and after that the dyno pulls were nice and smooth.

Re: MSD Atomic EFI [Re: AndyF] #2415745
12/09/17 03:05 PM
12/09/17 03:05 PM
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AndyF Offline OP
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After the first few dyno pulls I called the MSD tech line to ask them some questions. The guy I talked to was not well trained on EFI. He tried to read me some answers from a cheat sheet but his answers didn't make much sense. So that was a dead end. I jumped on the Atomic EFI forum on the website but it isn't very good either. The Holley forum is very well managed by a guy named Danny who answers every question almost instantly. The MSD forum has a bunch of unanswered questions on it.

However after hunting around a bit I came up with my answers and plugged them in to the unit and everything ran fine. So if you are resourceful you should be able to find answers.

I think the Atomic is a decent unit for a lower performance cruiser. Maybe if you have an older shop truck or a muscle car that you just use for crusing and burger nights and stuff like that. If you already have a MSD ignition then all the better. The Atomic will control the ignition timing if you have a locked out distributor and a MSD ignition box. It even has built in vacuum advance. It doesn't have any of the cool stuff that a Holley has like two step, high speed retard, etc. The MSD Atomic is not for racing but should work okay for a cruiser.







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