Hydra Nemesis 2 Ignition Installation Instructions

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MSD 6 Series Ignition Systems

Any of the MSD 6 series ignition systems can be easily used to support power levels above those that the stock ignition system can reliably handle. It is suggested that you purchase an MSD 6 series system along with a suitable coil such as the MSD blaster coil and the MSD 8920 tachometer adapter if you intend to continue using the stock tachometer. The following diagram shows the basic wiring setup required:

The first step is to remove the stock igniter and coil and to mount the MSD box and coil. An ignition wire will usually have to be fabricated to connect the new coil to the distributor cap. The coil should be mounted inside the engine bay to prevent electrical interference produced when the coil fires from reaching the Nemesis. The MSD box and the 8920 tachometer adapter are usually best mounted in the trunk to keep them from overheating. There is a nice nook on the left side of the trunk that can be accessed if you peel back the trunk liner to avoid taking up any of the stock trunk space.

The heavy red and black wires on the MSD boxes provide unswitched power to the ignition system. The heavy red wire should be routed to the engine bay fuse box and connected to the main power line between the battery and the alternator which is under the red rubber boot. The heavy black wire should be grounded to any suitable point on the chassis. Follow the instructions provided with the MSD box on how to wire the box to the coil. The MSD systems provide several wires for triggering the ignition. The proper wire to use is the white wire. This wire should be connected directly to the C12 pin on the large blue connector going to the side of the Nemesis box. On some systems there is already a wire wire with a space connector attached to the C12 pin of the connector. On newer systems, the is a white wire with a pin on one end and a space connector on the other provided with the system. If this is the case, disconnect the larger blue connector from the Nemesis and pull off the clip to the D-row of the connector. Push the pin for the white wire into the C12 hole. Plug the connector back into the Nemesis. Connect the white wire from the MSD box to the spade connector from the white C12 wire. The thin red wire from the MSD box should be connected to the red wire that comes from the plug and play box and has a spade connector attached to it for this purpose. Note that the red wire from the 8920 tach adapter box will also need to be connected to this red wire. There is a tachometer output terminal on the side of the MSD box that should be connected to the white wire on the tach adapter. The black wire from the tach adapter must be grounded to any suitable chassis ground point. Finally, the purple or violet wire from the tach adapter must be routed into the engine bay and spliced into the solid black wire on the stock igniter connector.

Before testing the system, make sure that all the unused connectors that used to connect to the stock igniter and coil are properly wrapped with electrical tape to prevent possible short circuits. On most MSD boxes, there are two wire loops that must be cut to select 4 cylinder operation. Other MSD systems provide rev limiters that need to be properly programmed. Read through the MSD installation manual and take care of these details before turning on the ignition key and attempting to start the engine.

DIY Tach Adapter

If you are using an MSD ignition and a MSD 8920 Tach Adapter is not available, a suitable adapter can be constructed from several Radio Shack parts. You will need a 1N4003 diode, a 1K 1/2 watt resistor and 4.7K 1/2 watt resistor. Connect the parts to the negative side of the coil as show:

Note that the 1N4003 diode has a stripe and that the direction of the stripe is very important. The resistors have no particular order, so either side works just as well. Be sure that you connect the adapter to the negative side of the coil which on MSD 6 series boxes will be the black wire, not the orange. To properly finish off the circuit, either enclose it in a small plastic project box (also available at Radio Shack) or at the very least slide some shrink tubing over it and heat it up to shrink it tightly closed.

Nemesis Direct Fire Ignition System

The Nemesis direct fire ignition system uses Toyota coils with built-in igniters that fit into the spark plug wells of the 3S-GTE. The kit comes with four coils, four silicone seals, an MSD 8920 Tach Adapter, a wire harness and various connectors and taps for connecting the system to the stock ignition system. The direct fire ignition eliminates the need for the stock coil, igniter, ignition wires and rotor. The distributor is retained because it contains the crank and cam position sensors needed to tell the Nemesis where the engine is at every point in its cycle. The distributor cap is retained to prevent moisture from entering the distributor base and damaging the sensitive position sensors.

Begin installation of the direct fire ignition system by removing the ignition wires, including the coil wire between the coil and distributor. Place a silicone seal around each one of the coils and the push each coil down into each spark plug well. It may be easier to push the silicone seals down into the well before inserting the coils. The seals will go down about 1" into the spark plug well and there will be enough left above the valve cover to seal against the coil tower to prevent water that might enter the engine bay from getting down into the spark plug well and shorting the ignition. In some setups, it will be very difficult if not impossible to insert the coil on the #2 cylinder well without removing the throttle body intake pipe.

The main wire harness can now be connected to each of the four coils. The connector on the end of the harness plugs into the #1 cyclinder. Bring the harness over the distributor and carefully check to insure that the harness is not touching any metal parts that will get extremely hot. The other end of the harness splits into two branches. One branch has five wires, four which have metal pins. Using a phillips screwdriver, carefully poke the small hole in the grommet that surround the engine harness where it passes through the firewall into the trunk. Push the five wires through this hole into the trunk.

The remaining branch of the harness contains three wires. One is black with an eyelet which must be grounded to the chassis using any of the bolts that hold parts to the firewall near the stock coil. Unplug the connectors going to the stock coil (two pins) and the stock igniter (five pins). Remove the coil and igniter from the firewall if desired. The red wire on the harness needs to be spliced into the black wire with a red stripe on the connector that was plugged into the stock coil. Use either a T-tap or, for the best results, carefully expose a small amount of the wire and solder the red wire to it. Cover the splice and the stock connector with electrical tape to prevent water and dirt from reaching the connection and the pins. The white wire which remains must be connected to the solid black wire on the igniter connector. Again, either T-tap or solder a good connection and wrap the splice and the connector with electrical tape.

There is a second small wire harness that contains a 4-pin molex connector and four wires. Newer plug and play systems already have the 4-pin molex connector attached to the original harness. If your system has the connector, then you can skip the rest of this paragraph. To facilitate the next steps, you may wish to unbolt the Nemesis and the plug and play bracket from the car so that you can work on it easily on a workbench. Pull the grey connector from the Nemesis box and locate the white white with a violet stripe going to pin A8 of this connector. Use a small flat-bladed screwdriver to pop the plastic clip off the A-row of the connector. Now either T-tap or carefully peel back some insulation and solder the white-violet-brown wire on the 4-pin molex connector harness to the white-violet wire on the plug and play harness. Then, push the pin on the white-violet-red wire from the molex connector into the A7 pin of the grey connector. Put the clip back on the connector. Pull the larger blue connector from the Nemesis and pull off the clip to the D-row of the connector. Push the pin for the white-violet-green wire into the D11 hole. Push the pin for the remaining white-violet-blue white into the D12 hole. Put the clip back into the connector. Plug the connectors back into the Nemesis and bolt the system back into the trunk firewall.

Locate the 4-pin female molex connector. Locate the four wires with the molex pins that you pushed through the engine harness grommet into the trunk. Note that the connector is arrow shaped so that it can be plugged in only one way. Push the pin for the red wire from the direct fire ignition harness into the hole on the end of the arrow so that it will connect to the white-violet-brown wire. Push the pin for the green wire to mate with the white-violet-green wire. Push the pin for the yellow wire to link to the white-violet-red wire. Finally, push the pin of the black wire to meet up with the white-violet-blue wire. Now, connect the two molex connectors together.

The final item to connect is the MSD Tach adapter. There are four wires attached to the tach adapter. The black wire has an eyelet and this should be attached to the bolt that holds the starter relay mounted just above where the engine harness enters the trunk to provide a good ground. The red wire should be attached to either of the two red wire spade connectors on the Nemesis plug and play board to provide switched 12 volts. The white white must be attached to the white wire with the spade connector on the large blue connector of the Nemesis. Finally, the purple white needs to be connected to the white wire from the direct fire harness which was pushed through the engine harness grommet. Locate a suitable spade connector, strip a small amount of insulation from the white wire and crimp the spade connector tightly to complete the circuit.

Your plug and play system is now connected and ready to use. You will need to connect your laptop to the Nemesis and upload your current map. Then, go to the maps screen and go to 'Select->Settings' and press the 'IGNITION' button. Check the 'DIRECT FIRE' checkbox and press 'Ok'. The Nemesis is now ready to use the direct fire coils.