@JoelP posted:WTF? RPM pill for each you pick? What picking? I’m already annoyed at it.
I don’t think MSD has used the pills in a long time. A Digital 6AL has rotary knobs to set the rev limit.
Many moons ago when I used to drag race, I ran an analog MSD 6 with a Biondo 2 step box, never an issue dialing in the launch and top end rev limit.
They had pills in 2005, so I bought a Mallory instead.
Off topic a bit, with regard to MSD 6AL. I'm running a MSD unit but mounted it inside the car trying to avoid heat related issues. Is this placement unwarranted?
We've used very few MSD boxes, but I always shy'd away from them because of the local racers and their feedback. It wasn't uncommon to see 2x MSD boxes mounted in a race car and I once inquired as to the "why", and was told that you know one is going to fail and the second is there so that you could switch on the fly when it does.
The industry accepted operating range for automotive electronics is -40C to +125C ( -40F to +257F ) so that it can survive under the hood of most (water-cooled) cars (or inside of a black car when it’s 120F in Dallas).
That is the temp range that average quality auto electronic parts should be able to operate in, given an automotive environment.
Auto-quality electronics should be more expensive than “commercial” parts, like those in your Laptop or TV remote, because laptop Commercial grade parts are rated from 0C to +70C. (32F to 158F) The upper end of the temp range is where silicon in chips begins to soften, heading towards a melted junction and failure.
Because they are tougher but more expensive, some auto electronics manufacturers may not screen them to the range extremes, (if at all). Thinking that the working environment won’t be that harsh, they buy the parts screened towards the middle of the range (again, if screened at all by the manufacturer, but chip makers know how good each batch of parts is).
So imagine that your aircooled Speedster engine has just been running on a freeway for over an hour and is sitting at 210F as you pull off to a rest stop. You turn the engine off and it goes into “heat soak” where the engine temperature spikes up to, say, 275F, including the module inside of your distributor. The electronic stuff does not have to be turned on to suffer degradation of the part junctions within - the heat alone causes the silicon inside of the parts to degrade. Do this enough times and it will eventually fail.
THAT is why racers learned to put their engine management electronics in the cockpit, NOT in the engine compartment, and run redundant systems, just in case. Same thing for cars that have their ECUs under the dash or fastened to a wheel well, rather than on top of the engine, like on my F250 truck where it became a “top five failure item” on some Ford pickups.
Could the electronics manufacturer make their circuits tougher? Sure, they could use screened/tested higher-end Military-grade parts but at their typical sales volumes they would have to charge 2X - 4X the going price for the final device and would not be able to sell many. The Military needs and pays for parts that don’t fail. Even so, some still fail in normal use, but far less often than in the automotive biz. The Automotive world uses parts in the middle of the quality curve so they end up with “acceptable” (for the seller)
“You get what you pay for.”
The instruction for my FAST module specifically state that it should not be in the engine compartment.
I moved my speeduino ECU into a box I built into the driver's side package tray. Keeps it cool, protected and accessible. https://www.speedsterowners.co...re-speedster-storage
Wait.....
You have a 356 Package tray?
From a real, replica 356??
I sit here, speechless. 😷
My respect runneth over....................
I've got an old IM with what some wags describe as a rear seat, but even with a fancy leather cushion on top, we all know is just a place to throw things while we're driving 😜
Oh, THAT package tray.
That's the "rear seat" where my Jack Russell, Sophie, hung out when she wasn't down sleeping in the passenger footwell. she didn't like it back there as much - Too much air turbulence and she had to scrunch down under the wind blocker in my roll bar to get back to the front area. Today, with the wider seats, she would never make it. Jacks don't live forever, so it's probably a good thing she's off chasing squirrels in puppy heaven.
I thought you had one of those fancy-schmancy, Cat-Gut woven, under-dash package trays from the real 356 days. Here I find you're just another replica poser. 
I put my Speeduino ECU behind the passenger seat of my Spyder in the passenger compartment. That's the same place I had my Megajolt, and the Mallory Hyfire6 before that. Cool(ambient temp) and dry. I even mounted everything higher just in case I had water in there(don't ask how I found this out).
I will NEVER understand JPS putting the ECU in the engine compartment on all the Suby cars. It is not waterproof nor rated to be in an engine compartment. That is one of the many reasons I won't work on a JPS car.
