MSD 7AL-2 coil recommendation

Lots of coils appear to be compatible with a 7al 2 unit but I am am looking for a good, known coil recommendation for race only application. May use up to 200hp nitrous but positively no more. Won't use nitrous if the car is light enough to make the index without it. 500", roller cam, 13 1/2 compression. No street at all. Finished building the trans, coming down the home stretch. I wanna drive this thing! Thanks, Bill

what fuel will you be using.? Birdtracker

I've used the old Mallory 28880 with good success, MSD ended up putting their part number and decal on it later.
The small rectangular red MSD coil for the race boxes works well also
The new big heavy transformer type is supposed to work well also .
I have one but I haven't use it yet, waiting to use it with their grid on a non programmable digital 7 in the near future

I would love to see a 28880 coil with an MSD sticker on it. I don’t think that ever happened.

I'll look in the shop in morning to see if I still have one or not
If so I'll take a picture of it

As far as fuel goes, I believe VP recommended C12 race gas @ 113 octane when I spoke with them, but to be sure I would have to dig thru my notes. MSD's preferred recommendations are #8201 pro power,which appears to be very high output short duration use, oil filled coil. Also, the 2 HVC square box style coils #8251 &#8261, one of these is made for longer duration use. My car is strictly a drag car with no street use. I am leaning towards using one of these 3 coils, just not sure which is best suited. It will be used with 7al2 ignition box. Thanks, Bill

Mine is 15-1. It has used the 8201 w/7AL2 for 9 years. It's never had any ignition or misfire issues. However no nitrous.
Doug

Thanks Doug,that was the coil I was leaning towards as it has been around longer and obviously is a proven performer in non street applications. I personally don't expect a very small dose of nitrous to be a major problem for it. Most of the warnings on that coil seem to be about extended running time overheating it. As I said earlier it will not get nitrous at all if I am light enough to make the index without it. Thanks all for the info, greatly appreciated. Bill

First choice - 8261. Second choice - 8201

8251 is for longer duration/street use, but will work OK for drag racing. And may be recommended over the 8201, depending on who you talk to.

Ask and you will see
Sorry for not seeing the best picture before attaching them.
That Mallory made coil with the MSD decal was working when removed, it had leaked all the oil out of it on my race car mounted with the coil outlet wire pointed sideways instead of straight up, I hadn't noticed the writing on the decal saying to mount it with the coil wire pointed straight up
I called MSD and Mallory and they both told me that I could refill the oil by drilling a hole in the top and fill it back up and seaing it with expoxy, I haven't done that yet, and I won't My luck is it would fail in the finals at a big race, HUH
The later little red coil quit working on a dyno test for around 15 minutes of running, we were using it on a Roots 10:71 blown gas 426 Street hemi type all aluminum street motor with a dual distributor drive with two MSD 7AL 3 boxes with twin MSD 8201 coils and dual spark plug Mopar aluminum heads.
I wish I had taken a picture or a video of that motor on the dyno at WOT. It turns out the motor made almost as much power firing one set of plugs (970 HP at 7000 RPM with 7.5 lbs. of boost ) as it did with both firing, not enough difference to see a measurable result
That testing was done a long time ago, around 1999 or 2000

I wouldn't put the MSD 8201 on my lawn mower. Look at the specs (800 mA peak current) now what is that going to fire. With the MSD 8261 (2 amps peak current) that's what you need in a high compression motor.
Seen too many 8201 coils on drag cars. A friend of mine ran that coil always gave him crap about then at a race started dropping cylinders changed spark plugs no help checked his spark plug wires high resistance let him use my old pair of wires they had 2000-4000 ohms less worked ok. He bought a new set at the track put them on started miss firing again and dropping cylinders put my old wires back on car ran fine again.
Told him to throw that crap coil away he put on the MSD 8261 works great now. This was on a 10.5 compression small block Mopar.
MSD 8201 Use with MSD 7 and 8 Series Ignitions ONLY - Short-Duration Applications, yea what the really mean is use only for warm ups then put on a real coil.

FWIW,
I have been running the MSD-8251 on my race car since 2019. The ignition box is the MSD-7AL-3.
I like this style coil. I ran the blue version with a Digital-6 ignition in my old race car for about 14 years when I sold the car.

The price has gone up 33% since I bought the 8251 in 2019

Being drag racers we used what the MSD reps at the races suggested, the one that died was new back then and easier to mount than the Mallory types were.
I hadn't heard of or knew of the any other brand or part number that would work well with those drag race type #7 boxes back then
I have one of the 8201 coils hooked to a MSD7AL2 on my S/P E 85 car with 15.0 to1 comp. ratio, it has worked very well since 2013 when I got the car and put it together. I do carry a spare box and coil but haven't needed either one yet so far
I have tried swapping the box on the car but not the coil, maybe that will be done next year at the races on the same day back-to-back instead of running one for the day and swapping them over that night and testing it the next day

MSD Ignition 8261 - MSD HVC-2 is the best for the 7AL - you can run the smaller coils but you would not be taking advantage of the full spark capability of the 7AL box

Thanks Cab. I’ve never seen that before. Do you remember the year you bought that coil?

I don't remember but it was before the 8201 coils came out, probably in the 1980s: confused:

The 8251 is the same coil I use great coil. The newer 8261 is better, if my current coil would ever fail that's the one I would buy.

After reading posts here and elsewhere I've reconsidered and the 38261 coil is on the way from Summit. Some have had excellent performance with the#8201 coil even over a long period of time.Others have had poor luck with it. Can't find any negative feedback on the#8261 so it seems the logical choice. Thanks to all for the feedback. Bill

I think you can't go wrong with the MSD 8261 in a drag race application.
Sometimes I wonder where manufacturers come up with mounting dimensions.
For example, 3.410" Could they just use 3.437 (3-7/16)? And 87mm =3.425"
And the other 3.356" Could they just use 3.375 (3-3/8)? And 85mm = 3.346"

MSD 8261 is what we have used in the dyno cell for the last 20 years

I use the same coil. Just be careful on the spark plug gap. Stay on the small side. I kept wiping out carbon electrodes in my caps because of too much gap.