DirectHits ... ?

[Smeins, Larry]

I see we are getting lots of imaginative thinking on this thread but IMHOP
it is a bunch of hokum.  I saw these things being hawked at the county fair
50 years ago.  It is an old trick.  Just add a gap in series with the plug
wire and the coil voltage builds to a higher potential before break down.
No more energy or spark duration but it will fire fouled plugs better.  Have
any of you old timers started a flooded engine by pulling the coil wire and
letting the spark jump across a small gap from wire to coil terminal?  I've
done it more than once.  There have been spark plugs with a gap inside the
insulator for use in oil burning/plug fouling engines.

For what its worth I've been working on electronic ignitions for roughly 40
years.  Even did some consulting on a couple ignition systems for Indy cars.
For long duration spark use an electronic Kettering system.  Two stroke
bikes and outboard motors use Capacitance Discharge (CDI) because the fast
rise time produced will fire the oil "fouled" plugs better.  But CDI does
not provide complete fuel burn as well as the long duration Kettering.  Audi
tried CDI in the 70s, I made a few bucks fixing them,  but as far as I know
all gas powered automobiles are presently using electronic Kettering
systems.  Not all Kettering systems are created equal but it is quite
possible to make high energy, long duration, high RPM ignitions for high
performance engines using the technique.

Larry from Loveland, CO

> On Tue, 31 Jul 2001 09:25:52 +0200 Gerard <gerard at poboxes.com> writes:
> >Hi!
> >
> >I saw these mentioned in a British magazine a few months ago and now
> >I've come across them while searching AskJeeves. They claim a larger
> >spark, similar to running a ignition amplifier. These seem to be
> >capacitors fitted on the plugs and then the plug wire fitted to the
> >capacitor. Pretty much sounds like the old Nology wires concept.
> >
> >The url is: http://www.directhits.com
> >
> >I'm looking for opinions on the idea. The website sounds like a
> >infomercial. Pricey stuff too.
> >
> >Thanks.
> >
> >G.