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Ignite It Right – The Modern Ignition System

Today we are starting the first of a series of articles going through all the major systems you need to be aware of. Routine maintenance is not hard if you have just a basic understanding of your car. Millions of people around the world save thousands a year by doing easy stuff themselves.  eEuroparts caters to the DIY car guy by supplying parts for every system of your car.  We’re going to start off with one of the biggest, most important, all-encompassing systems on a modern gasoline car, Ignition.

For a gasoline engine to run, it needs three critical components. Combustion, also known as burning, is the basic chemical process of releasing energy from a fuel and air mixture. In an internal combustion engine (ICE), the ignition and combustion of the fuel occurs within the engine itself. The engine then partially converts the energy from the combustion to work. Fuel, air, and a spark to light it all up and get the revolution working.

If you are working on a no-start condition, these are the three things you check first.  Usually, the air is a given providing the engine you are trying to start isn’t underwater, so we are here working with the other two components.  If you pull out a spark plug and see/smell a good amount of fuel on the plugs and from the chamber, you can make the assumption that the car is being fueled.  There are several ways to test an ignition system, but all of them terminate under one umbrella question.  If you pull out a spark plug and touch it to ground, does it spark when the engine turns over?  If not, then it’s time to dive into the wonderful world of high energy automotive ignition.

The ignition system is composed of a few simple parts:

I already wrote a guide to spark plugs here if you are interested.  After all, the entire system culminates with the production of a well-timed, powerful spark. Good plugs are absolutely critical in a gasoline engine. There are currently three major types of ignitions systems, although many manufacturers had subtle differences between them:

  • Mechanical points style ignition
  • Breakerless electronic ignition
  • Coil on the plug

Mechanical Ignition

Mechanical points ignition is called so because a mechanical distributor with a mechanical rotating breaker circuit is used to fire the spark plugs.  The distributor is directly connected to the rotation of the engine so that it is correctly timed, usually a camshaft.  In the center of the distributor is a rotating shaft with a few cam lobes on it.  The lobes open and shut contacts, switching between windings in the ignition coil. That way, they are ramping the energy up to around 20k volts.  The high voltage current from the ignition coil flies up the center of a rotating arm (commonly called a “rotor“, surprisingly enough) that spins inside of the distributor.   The distributor rotor makes contact with the ends of the spark plug wire terminals as it rotates (one for each cylinder) and the plugs are energized.

This system has been around for a very long time, dating back to prewar era vehicles.  The mechanical systems are all subject to wear, and has several failure points within the system.  As the opening and closing points switch between coil windings age, their conductivity lessens, requiring regular servicing and adjustments.

Breakerless Electronic Ignition

A solution was invented to fix the problem of so many moving contact points inside the distributor.  The rotating lobes meant to time the circuit breaks is replaced with a sensor, usually a hall effect sensor.  The system still features a distributor, but it’s function is limited to cap and rotor distribution.  The computer can now control when to open and close the ignition coils.  This relieved much of the wear that made the early systems a pain to maintain.  Timing of the spark to each plug was still controlled by the orientation of the rotor and cap contact points.

Many companies added devices to the distributors in order to change the timing and dynamically control the performance of the engine as RPM increased.  You will see many cars (Like the Classic SAAB 900 Turbo) with vacuum pods on the distributor. That could advance the timing mechanically as boost pressure (and probability of engine knock) increased.  The system worked very well, but still included many moving parts.  Dynamic timing was now more or less possible, but still in it’s infancy.

Coil On Plug Electronic Ignition

This birthed the idea of a ‘direct’ ignition’ system in the late 90’s.  By having a separate coil for each plug deal out the volts, the need for a mechanical distributor went away (and the mechanical wear parts associated with it).  The precise timing of the spark plug firing can now be controlled by an ECU, allowing dynamic adjustments based on a variety of factors.

The ignition cassette, or DIC, is a coil pack that is energized and sparks the plugs whenever the computer sees fit. The DIC is a type of distributorless coil-on-plug system that can not only change the timing for the engine on the fly, but it can also do it in an ultra-precise fashion. This system gave birth to a more complex electronic distributorless ignition that could handle fuel injection timing, ignition timing and even turbo boost pressure. A new era in power and efficiency was born. It didn’t take long before this type of ignition system spread out throughout the entire industry. Nearly all car companies now have electronic distributorless style ignition systems, on the warpath to make an engine that reacts dynamically to run the best possible in nearly every circumstance.

The SAAB Direct Ignition Cassette houses 4 coils, one for each spark plug.

 

No matter what type of ignition system your car has, it should be an utmost priority to keep it in good shape.  If not, you can have trouble starting, experience misfires, notice a lack of power, and see your fuel economy suffering. eEuroparts.com offers everything your car needs to maintain a tip-top ignition system.  That includes the Spark Plugs, Ignition Coils, Distributor, Distributor cap and rotor, Spark plug wires, Direct ignition coils, and Coil Packs/DIC‘s.

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