All (V8 or /6) electronic ignition control units will all almost interchange fine.
Any 4-pin variant, which might be black, blue, orange, chrome or gold (only black or blue came installed on vehicles from factory - which are identical, except for paint color), will work in place of any 5-pin module.
A 5-pin version can fit in place of a 4-pin if a minor electrical rewire at the ballast is performed.
With that said, there are some control units that are better than the original ones (the Mopar Performance Orange or Chrome versions are one example) – for they allow higher RPM’s without a loss of accuracy.
Black (or blue) - good to about 4,500 RPM
Orange - good to about 6,000 RPM
Chrome - good to about 8,000 RPM
Gold - good to about 12,000 RPM!
The older 5-pin units have two power supply inputs. One for run/on and the other for start. The higher voltage during start gives more power to ignition coil for better starts.
What Chrysler discovered a few years afterwards, is instead of having higher voltage for startups (of say 10 volts), why not just use battery voltage at startups (at 12 volts) - which led to the 4-pin version. The starting performance did go up without any compromise of component longevity.
Chrysler runs less than 12 volts (about 8-9 volts, I think) for ignition coil to last longer during normal operation.
A higher voltage does equal higher output voltage to spark plugs, which makes for hotter sparks.
Some racers I know, who drive and race the car, will carry a couple of spare ignition coils with them, then bypass the ballast resistor, so ignition coil gets a full 12 volts when in race mode. The cars will run better – but lifespan of ignition coil is greatly reduced. Having a spare coil ensures he is still able to drive home after the “races”.
One friend of mine said he went through 3 Chrysler ignition coils over a weekend, after running 12 volts to the ignition module.
The 4-pin units, only have 1 power supply. What Chrysler did is when car is in “start”, it sends a 12-volt signal to output side of ballast resistor, then when switched to “on”, power goes back to input side of ballast resistor. Switching the “Start” battery feed wire to the 4-pin ballast, to the out side of “run” leg of ballast will allow you to use a 5-pin module (and car might start a wee bit easier).
I have a pair of these in my garage, waiting for install:
http://thertgarage.com/products.html
These might be overkill for those with stock vehicles - but is what I plan on using (the black version of above).
BudW