ok, don't know if this is the right thing to do, but i'm going to start a new thread.

here is the ignition setup:

chrysler electronic ignition, set up by FBO with 12 degrees advance.
msd blaster 2 coil.

with this setup, the engine made 712 hp at 6k on the dyno. the dyno had a 6A MSD ignition box setup already in place.

put the engine in the car with the same distributor and coil, and my 6AL analog box. at first, the thing seemed awesome, but that may have been me getting used to it. but soon i noticed what seemed like issues with the old analog box, so i decided it was time to get a new one.

got a new 6AL digital, and the engine would run for about 30 seconds, fall on it's face and die. fought MSD, they finally agreed to RMA the box. sent it to them, got it back, and it did the same thing. i went through every test they asked for, and they sent me a new box.

- put the new box in, set the rev limiter at 6200, and it did NOT display the symptoms of the earlier box.
- the engine would not rev above 5000. 5000 was a hard limit, even with no load, would not go above 5000.
- set the rev limiter to 6300, and the 5000 limit was gone.
- now found that the engine was missing badly above 5k, and simply would not go beyond 5700 or so, missing the whole time.

what we did:

- tried a different distributor
- tried a different coil
- isolated the wires to the distributor from the MSD box
- isolated the hot to the MSD box
- checked the voltage of every wire connected to the MSD box

no change.

put in a dual point distributor and a napa replacement coil, NOT running through the MSD box, car ran like a raped ape, revving freely all through the range, NO issues whatsoever.

every action listed below exhibits the same problem:

- put the old distributor and napa coil back in connected to the MSD box.
- put an entire new wiring harness, using every single wire new, in other words, not a single wire that is currently on the car.
- put a brand new MSD blaster coil on
- put a brand new MSD 6AL box on

once i put the new MSD box on, i set the rev limiter at 6200:

- the engine stopped at 5200, even with no load.
- changed the rev limiter to 6300, and the engine stopped at 5800 with no load.
- changed the rev limiter to 6500, and the engine will go to 6200 with no load
- under load displayed exactly the same symptoms, missing and breaking up and will not go above 5700 or so.

next step:

- putting the points distributor back in, and will connect to the MSD box

step after that:

- find and alternative to MSD.

ok, so notice that both brand new MSD boxes, with the rev limiter initially set at 6200, would not allow the engine to go beyond 5000 the first time, and 5200 the second time, and that a mere 100 rpm change allowed the engine to go almost 1000 rpm higher.

so,

- what the hell is going on here?
- what do i do next?

and more importantly:

- what is the alternative ignition system to MSD?