ION-related IGN Comments & Coil Quest

[garfield at pilgrimhouse.com]

On Wed, 27 May 1998 17:32:51 -0700, Chris Rhodin <chris at imageio.com>
wrote:

>...nobody making parts (wires, plugs, connectors) really cares if 
>there is a connection at 80 volts....

>And even if you get everything 
>installed and working  you still will be adding a failure mode to the system 
>(if a small gap opens you still get a spark but no ION current will flow). I'm 
>certain this is why Saab uses those cute coils that connect right to the plug.

Well, as much as I'd like to just ignore this and pretend it's the
product of a bad-hair day, I just can't leave this unanswered,
especially for those who are taggin along for fun, but don't have the
time to get all the way up-to-speed so they could debunk this myth
above, themselves.

So here goes; I'll do my best to keep this "technical". Heh.

To the first conjecture that nobody cares about low-voltage continuity
in IGN parts, that probly was true some years back, but NOT anymore. You
take a look at the new GM coil connectors (I'm talking bout the HV
connectors, now, NOT just the "signal" connectors). They're just bloody
amazing. The terminals are a low-oxidation bronze of some sort, my guess
is silicon bronze or somesuch, cuz the HV terminal looks almost like
it's gold-flashed, but it's a tad too dark a gold color for that,
methings. Then the connector inside the spark wire RATCHETS onto the HV
post, which has a series of teeth/barbs to mate with the coil-wire's
connector. On the plug side, the connector is the normal ballNspring
affair. Combine improvements like that with the growing use of
solid-conductor spiral-wrapped noise suppression IGN wire, and let's
just put it this way. I ain't worried. If achieving/maintaining
low-voltage continuity were a real problem these days, you wouldn't even
SEE 2/3 of the patents that are there on ionization detection. And none
of those claimants make a big deal of being able to squat right on top
of the plug directly, like Saab has done; and believe me, if it WERE an
issue, you'd see all kinds of stuff mentioned about it in the patents!

The second FUD-fart about "even if you get everything installed and
working you still will be adding a failure mode to the system", just
galls me everytime I read that again (but I promised to keep this
technical, didn't I B). ADDING a failure mode? What you've suggested as
a weakness is one of the beauties and strengths of this system. ANY loss
of continuity in the HV circuit IMMEDIATELY registers as a major
MISFIRE. That's because that IS how misfire is detected in ION. If there
is "no ION current flowing" as you put it, THAT is indistinguishable
from a misfire condition, albeit a REALLY HUGE ONE. Believe me, you are
NOT gonna miss that, if it happens.

So yeah, what's stated in that FUD-fart is more like "if you can't
measure ionization current, you can't make ION work". Well, yeah, how
incisive! A lot more constructive thing to have done would be to have
ASKED, "how hard is it gonna be to keep low-voltage continuity in the HV
circuit?"

But instead, what is said suggests that the only engines that will ever
see ionization detection used on them are those whose plugs are in such
a physical location that you can squat all the HV circuitry right down
on top of the plug. A conjecture you will find absolutely NO evidence
for in the literature on this technology. It's even said more strongly,
a veritable "certainty", when all the FUD-slinging is concluded with an
"I'm certain this is why Saab uses those cute coils that connect right
to the plug". Read them guys minds, did he (or maybe he was even there
when it was being designed B)?, and on the basis of a hypothetical
continuity problem with present-day HV connectors, concluded for a
CERTAINTY that this is THE reason why them coils sit on top the plugs.
Even on the face of it, as a technical issue, this assumed "certainty"
is claiming to know something very few people could possibly KNOW.

Bottom line is, what we DO know is that ION has a built-in inherent
protection against continuity problems affecting it's performance. But
that's obvious to anyone who understands how she works AT ALL.
Continuity is REQUIRED. Expressing a concern about maintaining that
continuity might make some technical sense, but presenting it as a
bonefide problem, and then pretending to confirm/prove it by saying that
is "certainly" why Saab did theirs without HV wires/connections, is just
bloody pompous arrogance. (A technical judgment on my part, ya
understand. Heh).

Gar