My now real old MSD and MSD distributor have ran for very long time. I lost a coil twice in almost 28 years now coil is MSD high vibration
I don't know if it's considered a high performance unit but I've been running the Lectric Limited conversion kit in my 1970 350 for a couple of years now and it was a simple install and hasn't given me any problems.
I couldn't agree with you more! Been there with them and FAST... now running points triggering a MSD box and coil, and the car runs much better and has been far more reliable.
I remember when Petronix was the latest go to system, I guess it did not live up to its hype. It was better to just get an HEI from a donor vehicle and rework the advance since they would advance too far for your early 70 engine. That thing never failed I ran that for a lot of years I never played with the advance much just light springs. Probably advanced to the moon when on the floor took a long time to bust that crank lol.
What needs to happen with the 350 is one of us somewhere somehow need to bust this thing to the moon before you can never get one again. Beat all the others just like the 455 did.
What burns up/ fails a lot of these points conversion units is that there only getting the needed 12 volts during cranking, and not in the run position!
I believe this is true. However, I went through that with both brands, replacing the resistor wire from the fuse box with a 12-gauge wire, verified 12V in run and start, and still had a lot of problems. Mostly hot starting and odd idling when hot. My theory is that these work well in some applications where the distributor body sits well above the motor. Our Buicks have the distributor tucked down in the front of the motor and the heat generated there causes the module part a lot of problems. The points and HEI design don't seem to care about that heat. Again, that is just my theory, based on experience.
I bought my MSD in the late 80’s early 90’s, been working great, all original stuff. Yes, Pertronix sucks, go GM HEI or older MSD