Reliable replacement brand ignition components?

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Caman96

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I have used D.U.I. hei distributors in the past and they were excellent and made in U.S.A.. I had an MSD distributor in my 94 and had nothing but issues, switched back to AC Delco and had zero problems before I sold the truck.
The MSD is sitting on a shelf in my garage still, when we build a motor for my son’s truck it will get a Davis ignition system. And the MSD will continue to sit.
Good to know, thanks.
 

Reluctanse

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Man, a lot of good votes for UMP. I have their distributor and plug wires already.... man they are on the cost effective end of things too for the coil and ICM. Might as well roll the bones on those for the price. If I have a single issue I'll jump over to the DUI stuff.

Thanks for the replies everyone-

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GMC_YA_L8R

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I picked up the United Motor Products distributor for my truck. Good warranty, good price. For the rest of the ignition stuff I got AC Delco wires and plugs, and a Delphi coil. I haven't installed any of these yet as I'm going to do a bit of a top end overhaul and just haven't set aside time to do it yet.
 

Schurkey

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I’d like to get a new coil and ignition control module, proactively, and if nothing else so I can put my currently working ones in the tool bag as a set of spares…
...any trusted brands on the rock auto list?
No. There is no one brand I'd trust for everything, and lots of "Famous Names" selling CRAP, including brand names I used to trust and love.

Go to a Treasure Yard, find a lower-mileage/good condition Vortec V8 truck, (preferably a 7.4L) and grab the OEM ignition parts from it--module and coil, maybe the coil heat-sink, (any V-6 or V-8--module, coil should be the same, I don't know about the heat-sink) the entire BIG-BLOCK distributor with plug wires if the engine is the same as yours. Verify that the distributor gear is in good condition, along with the bushings in the housing (distributor shaft doesn't wobble).

I guess while you're there, you could look around for anything else that seemed interesting, or has a reputation as a high-failure item, and grab good-condition OEM parts as desired.
 

454cid

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I have an orielly icm that I've had to warranty at least twice so that's less than ideal. I have one sitting on reserve, but dont recall the brand. I'd probably skip the UMP since they will likely be selling another companies part. I may have purchases an NTK/Wells or maybe a Delphi.

I like the UMP wires. I have them on my truck and Buick but first purchased a set for my old Saturn that ran 100 miles a day. The ones on my Buick are a little long, but the truck set is about the same as original.

I'm still using my original coil, but I have a Chinese NGK in reserve.

I've always gotten ACDelco caps and rotors for the truck, but I have a vented UMP in reserve for next time.
 

98 Nitro

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Standard motor products is what I have been using, and some of their products even are USA made.
 

Reluctanse

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No. There is no one brand I'd trust for everything, and lots of "Famous Names" selling CRAP, including brand names I used to trust and love.

Go to a Treasure Yard, find a lower-mileage/good condition Vortec V8 truck, (preferably a 7.4L) and grab the OEM ignition parts from it--module and coil, maybe the coil heat-sink, (any V-6 or V-8--module, coil should be the same, I don't know about the heat-sink) the entire BIG-BLOCK distributor with plug wires if the engine is the same as yours. Verify that the distributor gear is in good condition, along with the bushings in the housing (distributor shaft doesn't wobble).

I guess while you're there, you could look around for anything else that seemed interesting, or has a reputation as a high-failure item, and grab good-condition OEM parts as desired.
I’ll definitely add that to list for my next treasure yard trip.
 

pressureangle

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I don't remember what brand it was, but I put some aftermarket 'high performance' ignition coil on and destroyed 4 coil modules before re-installing the stock coil, with no failures afterwards. An Ohm test showed no meaningful difference- don't know what the diff was in use, but it was bad. I'd trust Davis because I haven't heard bad, and Standard is well, the Standard. After that if I needed a stronger ignition I'd just go to MSD or something.
 

Caman96

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The DUI ICM supposedly has a little more sack, this is from site:

“Improve the performance of your Vortec by installing our high dwell Dyna-Module! Dwell within the module controls a coils saturation time, which is the time needed by the coil to produce a spark. The dwell in our Dyna-Module has been increased electronically to provide the coil with additional saturation time. The result is a more intense and longer duration spark in the combustion chamber that will improve throttle response and low end power! Installation is easy as the Dyna-Module mounts in the original factory location with no modifications”.

I messaged them yesterday and asked if U.S. manufactured. This was response:

“Our distributors and LiveWires are built in the USA. Coils are made in China. There are no coil manufacturers left in America, sadly”.
I’m definitely intrigued with their Vortec Distributor!
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