Something to think about: Ford went to the large cap to minimize arcing between the terminals due to the increased voltage.

I'm actually near the end of my Duraspark II upgrade and have been researching this for a bit.  I'll try to post a few pics later w/ some additional details.  I got the harness and module from a salvage yard and integrated it into my stock wiring.  After reading a number of posts here and elsewhere, I decided to go w/ MS's direction to bypass the pink resister wire, concluding that the need for resistence in the circuit was dependent on the type of coil used and that a high performance, low internal resistance coil would not need the additional resistance from the pink wire and the resulting spark energy would be greater w/out it.  For example, to my knowledge, HEI coils do not require additional resistance. Also, I'm thinking of hiding an HEI module inside of the Duraspark box if it turns out the Duraspark isn't up to the task.  So I went with an MSD Blaster II canister coil, which went with the stock look I'm after. 

Another thing I'm going to try is to use a small cap, as the large cap just looks out of place on my engine and it interferes w/ the export brace.  I understand that a 70s-80 International (Scout) cap for the Prestolite distributor fits (with some minor clearancing for the vacuum advance arm) and comes w/ the male/HEI terminals so if I do get spark arching due to the shorter distance between the cap terminals, I can just go back to the large cap.  More later.

hmartin025 wrote:

Was there a "Duraspark 1" system and then "Duraspark 2"? 
Appreciate all answers!
Howard 

Here's a link to an article that describes the differences between the 2 systems, with DS2 generally accepted as the preferable one.  https://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2006/12/DuraSpark/

 

Here is a good write up on the duraspark 1, found it in a Pantera forum, good info, post #5, enjoy
http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5650045562/m/7731000846

Last edited by Rsmach1 (6/03/2015 9:33 PM)