By Mark Higgins (aka DirtyLude)
Last Updated

• Introduction
• Mounting MSD-6AL Unit
• Mounting Blaster 2 Coil
• Wiring New Ignition
• Finishing Up
• Gains and Losses
• Update 2000/08/08

The MSD-6AL with a MSD Blaster 2 coil increases spark energy which is needed to punch threw the much more dense air/fuel mixture of a high compression or forced induction. This modification does little to help non-modified or even mildly modified engines.

The pictures can be a little blurry; my old Casio digital camera really bites.

First thing that needs to be done is to mount the ignition box. Your two options are somewhere in the engine compartment or in the passenger compartment. The engine bay is very packed, so some people will choose to go through the firewall and place the unit in the glove compartment or along the passenger side of the centre console. The box makes some clicking noises which I didn't want in the passenger compartment.

One option is to relocate the battery to the trunk which I will probably do in the future. I happen to have a AEM cold air intake already installed which has opened up some space beside the battery so this isn't necessary for me at the time. I opted to bolt the unit to the plastic battery box. I took out the battery and drilled two holes in the box as far back as possible to bolt the MSD unit into. I bolted the box in the two holes put the battery back in and secured the other side of the unit to the battery tie down with a zip tie.

This is only a temporary place for it until I relocate the battery, but it's more solid than I thought it would be and I could easily leave it there.

Make sure you snip the two wires under the cap on the side of the unit (to tell the unit your car is a 4 cylinder) before mounting it. I made sure I mounted the side where the rev limiter plugs in up, for easy access.

Before starting on the electrical system disconnect the negative battery cable to keep from getting any surprises.

First you have to remove the old coil. Remove the wire harness on the bottom of the old coil, and the cable from the top. I chose to remove the entire bracket that the coil was mounted on.

All you need to do this is remove the two bolts and squeeze out the little wire mounting clip that's attached to it. After that I mounted the coil using the top bolt that the coil bracket used. I had to bend the new MSD bracket in order for the coil to fit properly. I only mounted it using one bolt, but it is sturdy enough for the job.

After that, the wiring is simple. Here are the wires and where they go:

• MSD Thick Red - battery positive (+)
• MSD Thick Black - battery negative (-)
• MSD Thin Orange - coil positive (+)
• MSD Thin Black - coil negative (-)
  

Here is the only wiring part that is specific to the 5th Gen (4th Gen is the same with different factory wire colours) You need to connect the spade connectors that came with the MSD to the thin red and white wire from the MSD. One of the white spade connectors must be sniped and sealed, I just temporarily sealed mine back with tape in the picture.

Now, the two red and one white spade connectors will fit in the wire harness that used to go in the bottom of the old coil.

• MSD Thin Red wire 1 - matches with the black wire with yellow strip (this is the key on positive wire)
• MSD Thin Red wire 2 - matches with the solid yellow (This wire powers the Ignition control module)
• MSD Thin White wire - matches to the solid green wire (This is the trigger wire)
  

At the end of it all it should look like this:

You'll want to get rid of the MSD connectors and solder and seal everything together or at least seal the connectors using heat shrink tubing. Make sure all the wires are routed away from hot pipes or metal edges that may cut into them and protect them with a wire loom. I'm following this up with a J&S safeguard so I'm leaving the wiring as is in case I have to tap in anywhere.

You should follow this modification up with some aftermarket wires. Magnecor KV85 8.5mm plug wires are highly recommended (Part #45188 for Gen 5 Prelude). You should also get some copper NGK plugs. If your staying Naturaly Aspirated you can gap them .010 over stock. When you put on a blower or nitrous you're going to use the stock gap or probably a little less than stock.

I was actually surprised that I could easily tell the difference with and without the new ignition plugged in. I don't think it added power any, but the engine is more responsive now. There is no hesitation and it's more difficult to stall the car at really low RPM's. Which is good when your girlfriend is learning to drive manual. :)

I've had the MSD on for about 6 months now. I've given up on waiting for the Jackson Racing Supercharger to come out and I have enough knowledge and supporting tuning hardware to put a turbo in safely (hopefully), so I've ordered an F-Max kit. Driving around with the MSD on a relatively stock car has been nice, but wouldn't be worth the effort if I wasn't going FI. I've kept the MSD box in the same location all this time with no problems. When I bought my Cusco strut tower bar it came with a little bracket to relocate one of the fluid holder on the 4th Gen Prelude. This bracket worked perfectly for relocating the coil, like this: