DIS Explainations

[Michael Baxter]

John Hess <johnhess at cris.com> writes:

>> Actually, you can have a spark in a vacuum!
<<

Air is an insulator. The more air molecules (denser), the better insulator
it makes. A good example, just because they've been discussed on the list
before, is WWII airplanes. Their magnetos were pressurized to keep the
ignition energy under control at high altitudes. Without the
pressurization, the engines would start to misfire at 18,000-20,000 ft.

High altitude piston engine airplanes today still have pressurized
magnetos.

I can offer no clues as to why the waste spark only consumes 20-30% of
the spark energy in a DIS ignition system that fires two plugs at once.


 -- Michael Baxter, MBaxter at Compuserve.com
 http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MBaxter
 From Reno, NV USA on 21-Mar-1998