What is a good replacement ICM?

[macdude443]

So I recently swapped in my spare ICM to troubleshoot another problem.  It is a Standard Motor Products brand.  I noticed more power and my spark knock seemed to decrease.   Went for a 2 hour highway trip the other day and after pulling a decent hill, the engine started to sputter and miss badly.  After it flattened out for a while it stopped and ran fine.  Then it'd start missing again.  Pulled over for five minutes and shut it off.  Loosened the gas cap, thinking it was a vent line issue to the tank.  Started it up, ran fine for another few miles then acted up again.  At one point I couldn't get up over 45 MPH it was stumbling so bad.  When we got to the destination I replaced the fuel filters and checked the carb fuel inlet valve.  No problems.  Filters weren't old to begin with.  Drove around town, noticed it starting to act up again.  I decided to change the only other thing I had messed with before this problem started.. the ICM.  I put my old Wells unit back in and drove all the way home without it acting up once.

Does anyone have a good experience with a certain brand Duraspark module?  Seems they're all junk these days.  I bought a Motorcraft DY893 from Rockauto, which is the Ford car replacement for the blue grommet modules (not listed under Eagle).  I guess we'll see.  Has anyone had a good experience with the Stealth HEI setup?  Sounds like a good idea, I just don't like the lack of the timing retard feature.

[eaglefreek]

I've heard the aftermarket ICM's don't have the spark retard feature, but don't have any personal experience. After a 6 month old import ICM left me stranded in an intersection while going to lunch with a co worker and he had to help me push it, I installed an MSD Street Fire CDI and haven't had a single problem in almost 5  years.

[macdude443]

I've considered the aftermarket CDI ignitions but they will not work with the computer from what I can tell.  I'm trying to keep it original.  In the end that may be fruitless, which, for those who like stock setups, is really lame.

[mudkicker715]

I did the msd route as well. Never a problem. Starts easier than the one i did the gm hei 1 wire problematic distributor  too. I had a mallory with the photoeye garbage years back on a ford before i had an eagle. It failed just after the warranty, and the photo eye thing was near the price of the whole unit. So i never will trust mallory again.

[macdude443]

I did the msd route as well. Never a problem. Starts easier than the one i did the gm hei 1 wire problematic distributor  too. I had a mallory with the photoeye garbage years back on a ford before i had an eagle. It failed just after the warranty, and the photo eye thing was near the price of the whole unit. So i never will trust mallory again.

Is the MSD module wired direct to the original Motorcraft distributor?

[mudkicker715]

Mine is not, i got the msd dissy as well. However i am almost certain i remember you can,or could buy the wires to use your stock mc dissy.

[macdude443]

I'm wondering if the MSD ignition could be triggered by the ECM the way the original ICM was?

[mudkicker715]

Nope. Best thing would be to just to bypass it all. IMO.

[mudkicker715]

Nice thing is, is that the msd 6a box can run any msd dissy. I am sure there might be an exception. But if i converted a 4cyl boat i could use that box. If i had a say 460 ford same box.

[eaglefreek]

I did the msd route as well. Never a problem. Starts easier than the one i did the gm hei 1 wire problematic distributor  too. I had a mallory with the photoeye garbage years back on a ford before i had an eagle. It failed just after the warranty, and the photo eye thing was near the price of the whole unit. So i never will trust mallory again.

Is the MSD module wired direct to the original Motorcraft distributor?

Yes. If you are keeping the ECM then a Duraspark is your only choice I suppose. I'm not even sure what the ECM does with the ICM. I assume it advances or retards timing.

[ammachine390]

I got one from NAPA that seemed to be of higher quality than the Autozone brand ones. Bought it when my original ICM went out in 2012 and haven't had any issues since. Although, I bought a second one that I keep under the passenger seat just in case.

[Nightpath]

I changed to an HEI distributor and took the stock "computer" controlled crap out of the equation. A newer ignition system really will improve your car...keeping it stock is nice but a boost in HP and economy is even nicer. You can always revert a ECM Test bypass as well.

When I did my swap I just unhooked the computer and ran the wires from the ICM to the HEI, very easy hookup and I never spliced a wire, just unhooked the stock items.

[1985amceagle]

So I recently swapped in my spare ICM to troubleshoot another problem.  It is a Standard Motor Products brand.  I noticed more power and my spark knock seemed to decrease.   Went for a 2 hour highway trip the other day and after pulling a decent hill, the engine started to sputter and miss badly.  After it flattened out for a while it stopped and ran fine.  Then it'd start missing again.  Pulled over for five minutes and shut it off.  Loosened the gas cap, thinking it was a vent line issue to the tank.  Started it up, ran fine for another few miles then acted up again.  At one point I couldn't get up over 45 MPH it was stumbling so bad.  When we got to the destination I replaced the fuel filters and checked the carb fuel inlet valve.  No problems.  Filters weren't old to begin with.  Drove around town, noticed it starting to act up again.  I decided to change the only other thing I had messed with before this problem started.. the ICM.  I put my old Wells unit back in and drove all the way home without it acting up once.

Does anyone have a good experience with a certain brand Duraspark module?  Seems they're all junk these days.  I bought a Motorcraft DY893 from Rockauto, which is the Ford car replacement for the blue grommet modules (not listed under Eagle).  I guess we'll see.  Has anyone had a good experience with the Stealth HEI setup?  Sounds like a good idea, I just don't like the lack of the timing retard feature.

did you have a misfire at one point in time, if it was ran for a long time, the coil may have been damaged as well. electricity likes to take the easiest path to ground, and it is possible for the secondary coil to short the primary coil inside the ignition coil, which the sends a shock to the ignition module, that was intended to go to the spark plug instead.

[macdude443]

So I recently swapped in my spare ICM to troubleshoot another problem.  It is a Standard Motor Products brand.  I noticed more power and my spark knock seemed to decrease.   Went for a 2 hour highway trip the other day and after pulling a decent hill, the engine started to sputter and miss badly.  After it flattened out for a while it stopped and ran fine.  Then it'd start missing again.  Pulled over for five minutes and shut it off.  Loosened the gas cap, thinking it was a vent line issue to the tank.  Started it up, ran fine for another few miles then acted up again.  At one point I couldn't get up over 45 MPH it was stumbling so bad.  When we got to the destination I replaced the fuel filters and checked the carb fuel inlet valve.  No problems.  Filters weren't old to begin with.  Drove around town, noticed it starting to act up again.  I decided to change the only other thing I had messed with before this problem started.. the ICM.  I put my old Wells unit back in and drove all the way home without it acting up once.

Does anyone have a good experience with a certain brand Duraspark module?  Seems they're all junk these days.  I bought a Motorcraft DY893 from Rockauto, which is the Ford car replacement for the blue grommet modules (not listed under Eagle).  I guess we'll see.  Has anyone had a good experience with the Stealth HEI setup?  Sounds like a good idea, I just don't like the lack of the timing retard feature.

did you have a misfire at one point in time, if it was ran for a long time, the coil may have been damaged as well. electricity likes to take the easiest path to ground, and it is possible for the secondary coil to short the primary coil inside the ignition coil, which the sends a shock to the ignition module, that was intended to go to the spark plug instead.

Well, when the problem occurred it was missing, shuddering and randomly pinging so severe I could hardly keep the car up to speed.  It's very possible it damaged the coil.  The coil is an MSD Blaster 2F, about a year old.  After putting back the old Wells module I haven't had it act up or miss at all.  However, it isn't as "frisky" as the newer module was  .

In regards to the ICM test bypass, I'm not interested at this point.  I did that when I first bought the car and it ran like a turd no matter what I tried.  Other than this odd problem and a slight bog off idle (I've had this the whole time I've owned it) it's running very nicely with the ECM connected.  I've also gone through the work to find and repair all bad pieces of the original system so I don't want to just ditch it at this point.  I would also prefer to use the Motorcraft distributor and I am aware I can use it with an MSD box, should I ever want to go that route.

[eaglefreek]

Just thinking out loud. The oem setup has the distributor pickup signal going from the distributor to the ECM and then to the ICM and controls timing. I wonder if you can keep the ECM and still use a CDI like an MSD or the like and still have the ECM control timing. The CDI won't know the difference if the signal is coming directly from the distrib.utor or the ECM.