Street-Fire ignition box

[Oldsmoletick]

Just curious if anyone on here runs one, or knows someone who runs one. Have there been any problems with it or issues. I am debating buying one for my AMC project (stock 258 6cyl engine), I'm not a fan of the current ignition system on the car (motorcraft), and want to upgrade. I run the 6AL on my malibu and have been pleased with it, but I can't see shelling out $$$ for a system that would be way overkill for the engine, my other thought was converting it to GM HEI. So in short any praises or gripes about the Street-Fire 5520 box? Thanks.

 

[Oldsmoletick]

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

The thing is, I don't think you will see any improvement over the stock Duraspark II ignition system. The compression ratio on that 258 is so low, that there is really no problem with the stock setup. Plus, if you are still running the feedback variant of the Carter BBD 2bbl carb, it may even run worse than with the stock green strain relief box. Unless you plan to upgrade the engine, save your money. You may find that the cheap ignition box ends up being more trouble than the stock setup anyways, as many of the low cost boxes can tend to be poorly made.

 

[Oldsmoletick]

Thanks, thats what I was afraid of as far as inferior quality goes, their claim as "economy line" made me think twice about buying it. I am still running the stock carb, however I lucked out to have a non feedback BBD, it runs good as is, but it may end up with a quadrajet if the carter proves to be problematic. I upgraded to the larger cap style, but I have heard many horror stories of the duraspark system being a royal PITA. Like I mentioned the other option would be to go with a GM HEI distributor from a L6, which would eliminate the rat nest of wires that the stock box creates, give me a system that I know has excellent reliability, and is easily upgraded for future mods. I'm not going to wild with this, the object is to build a economy car that's both reliable and somewhat fun to drive.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I never really had any problems with the Duraspark when I ran it, and it was on my car for a few years. The only thing that I had go wrong was that the potting melted and ran out the back (after trying an aftermarket coil), but the box still worked when that happened. Remember that the stock system is supposed to have a ballast resistor in it to work right, so make sure you do that. I am going back to the Duraspark box on mine when I put it together as I see no reason to sell the car with the 6AL box when it will run fine with the stock system. All I would do is run it as is, and consider changing it if it gives you trouble. You may find that the stock 258 is too slow for your girlfriend to use, and then you may not be able to use the new stuff when you do a swap thus wasting money. After all, this Eagle will probably take the better part of 15 seconds to hit 60, which is a little scary on today's roads.

 

[Oldsmoletick]

. After all, this Eagle will probably take the better part of 15 seconds to hit 60, which is a little scary on today's roads.

Now you're scaring me, lol. I haven't driven anything that sluggish since my bu had the 229. Anything I do, I usually try to keep it cheap as possible and plan well ahead (used parts), and if I do upgrade to the 4.0, I can always sell off certain things later. Usually I leave well enough alone, until it gives a problem, but the duraspark, it works fine now, and I have heard the back melting out before too.......I'm just not a fan of the clutter, lol.