team rush upgrade

team rush upgrade
G

giantsfan

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Location
lakehurst, new jersey
Vehicle(s)
79 cj7, 304 thm 400 automatic, quadratrac transfercase, stock rears.
have done some reading on the site and cant seem to find out if i can do the team rush upgrade on my AMC 304 ? everything i was reading about refered to the i6, if i can do this upgrade does anyone have part numbers? :notworthy: thanks.
 
Well I did it to my 360, so I'm pretty sure you can do it to the AMC 304 ! :thup:

I used a coil, bracket, plug wires, cap, rotor, cap adapter, and most everything else but the plugs from a '88 Ford F-350 with a 460.
I also replaced the distributor with one from a late '80's wagoneer to get breakerless ignition, and used a MSD CDI box the first time. Thats since been changed for a HEI module based ignition system.
Why did I use those particular parts? cause I had them at the house waiting to go into my old truck! LOL

I'll dig around and see if I can find the write-up JeepHammer did on the V-8 conversion.
 
Last edited:
Wide cap & adaptor:
MSD Ignition 8414 - MSD Cap-A-Dapts - Overview - SummitRacing.com

Wires
MSD Ignition 5551 - MSD Street Fire Spark Plug Wire Sets - Overview - SummitRacing.com

Champion Truck Plugs 4412 gapped to .45

Motorcraft distributor, 79 & later CJ
Advance Auto Parts: Distributor by Cardone - Part 30-4891___

Coil:
MSD Ignition 8227 - MSD Blaster TFI Coils - Overview - SummitRacing.com

AC Delco GM HEI from Autozone

Electrical connector for the coil, Napa P/N ICC1

Adaptor to the Jeep/Motorcraft distributor plug to common wiring:
MSD Ignition 8869 - MSD Wire Adapters - Overview - SummitRacing.com

heidiagram.jpg



Here is how I mounted my coil. I just used a piece of flat galvanized plate and bent it to the shape I needed. It took about 10 mins and works perfect. It bolts to the factory coil mount.

CJ5023.jpg

For the HEI ICM, I cleaned all the funk out of the stock prestolite ICM and used the aluminum case to mount the HEI. It worked good because the aluminum acts as a heat sink. You'll want to pick up some heat sink compound from radio shack to use between the ICM and the mounting location.

CJ5022.jpg
 
Deadmancj5: do i need to do the distributor also? even though i already have the ford distributor? if not then i wouldn't need that plug 8869 right? thanks asgain for the pics very helpful. :chug:
 
No, if you already have the motorcraft distributor than you shouldn't need the plug.

No problem! I literally just got done with this on mine. If you have any questions feel free to ask. It's pretty straight forward though.

I think the biggest pain was putting the spark plug wires together since they're the cut to fit type. I also had to manually time the engine because I didn't watch what I was doing when I took out the old distributor. You shouldn't have that problem though since you shouldn't need to pull yours.
 
Hey, I'm new here too. :)

Honestly it starts a heck of a lot faster than it did before but that's about it. I can't say that I noticed any seat of the pants "gains" from the better spark placement. Then again, I only had the jeep a week before doing this.

The actual 'Team rush' upgrade includes the MSD ICM, not the HEI like a lot of people use so I can't say whether that would improve performance or not.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the jeep ran great before and runs great now but starts a lot faster. I also don't have to deal with the inevitable Prestolite disasters that I read about. I did not measure MPG's before or after so I can't say if there's a difference there or not.

Hope that helps. (..and quit thanking me :D)
 
I know I'm reviving an old thread here, but I've been looking into doing this upgrade on my daughter's CJ. I think I'm pretty clear on most of the info here, I just have one question. In DeadmanCJ5's wiring diagram, I'm assuming the GM HEI module would replace the current ignition module on her Jeep?

Her Jeep is a '79 CJ7 with a AMC 304 . She's been having issues lately with it cutting out on her. We're pretty sure we've run down and addressed issues with fuel delivery and cooling. I'm down to spark delivery. A kid who worked on the Jeep for her replaced the ignition module and that didn't help. I'm planning to do the team rush basic and mild upgrades from the Junk Yard Genius site. I'm just not 100% clear on the module piece.

I hope that's relatively clear.

Jeff
 
From my experience when the CJ ignition module goes out, the ignition will start to cut out when cold and gets worse as it warms up. The ignition module will be hot to the touch also. If the ignition module was replaced it can still be bad right out of the box, a good module will cost more. It can also die when it has an improper ground, which is the black wire that goes into the distributor. I would recommend running that wire directly into the battery negative, since the distributor has its own ground and does not provide a very good one at that. The changeover to the GM module works fine and puts more volts to the coil, 12 vs. 6, but may be a little stiff to start on a warm engine as compared the the oem module. Although your cutting out could come from other sources as you suggested. I believe the "Team Rush Upgrade" is actually the changeover to a larger ignition cap to prevent spark arcing inside the oem type cap, and what you are planning is referred to as a "Steath Ignition Upgrade" for the CJ. In your case I believe both will be an improvement. Adding the MSD module is also a wise but expensive improvement. I unfortunatly can not run the GM module due to smog restrictions.
 
Torxhead said:
From my experience when the CJ ignition module goes out, the ignition will start to cut out when cold and gets worse as it warms up. The ignition module will be hot to the touch also. If the ignition module was replaced it can still be bad right out of the box, a good module will cost more. It can also die when it has an improper ground, which is the black wire that goes into the distributor. I would recommend running that wire directly into the battery negative, since the distributor has its own ground and does not provide a very good one at that. The changeover to the GM module works fine and puts more volts to the coil, 12 vs. 6, but may be a little stiff to start on a warm engine as compared the the oem module. Although your cutting out could come from other sources as you suggested. I believe the "Team Rush Upgrade" is actually the changeover to a larger ignition cap to prevent spark arcing inside the oem type cap, and what you are planning is referred to as a "Steath Ignition Upgrade" for the CJ. In your case I believe both will be an improvement. Adding the MSD module is also a wise but expensive improvement. I unfortunatly can not run the GM module due to smog restrictions.
Click to expand...

Cool. That makes sense.
 
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