This is an MSD Digital 7 ignition box. We got a great deal on it a couple of years ago. It is state of the art for our application; it will do stuff I never imagined (and don't actually use). It can set the timing on a cylinder to cylinder basis, and turn stuff on and off. It has multiple rev limiters, it remembers the run, it tattles on you if you cheat, it'll make you a cup of coffee and tell you when your class has been called, but it wasn't working when we were trying to fire off the motor.
It turns out it was the coil, something we've suspected for months. So why didn't we test and replace it six weeks ago? Where's the fun in that?
This is what the coil situation looked like by the time we got it to fire off. That's three separate coils, baby! The big one on the bottom is the dead one that is supposed to be used with the MSD 7 series ignitions, like the above Digital 7. The one next to it is another, different coil for 7 series ignitions. The old school blaster coil is the one that we run with our 6A/6AL boxes. What makes this cluster so weird to me is that the coil almost never seems to go bad (that would be too easy).
This crusty old thing has been with us for over ten years and it still works like a Swiss watch. We've run 10.80's at 120+ mph with it. It doesn't mind sitting on top of a running motor. It doesn't mind sitting in standing water. We once taped one to the roll bar between rounds. Old school Pro Stockers used to run eights with them. You could by five of them for the price of one Digital 7. The same is true for the coil. Why don't we use one all the time? Uh, I dunno. Keeping up with the Joneses can be a weird and sometimes useless enterprise. We'll stash the whole set up in a toolbox and bring it to the track just in case.
Dr. Big Block waves his magic hands over the mess. Isn't it just typical that after months of making the engine room look perfect we have to go and throw a bowl of spaghetti on it to get her started? Once we got it all wired for power it started right up. I just love it when a plan comes together.
Mmmmm…burning race gas! It's been two years since I blew up our last Max 
Wedge. We've been able to "scratch the itch" since then by bracket racing with our 480 pump gas motor, but there's nothing like the sound of a bad boy Stock eliminator motor. I call it the "Devil's Popcorn Machine." This one is the higher 12.75:1 compression version of the motor and it sounds NASTY. Just the tiniest tweak on the throttle and the car seems like it wants to jump off the lift. Now we just have to cover everything up and get it to the track. First we'll have to go to the grocery store and siphon some gas for the tow rig! I'm kidding!
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