Throttle Plate Control

[David Cooley]

>   Ok, silly question..   I read once, I don't remember where, that there is
>a limited range of A/F that can be ignited by a spark. This is not hard to
>believe. I think it was 12-1 on the rich side, and 16-1 on the lean side.
>That was for -spark- ignition. If, on the other hand, you were using a flame
>to produce ignition you could ignite a mixture as lean as 24-1. The article
>went on to talk of engines that used two different chambers in the head, one
>to hold a rich "pocket" of fuel that was spark ignited, and the other chamber
>was used to isolate the induced (much larger amount) lean mixture. There was
>a small passage between the chambers, for a "jet" of flame to come out of.
>The rich mixture would flame-ignite the lean mixture. I think it was called
>"stratospheric" ignition. Anyway, my question is this.... Why didn't this
>engine melt down? I think Honda used to use this technique on their Civic.
>Any ideas?

Only good reason I can think of is that it was only a lean mixture at cruise
conditions.  Under acceleration, it was enrichened like any other engine.
Honda used it for quite a few years... had a silly 3 barrel carburetor... 1
teeny tiny barrel for the rich combustion chamber, a progressive 2 barrell
for the other.  It was the CVCC engine.
Later,
Dave
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David Cooley                                            (919) 319-2734 Office
cooldave at nando.net                                      (919) 319-2896 FAX
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