ignition, multiple spark!

[willymcd]

okay so i have read all the plasma booster threads and i hear tons of nonsense, not once here or on NAM has any body mentioned what it does, everyone was quick to dismiss it as a wast of money. well what the plasma booster does has nothing to do with plasma, thats just a name, what it does is give off multiple spark. after market ignitions made by malory, MSD and crane do the same thing, if you read about their ignitions you will notice that most say they have "multiple spark"... the reason for this multiple spark is so all the fuel is burnt, which really doesn't happen off the initial spark. if you look into aviation all of their ignitions have multiple spark too. so the idea behind the plasma booster is valid and a very important part of ignition.. i don't have one of these yet, my mini will be here next week and i may get one then, one thing that holds me back from getting it is that i hear there is a lot of static created by it, do any plasma booster owners know if this is true????

[jeffjmr]

I have always been a fan of multiple sparks. In fact, multiple spark PLUGS, in particular.

I had a Nissan 200SX with two plugs per cylinder. Ran great, powerful considering displacement and efficient.

But unlike the 200SX, most aviation applications have two plugs per cylinder because the cylinders and combustion chambers themselves are enormous compared to automobile engines, but first and foremost for redundancy (reliability). There are usually two complete and independent ignition systems.

Preflight testing requires the "shutting off" one at a time each system to check the operation of the other. A drop in RPM at a fixed throttle setting proves the disabling of the one system and the integrity of the other, and vice versa.

Being a pilot, I was curious if I would see the same result in the little 2.0 litre Nissan, and sure enough RPM's dropped when one system was disabled, proving the effectiveness of the second plug.

I would love to see dyno results of multiple sparks to ONE plug.

[obehave]

Quote: Originally Posted by jeffjmr

I have always been a fan of multiple sparks. In fact, multiple spark PLUGS, in particular.

I had a Nissan 200SX with two plugs per cylinder. Ran great, powerful considering displacement and efficient.

But unlike the 200SX, most aviation applications have two plugs per cylinder because the cylinders and combustion chambers themselves are enormous compared to automobile engines, but first and foremost for redundancy (reliability). There are usually two complete and independent ignition systems.

Preflight testing requires the "shutting off" one at a time each system to check the operation of the other. A drop in RPM at a fixed throttle setting proves the disabling of the one system and the integrity of the other, and vice versa.

Being a pilot, I was curious if I would see the same result in the little 2.0 litre Nissan, and sure enough RPM's dropped when one system was disabled, proving the effectiveness of the second plug.

I would love to see dyno results of multiple sparks to ONE plug.

No dyno results and definitely nothing recent but I used to run a MSD 6AL. On a small block Chevy there was definitely an improvement. Better gas mileage and much better ignition at high RPMs.

MSD makes a kit for imports. I've been hoping to see some good reviews from the MNI crowd but so far noting.

[willymcd]

my dad is the pilot in my family, we go flying a bit, we are about to build a team rocket kit plane, the fuselage and wings came in the other day, cool!!!
here is the web site with dyno results to the company who builds the plasma booster the dyno results show hp increase, but no mini dyno, there is a BMW one though...

i would be interested to see if you could disengage, turn off, the plasma booster while the car is running to see if the same drop in rpm happens as when testing the ignitions systems in a plane. anyone out there want to try it?

i think i may have herd that someone has fitted an msd ignition to a mini?

[BFG9000]

Quote: Originally Posted by willymcd

i think i may have herd that someone has fitted an msd ignition to a mini?

MSD makes a box for distributorless cars: model DIS-2. The Dodge/Mitsubishi coil pack looks exactly like the MCS one too so I wonder if anyone has tried this. I would trust a real box requiring 12v power over any passive capacitor type device that actually takes power from the coil.

The MSD units use a very high intensity short duration capacitive discharge spark; multiple sparks are used because there is a chance the fuel mixture around the plug at that particular moment may not be perfect (this is only an issue due to the short duration) so extra sparks ensure that cylinder doesn't "miss." Obviously if the cylinder doesn't fire until the second or later spark the timing is effectively retarded, but that's better than a mifsire..

The Plasma booster looks to take the stock spark and chop it up to give "multiple sparks" but each is less intense than the OEM spark. Indeed it cannot work any other way because the only source of power is the OEM spark! Since no electronics (including caps) are 100% efficient, the result is invariably less spark energy AUC than stock.

And in Physics, "plasma" is an electrically neutral, highly ionized gas composed of ions, electrons, and neutral particles. It is a phase of matter distinct from solids, liquids, and normal gases, that perfectly describes the conditions between the spark plug tips.

[gramirez]

Can I run the MSD DIS-2 in my mini without any problem?,

I still have the stock ECU program.

I plan to get new spark plugs, wires and coil.

Best regards.

Thanks for the info.

Guillermo