Sorry for the late reply to this thread, had some stuff popping up!
Did Holley improve the poor reputation MSD had before Holley bought them out?
I have no idea about the reputations of MSD nor Holley for that matter. My only reasoning for going with Holley is that we ran Holley on my 68 C10 and it's been amazing, way better than the Edelbrock I had on a car I was working on at the time. As for MSD, back in the 80s and 90s my Uncle did major engine repairs and rebuilds and he used a lot of MSD's iginition parts. Obviously that's been a while now, but everything I had last heard on MSD was decent stuff in the high end (racing and such) and I know from personal experience that Holley makes good street stuff, so I figured I'd hook my peepers on their catalog.
If your old ignition was working fine, there's no sense in throwing money at it. With anything HEI or later, the factory ignition is strong enough you won't gain any power with an MSD unless you need to make power past 5000 rpm.
I just put a Holley Sniper on my stepside. It was relatively painless except getting the stupid display cable through the firewall. Tiny cable with a 5/8" wide connector. Try finding a grommet that will seal that. Selling point - it mostly tunes itself.
I might look into the Sniper, the only thing "wrong" with the truck before is it idled around 2300rpm but I suspect one of the previous owners just adjusted the distributor to make up for the fact that the motor was practically killing itself. They abused this poor truck like no tomorrow. I also know from experience on more than one of these trucks that the distributor, button and cap have caused some issues when the truck gets higher mileage so I'm looking into different options.
As far as your tune-up goes, I have had excellent luck with many MSD products, but I'll warn you on this...The MSD Vortec coil (8231) I had failed internally after about two years of daily driving service. I forget how many miles it was exactly.
If I could also advise on the MSD components, avoid their StreetFire line if you can afford to.
Will do, I don't *need* to add or do anything to the motor and I'm not above spending the little extra on the other lines even if it has to be further down the road. I'm just mainly looking for ideas now.
Really without knowing how the shop built your engine it's hard to make any recommendations. But I assume it's for the 1996 truck and you want to drive like a stock truck.
The Plastic distributor is a weak link so a billet might not be a bad option. I would look at new gear to mesh with the cam if you want to spend money elsewhere.
As for cams there are several threads on those but there a couple of other areas I would look at first. People will tell you that a tune will wake up the engine especially on the early Vortec trucks with the 5.7. If you decide to keep the GM fuel injection you should switch the spider out for the updated one without the poppet valves.
Headers will help as is the case with most SBC but how stock do you want to keep it? Pass an emissions test and inspection or "track" only?
What you'll find is that the transmission if it's stone stock is also a wear link especially if you add power and torque.
there are far brighter minds on this board but a bit more information and they will guide you but you'll wind up with a 383 and NV4500 most likely with marine cam and intake. <G>
You're damn near on the money lol. I don't want to go after huge power numbers.... yet, but I do want an improvement on the base recipe. I love these trucks and damn near everything about them, but I'll be the first to admit that the later generations made much better power and had a much smoother delivery. I just want to "wake up" the old girl per say, not looking to make huge power numbers or make high RPM pulls. I just want a little improvement on the formula while still retaining factory driveability. My 68 has a mild build and already has some ticks in her daily driveability so I want to stay fairly close to stock functionality. Just want that *little edge* to make it perform a little better in terms of towing and daily driving. I was seriously considering just throwing in a 6.0 Vortec instead, but haven't had any luck finding a decent candidate without spending an arm and a leg.
In my state the truck no longer needs to pass emissions so I could care less about that, and don't mind some "track" only stuff. I just don't want to lose the good manners my truck had in stock form. As for the trans, I know it'll be a weak link and although it's fine now, I know Chevy trucks and I'm already planning on needing a rebuild *anyway* regardless of where the build takes me. The shop I intend to take it to can build it however I want, so I haven't really been too worried about power numbers I'm pushing through it. If I go the route of 6.0 like I wanted to I'd go with a 4L80 to have my trans guy rebuild, and might still do that anyway for the added rigidity. Only thing I know I don't want to do is the NV swap, I kinda want to keep this particular truck automatic. I love a manual, but just prefer an automatic when I'm in the trails and such. I'm weird, I know. Although now that you mention it.... a 383 does sound nice lmao
FWIW, I went with all accel products on my 7.4 vortec, 1996 k2500 truck. Iridium plugs (NGK), accel coil (140024), accel wires 9000 ceramic 8mm and lastly the vortec 96-00 (59132) all cast aluminium plug and play distributor. About a year installed and all parts holding up great! The accel distributor was about 150$ and there is a free shipping deal going on now. I get faster starts and a little more pep above 2200 rpm's... I am chasing down a small back fire when off accelerator pedal at speeds under 40 mph and I think its time for the 4 hole injectors.
Good performance at a good price IMHO.
I appreciate the input because I've looked into Accel before but wasn't sure. I run NGK on damn near all my Chevys and I love em. Never tried any of the accel stuff though, just ended up grabbing Delco. I'll have to check them out, while I don't need an MSD or Holley ignition system I just don't like using run of the mill stuff with my distributor, cap and button. My 2000 Silverado has been plagued with rotor cap and button issues because of the crappy design. I went and got some stuff from Chevy direct (and paid the premium, yes) and haven't had an issue. Same thing with a buddy of mine with a 96 Z71 ECSB just like mine and he was having ignition issues that he couldn't seem to fix no matter what he changed. I mentioned my truck and my Uncle had a 96 2wd ECSB parts truck out in the field with a 5.0. The whole front clip was gone from that truck and it was just a frame with a cab and bed sitting on the ground, and a tarp over the motor. It had been sitting like that for years but they snatched the cap and button off of it and put it on my buddy's truck and bam, problem fixed. He's been rocking that cap and button for over a year and a half now. Just goes to show me the difference in a factory original part or aftermarket "performance part" (like a Holley or something) over one of even the Delco. Figured while the motor was out now I'd look into some other stuff to save myself the trouble down the line ya know.
