The discussions regarding the aftermarket wires & ignition systems have not seemed to stop ever since a company claimed that it delivers a capacitor within the wire that has some secret combination which induces stronger sparks with greater horse power, so much so the they claim that the arc temperatures and the currents as well get enhanced.
One should understand that strong sparks do not necessarily commensurate equal increase in HP. There is no means by which a properly functioning ignition that lighten the mixture can increase the HP if one adds to the spark energy and all such tall claims made are nothing but pure faking.
In order to get the ignition in a spark plug, there are certain requirements that one needs to fulfill before he can get successful in initiating a spark. Through this article we expect to elaborate and clarify the working and conditions required for spark plug ignition to create a clear understanding of ignition requirements of a spark plug and therefore remove most, if not all ambiguities.
First and foremost requirement for ignition is the stoichiometric fuel and air mixture in the ratio of approximately 14:1 which comes to about 0.2 milli Joules of energy of spark. An extremely rich or a very thin mixture will need if not more, about 3 milli Joules of energy for the initiation of a spark. In case of a huge variety of coils that are available, the most popular storage capacity comes at about 60 milli Joules to about 120 milli Joules of energy and have the capacity to produce about 30 kilo volts of voltage output. The duration of a spark for ay coil storage ignition lies within the timeframe of 1 to 3 milliseconds. The coil storage ignition is the place where the magnetic field created by the primary winding of the coils collapses to generate energy in the spark plug. The duration of capacitive systems of discharge are likely to possess a shorter duration of spark.
The energy that is generated by the collapse of the magnetic coil must be so strong that even after being delivered at the gap of the spark plug, it continues to have so much energy at the end so that it still gets the mixture to ignition. There is a siognificant amount of power that is lost at distributor gap, which goes through the leakage of insulators of the wires. In the process, any wires and resistors that come in the way of as acting as a resistance within the spark, tend to plug themselves.
The probability that any given air fuel mixture will get ignited largely depends upon spark duration and the spark distance. The greater the spark duration & bigger the spark distance, the better become the chances of the mixture getting ignited through the spark. Any disturbance within the mixture itself also helps to generate ignition. But one needs to be careful because even when the airflow gets too out of hand, the spark can actually blow out or in worse case, prevent its formation at all.
