we are finishing up our Scout build and have a couple of distributor choices. One is a gold box setup and the other is a points setup. We have a msd 6a laying around that we plan on using after the beast is running. The point system is simpler, but the gold box might be more stable (no points wear) over the long haul.
Any thoughts?
I'd never consider using the gold box distributor and amplifier in it's oem form to interface with a capacitive discharge add-on box. There is really no advantage to that I can think of and it adds one more device into the electronic mix that is prone to failure.
When interfacing a 6-series cd box (any brand) with breaker points, the current carried by the breaker point set is almost non-existent. Yes, the point rubbing block will wear down resulting in a change in dwell and timing, but not near to the extent as experienced when using the points only in an inductive mode such as the oem ignition system.
The big issue with using breaker points as the primary side trigger is the major variation in both dwell and timing that is inherent in that design. No way around that, it's an electro-mechanical issue vs. An electronic issue, night and day difference! Simply watching a scope pattern of each distributor as the engine runs will make a believer out of anyone. Breaker points never have and never will provide a stable, repetitive timing signal, they were perfectly "good enough" at a point in time for a stock engine (any brand), but for any engine that is slated for "performance" tuning, breaker points are in the same league as flint and steel for fire starting.
If I were doing this (and yes, I have two rigs running on this same system), I'd simply install a pertronix conversion in the breaker point distributor after it's refreshed and use that to trigger the msd 6 box with a low resistance coil to match the box.
All this information is discussed in this thread:
http://www.forums.IHPartsAmerica.com/ignition-tech/644-ignition-system-performance-upgrades.html
