Re: High Performance Ignition System?

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com>]

Iain Atkinson (ETL) wrote:
> 
> Maybe I am being pessimistic, but I don't see how changing the 
> wires and coil would give you an increase of 12 to 15%.

That's nothing.  I once got a 33% improvement in power simply by
installing *stock* wires on an '84 GTI.

Of course, the #1 wire in the old set was broken off at the plug
connector.

And yes, some people might say that it was a 25% improvement, but 33%
makes it sound bigger, doesn't it?  Point is -- it's absolutely true,
and yet it's very deceptive. (We won't get into discussions about
whether a non-firing cylinder, because of drag and compression losses
without corresponding power output, actually reduces an engine's output
beyond the simple mathematical ratio.  Oh, who am I kidding?  We'll
argue about that intensely, with one camp posting references to alleged
white papers and the other camp smugly insisting that they're right and
anyone who disagrees is simply too stupid to breathe without written
instructions, and the rest of us will just roll our eyes in disgust and
wait for them to get as sick of each other as we are of them.)

My suspicion is that if the company publishes tests to document these
15% increases, they were using a baseline which had some faulty
components.  Or put another way -- it *is* possible to get massive
improvements in power, drivability, and fuel economy by swapping plug
wires -- if the old ones were broken.

--Scott