DIY MSD install on a Honda Civic

[ECU-MAN]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

This is a very simple install, only takes about 1/2 to 1 hour to do.

great upgrade for turbo cars or any other application where an improved Ignition system is required.


Aim: more powerfull Ignition system

theory of MSD Ignition ( taken from MSD manual )

Capacitive Discharge

the MSD 6 series units feature capacative discharge, most regular ( Honda ) ignition systems use a Inductive Ignition system. In an Inductive Ignition system the coil must store and step up the voltage to maximum strength in between each firing. At higher RPM since there is less time to charge the coil to full capacity, the voltage fall short of reaching maximum energy which results in a loss of power or top end missfire. MSD featurs a capacitor which is quicly charged ( with in 1 millisecond ) with 460 to 480 volts and stores it until the ignition is triggerd. With Capacative Discharge design, the voltage to the coil is always at full charge, even at high RPM.


Multiple Spark

the MSD 6 series produces full power muliple sparks for each firing of each cylinder. The number of multiple sparks decreases as engine RPM increaces. however the spark series always lasts for 20deg of crankshaft revolutions. Above 3000 rpm there is simply not enough time to fire the plug more than once, so there is only one powerfull spark





Required:
- MSD unit
- soldering Iron
- solder
- Phillips head screw driver
- conduit
- hookup wire
- electrical tape
- cable ties

OPTIONAL ( but recomended )

- external MSD Coil
- Prelude Distributor cap ( off a F22B or H22A )


engine bay with out MSD






Step: 1

- Install the Coil to the car, mount it to the body. I undid a bolt that holds the upper suspention arm on and put the bolt through the coil mount and put the bolt back in. Perfect location and I didnt have to drill into the shock tower.








STEP 2

mount the MSD control Unit to the body of the car. ( see bellow )








The 6 series MSD Units have 9 or so wires coming out of them.

- two heavy black and red wires ( red arrow above ) go to the battery via a fues

- orange and black wire ( green arrow ) go to MSD coil

- red and white wire ( blue arrow ) go to Honda Dizzy

- brown arrow points to the tacho pic up, - not used

- magnetic pickup wire also not used


STEP 3

wire up the MSD unit

- connect the thick black wire to the battery Negative terminal
- connect the thick red wire to the battery positive terminal, but make sure you use a minimum 15A fues before the terminal.

this bad boy is rated at 10A @ 10 000rpm

- connect the orange wire to the MSD coil ( + ) side
- connect the black wire to the MSD coil ( - ) side

yellow arrow in bellow pic






STEP 4

undo the 3x 8mm head bolts that hold the distributor cap on, ( red arrows in pic above )


now you have to turn the engine over to line up the rotor button in the dizzy in the access area so you can undo the phillips head screw that locks it on


see pic bellow




undo the screw and remove the rotor button, then the cover,

undo the 2 screws that hold the wires on the coil,

undo the two screws that hold the coil to the dizzy and remove the coil

see bellow pic


STEP 5

wire the MSD to the Honda Dizzy,

- connect the MSD white wire to the white/blue wire that was going to the coil. ( - ) I just solder it onto the connector.

- connect the MSD red wire to the black/yellow wire that was going to the coil ( + ) as above just solder it to the connecotr.


the MSD wires wernt long enough so I added some length to them.





STEP 6

wrap up the connections individually with electrical tape and then both of the connections together, as shown in the pic bellow, use cable ties to hold the wires to the body of the dizzy and route the wires to the bottom of the dizzy.








Step 7


with the wires that are ment to go to the MSD unit at the bottom of the dizzy, I used a razor to cut some rubber away from the seal where the main loom enters the dizzy. Only remove enough rubber to allow the MSD wires not to get crushed by the cap. ( see blue arrow above )

this is better than drilling a hole in the dizzy cap to pass the wires through.


put the cover back in place and fit the rotor button, put the screw back in






make sure your wires are nicely routed


STEP 8


fit the F22B / H22A distributor cap onto the Dizzy making sure you dont damage any of the wires, with the MSD wires in place ( on the rubber part ) tighten down the cap.


STEP 9


unplug the leads 1 at a time and plug them onto the new cap. dont mess up the firing order, ( 1342 ) or you will be their for ever try ing to get it right.

change leads if nessasary to the MSD leads. ( they kick ass )

fit a coil lead from the cap coil outlet to the coil ( see yellow arrow in bellow pic )





make sure the MSD unit is set to 4 cyl ( red and blue loop cut in hole on the side of the unit )


and your done

check everything over for correct polarity and good connection and start her up.

your good to go










Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

[FR33K]

what does the control unit do ?
i dont have on of those ?

[fatboyz39]

very nice....good write-up!

[MrJDMCivic]

Very good write-up as usual. For us noobies why do you need to convert to the F22/H22a cap?

I tried but.... "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to ECU-MAN again."

the normal b/d series cap doesnt have a spark plug input, thats why you need the prelude cap.

[bennjamin]

the normal b/d series cap doesnt have a spark plug input, thats why you need the prelude cap.

...or you can use the aftermarket cap that usually comes with the MSD kit to suit your dizzy type. Or atleast it is an option to use it.

[ECU-MAN]

Very good write-up as usual. For us noobies why do you need to convert to the F22/H22a cap?

I tried but.... "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to ECU-MAN again."

civic dizzy caps dont support external coil as civics have internal coil.

prelude F and H engines do, thats why I used a Prelude H22A dizzy cap

[Zdster]

Nice write up .

Just curious, can a noticable difference be felt after having installed a unit like this or does it work more on a mechanical side?

[bennjamin]

this is only an upgrade of "smoothness" apparently...OR if your stock coil has shat itself ( hondas get hot with the internal coil and it melts quite easily)

[EGB18CT]

well done again, soo tempting just wish i had the cash! anyway good stuff yet again another rep point... i think the ozhonda server will overload from how many diy and pq u have!

[EGB18CT]

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to ECU-MAN again."

har har har thats pimp hahahaha i thought that was the case, was thinking before not another one for ecu-man! but u deserve it well done.

[ECU-MAN]

thanks Guys

what does the control unit do ?
i dont have on of those ?

your car wont have one of those units, you have to purchase it,

the unit stores the charge required to collaps the coil muliple times in a very short period of time with a bohemuth spark.

Nice write up .

Just curious, can a noticable difference be felt after having installed a unit like this or does it work more on a mechanical side?

hard to say as this car had alot of upgrads done at one time,

in my old school days, on V8 LPG cars, it was noticable,

dont realy have any before and after Dyno results.

[ProECU]

These MSD units are JUNK.
Completely unneccesary for a stock or modified Honda.

All this install managed to achieve in the above car was a MASSIVE requirement to advance almost 20degrees timing at and after PEAK torque, whereas the same result could've been achieved with the stock ignition with approx 5deg timing.

Ask Australia's top drag team what they use..... it aint one of these.