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MSD 6a ingition 1990 240 install

Help, Advice, Owners' Discussion and DIY Tutorials on all Volvo's "mid era" rear wheel drive Volvos.

1975 - 1993 240
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pet19821
Posts: 6
Joined: 17 January 2010
Year and Model: 1991 244
Location: seattle

MSD 6a ingition 1990 240 install

Post by pet19821 »

so i have a MSD 6a box laying around and was wondering if it can be installed into a 1990 240? Any body done it that maybe could tell me if its just a dumb idea and doesnt do anything? also are there any good coil up grades for 240's?

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billofdurham
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Post by billofdurham »

Welcome to Matthew's Volvo Site.

I have never used this particular unit but did use something similar on my 740. Did it make a difference? Not that I could see, feel or hear. It stayed on the car for 2 months to give it a good trial and now resides in my "now why did I buy that junk?" box.

I often do buy strange things but always revert to the standard vehicle Volvo made. They have more money than me to spend on R & D.

A coil upgrade? How old is your coil? Maybe it just needs replacing to get better performance.

Bill.
Work was good - retirement is better.

1996 850GLT 2.5 20v Estate Manual.
1995 Peugeot Boxer 2.5Tdi Autosleeper.
Previously:
1984 244DL, Manual, Beige.
1987 744GLE, Manual, Green.
1991 960 3.0 24v, Auto, Silver.
1994 940T Wentworth, Auto, Blue.

JDS60R
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Post by JDS60R »

Sure - A 6A box always helps but you have to take into consideration it will be heating up the old coil so its best to replace it with a good MSD coil made to take the heat.
The second consideration is the tach some applications do not allow the tach to function correctly until a MSD adapter is installed.
The third consideration is the distance between the towers in the distributor. If it is a very small cap then the spark can sometimes jump inside the cap and cause a misfire.

I have not installed one in a 240 yet and apologize for not knowing if the cap is large or small. The best thing to do is call MSD and see what they suggest and if there are any issues with the considerations listed above.

Once everything is hooked up you can expect slighlty better torque and performance.
Retired

pet19821
Posts: 6
Joined: 17 January 2010
Year and Model: 1991 244
Location: seattle

Post by pet19821 »

well id of course use an msd coil the frequency of the recharge on stock coils is limited. but if it was installed on a 740 than that would be very similar to the 240. and if you didnt really experience anything worthwhile than ill just stick with the ezk. i actually have a vw dist cap on my car that is a non alyklid plastic. its from a air cooled vw bug and the late model svda dist in the carb engines uses the exact same pn as the volvo bosch cap so id thought id give it a shot and it fits and works great. there available at cbperformance.com http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=340
there pretty sturdy and blue which is kinda neat i guess. w
so if i boost up the stock coil will that mess with the ezk ecu or the LH ecu?

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