can't find where i stashed all the MSD installation notes.
thought i remembered seeing something about resistor plugs...

my car's picked up a wicked vibration on cold start and is running quite rich on one side; since there's nothing "side-ed" about MFI i'm thinking i might have a bum plug. naturally i'll go pull them all tonight and see what 's up but before i go off chasing shadows i need to know if there's some kind of contraindication on resistor plugs with an MSD-6AL.

the technical information on MSD's web site is, of course, useless...

if NGK makes the exact kind of plug i want (BP7EIX) they keep it a pretty well-guarded secret...

anybody know MFI well enough to know if it's possible to have a single injector suddenly go mega-rich ?

I run BP7ES NGKs.

I look at the MSD 6al as a package deal.
Hi vibration coil.
Wires of your choice, tho I prefer the Magnecore 8.5mm jobies. I gap the plugs at .045....which is the whole intent, the big gap.....some guys go to .050. All the rest of the stuff supports that.

Dunno dick bout MFI.

i want to run NGK's Iridium (EIX) plugs; the rest is the same.
opinions are widely varied as to whether extended-tip ('P') is necessary or desirable... (personally, i prefer it...) i really liked NGK's 'V' series Palladium plug but evidently the Iridium supercedes that. they make a very plausible argument for it being superior to platinum; Denso's got one too but i prefer the NGK... (although i have used and liked Denso U-Groove plugs in the past)

MSD-6AL - got that ;
Hi-Vibe coil - got that ;
Magnecor 8,5 - got that ;

used to gap them at 0,045", went down to 0,040" on the current set but i'll open them back up when them come out tonight.

still need to know if MSD says anything about resistor-type pluigs ...

I don't recall seeing anything about resistor plugs.
I'll go out to the shop and root around for the directions.....I never read that shit

Copper wurks for me....cheep, too.

Sorry, Rich, I can't find em'.
I know I had em' a couple months ago when I wuz troubleshooting.....I prolly put em' in a "special" place.

de nada - i'm only asking the list because i can't find my own 'special place' ... i know i've got 'em "somewhere".

i was able to find a reference on the MSD BBS (which looks suspiciously like this one ...) indicating resistor plugs are okay with a MSD-7, so i don't think that's going to be the problem.

it's definitely something, tho - and it's not just a loose plug connector (checked that already....) i better go take my heart medication and check pricing on injectors ...

Hi Rich,

About the same setup as JP, (MSD, HiVib coil, Magnecors, NGK BP?ES). I'm one happy camper with this setup.

Did you try a bottle of injector cleaner???

Marc-André

i have a set of BP8ES i'll put back in tonight (non-resistor). 8 is probably a little too cold for the no-highway driving i'm doing these days but i think that now that i've got the idle mixture under control they won't soot up -too- badly... i have a set of Denso "double-platinum" (non-resistor) plugs coming from http://www.sparkplugs.com and i'll try those when they arrive; all the Iridium plugs are resistor :-( ...

i ran a bottle of Regane (had good results with it in the past) on the way up an another on the way home, in a continual effort to clear the buildup of soot and carbon. i have a can of BG-44K that everyone seems to rave about ready to go in once i can get the miss cleared up - don't need too many variables at those prices ...

so far, all the indications are pointing to a bum plug - i'll check them with an ohmmeter tonight and i'm betting i'll find one in the tens of kOhms range instead of the 5kOhm range it oughtta be ...

just a followup for those watching at home ...

i pulled the 3 rightside plugs first and they were v-e-r-y sooty. so - *not* just one plug. measured all the resistances - all around 4kOhms where they shouldda been. pulled the leftside plugs - all perfect to a little lean. Hmmm... then i noticed that a 'helpful person' had tweaked a linkage rod on the right side of the engine at the ECR - coincidentally right around the time the troubles started (and of course i had no reason to believe there was a problem Saturday morning before the tour because everything had run so well for Friday's 6-hr drive to VT...)

so i changed in the original set of BP7ES (after cleaning them up real good), tweaked the linkage rod back down to "no preload" or as close as i could get by eye and ear - no time to pull out the synchrometer - and it's all much happier today. -- oh -- gapped them to 0,044".

i'll still put in the Denso 'Double Platinum" plugs when they arrive, and keep the NGK Iridiums (7 and 8) as backups. so - while this was far from a conclusive, scientific test, my initial thought was that the MSD had burned up the NGK resisstor plug, but testing revealed that this was NOT the case.