Well I might just join in the "Engine trouble group".. Update 2/11

[Danny Gutierrez]

  Sorry to hear about all the troubles you've been having.  Don't give up on the hobby yet.  If you remember, I had electrical issues last summer.  The 69 left me stranded a few times in the 95 degree heat.  Took me over a month and lots of $$$$ and parts to get her running right.  Now the engine is smoking so I need to tear the motor down and find out if I need a rebuild.  My Dad is coming to visit me and my kids in February and he said he'd help me pull and rebuild my motor.  He's the one I learned from as a kid about cars.  He used to have me and my brother tear down motors that he was rebuilding on weekends.   

[Mefirst]

Tom, sorry to hear about the ignition woes. Why the digital 6 ? Personally, i'd just go for the 6al and keep it simple. 

Ron

Hey Ron..

I kinda like the stuff that you can do with the Digital 6, I specially like the start timing retard feature. You also have a second timing retard feature and 2x rew limiter.. I know the 6AL would be just fine, even the Mopar silver box would do the job quite alright, but then there is the dumb "coolness" factor...

/Tom

[Charger_Fan]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya, hopefully this time is the charm.

[Rolling_Thunder]

damn dude...   ur luck sounds almost as bad as mine....     ur charger take about a quart of blood and break 7 bones yet ?  hahaha     Hope you get this electical shit sorted out...   i hear nothing but bad stories about MSD...   buddy of mine ran one in his 1969 Charger and went through 4 boxes...     said screw it and put on a regular mopar ignition and ran like a champ....     

[HDCharger]

I think I deserve to be a charter member of the “Engine Problems Group” My woes continue as well.

Late June 2002 â€" I just got the engine back from “Cajun Dyno” in Alexandria, LA at a cost of 2800 I dropped her in the Charger without ever turning the key and off I went to Kuwait for 13 months.

August of 2003 rolls around and I drag the car to my dads house in Alabama and spend the next 3 days getting her ready to run.  NOT.  What’s this Antifreeze and water coming out of the header?  Pull the header and yep you guessed it, head was cracked but wait I had the receipt for pressure testing from “Cajun Dyno” so I call them up and they were out of business because the owner died while I was in Kuwait.  Pull the useless 906 heads that I had machined for larger valves, hardened seats, etc and tossed them to the side and ordered a set of Edelbrocks from Hughes.

January 2004 drug the car to my new home in Clarksville, TN put the head on it and getting ready to put the headers on it.  What’s this?  Can not get to the plugs with eddys and thorley headers.  D*&^

February 2004 my second trip to the Middle East, this time Iraq.

August 2004 I’m back home and got my brand new TTI 1 7/8” headers and they are ready to go on finally.

November 2004 Welded up some cheap mufflers so the neighbors won’t call the law and I get her ready to fire.  We have ignition!  Ran for 10 minutes and timing cover is leaking so I shut her down. 

January and cold as H*** and I’m tearing the front off the engine and replacing the gaskets and putting an aluminum housing on the water pump.

March 2005 and I have got her reassembled and ready to fire.  Nothing, will not hit.  Give up for a while.

June 2005 and I’m on my way to my third trip to the Middle East (2nd in Iraq).

Nov 22nd 2005(My Birthday) and I’m going to make it home for Thanksgiving.  I get my new 2.5”  TTI exhaust on the car on get her ready to run or so I thought.  3 days and I get nothing. 

Dec 31st 2005 With some help from Ron and Neil I get her to fire and she sounds good.  Were in business?  Nope.  She had a leak and I pulled the dipstick and lo and behold the oil smells just like GAS. A lot of gas, maybe 50-50!!! Yikes!  Scary.  Drain the oil put in fresh oil and try it again, no fire.  Pulled the plugs for about the 10th time cleaned them put them back in and she fired right up for about 15 seconds and died.  My dad had the timing light on different wires and some were firing, some not.  It’s a brand new Mopar electronic system other than sitting for a while its got less than 15 minutes on it.  Same with the Street Avenger Carb.  I’ve checked the gap on the reluctor a dozen times.  Double checked the wiring as best I knew how, Bought a new Accell Coil, New ECU box, I ran a ground from the block to the ECU to make sure I was grounded.  What the hell, give up again something is not right.  Motors are really simple you say?  Fuel/Air and Spark. 

Jan 3rd 2006 â€" Pulled the Carter fuel pump to make sure it wasn’t pumping fuel into the timing cover.  Its was ok as far as I can tell.  My new Holley 4150 (830cfm) arrived so I mounted her on the engine and still got nothing.  Won’t hit a lick.  What gives?  I’ve got receipts for at least $8500 dollars on an engine alone that will not run!  Frustration does not even begin to explain.  I’ve cursed, moaned, threatened to sell, burn, you name it.

Jan 6th 2006 â€" Got my MSD pro-billet distributor and waiting on the 6AL box.  If this don’t fix it you may find a nice Charger in the For Sale Section.  I am tired of buying the same things over and over.  Lessons learned is ask around and but the right thing the first time, however, I did talk to people and they said they have ran the Mopar ignition system for years with no trouble.

[Mefirst]

HDCharger... I feel your pain brother.. I just hope it will work out in the end, but getting there sucks when things don't want to go as planed...

I already wrote earlier that I will give my Charger a real Viking burial and scarify her to my great ancestors if she wont start to coperate soon...

/Tom

[HDCharger]

I hear you man.  Update:  I got my Mopar 6AL Box and my MSD Probillet distributor and getting ready to put her in and her we go again.  I have to have the spark plug type end on the plug wires for the distributor so I make a run to the parts house and there is none in stock.  I ordered a set from Jegs and they will be here next week.  Its going to be 65 degrees tomorrow and man I'm missing a great opportunity to work on her, there won't be many more of those days left this winter.  Good luck brother and keep us posted on the progress.  Dave