How is it possible that some cars dont have spark plug leads and each spark plug has its own coil pack ?

Does the igniter replace the distributer and the computer does the timing for it instead ? :confused:

Never thought about it before.

yeh my crappy rodeo had this, there was a coil pack on top of each plug, some cars still run leads though and the packs are all together somewhere else..

too bad the magna has a crappy dizzy

whats the 380 run?

Diesels do not use sparkplugs either.

Diesels do not use sparkplugs either.

they have glow plugs, lol

they have glow plugs, lol

No, they don't have anything.

Diesel's just compress the fuel till it ignites, as diesel is much more dense.

That's why when you put diesel into your petrol car it misfires half the time, and same goes the other way, two different ignition systems, two different fuels for the job.


So next time someone starts banging on about spark systems on a deisel car, you know they're speaking out of their **** :P

No, they don't have anything.

Diesel's just compress the fuel till it ignites, as diesel is much harder to ignite with fire.

That's why when you put diesel into your petrol car it misfires half the time.


So next time someone starts banging on about spark systems on a deisel car, you know they're speaking out of their **** :P

beat me to it... thids is probably the only thing i know about diesel engines....

beat me to it... thids is probably the only thing i know about diesel engines....

heh, you could have quickly filled in the blank parts, but I just edited mine and fixed it :)

No, they don't have anything.

They use glow plugs/heater elements for start up.

They use glow plugs/heater elements for start up.

No, the fuel is compressed till it reaches a heat where it combusts.

No, they don't have anything.




You sure :D

http://www.freeautoadvice.com/diesel/glow.html

No, the fuel is compressed till it reaches a heat where it combusts.

Deisel does need compression to combust, but it still needs a heat source.

They certainly do use glow plugs for startup (well, cold startups), Neo... That's why, if one's glow plugs are shot, one often needs to pour boiling water over the engine in the mornings to get them started ;-)

Diesel requires two things to ignite (inside the chambers of an engine) - heat and compression.

Cheers,
Mattt.

No, the fuel is compressed till it reaches a heat where it combusts.


You really need to read up on how a Diesel engine works!!

So someone invented glow plugs since I last spoke to a diesel mechanic, or he lied to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine

Wiki says glow plugs help, but compression = heat

"Compressing any gas raises its temperature, the method by which fuel is ignited in diesel engines. Air is drawn into the cylinders and is compressed by the pistons at compression ratios as high as 25:1, much higher than used for spark-ignite engines. Near the end of the compression stroke, diesel fuel is injected into the combustion chamber through an injector (or atomizer). The fuel ignites from contact with the air that, due to compression, has been heated to a temperature of about 700–900 °C (1300–1650 °F)."

No mention of these mystical glow plugs until later engines, scroll down the page, etc etc

The very next paragraph after the one you quoted, begins:

"In cold weather, diesel engines can be difficult to start because the cold metal of the cylinder block and head draw out the heat created in the cylinder during the compression stroke, thus preventing ignition. Some diesel engines use small electric heaters called glow plugs inside the cylinder to help ignite fuel when starting. Some even use resistive grid heaters in the intake manifold to warm the inlet air until the engine reaches operating temperature."

:p

Edit: By the way - glow plugs are only used/needed to heat the chambers when the engine is cold. They only run for a few seconds, and then switch off. Once the engine is warm (say, after you return to the car from the corner store), the plugs are unnecessary for ignition. At these times, it's thus not necessary to wait for the Glow Plug lamp in the instrument cluster to extinguish before cranking the engine...

Cheers,
Mattt.

get inside a diesel car, and turn the ignition on, you will see a symbol light up, (looks like a spring) this is a glow plug indicator, when the light goes out, the glow plugs are now at optimal temperature, dont believe me, try and start the car before the light goes out, it wont start. early diesel engines needed up to a minute to warm their glow plugs, modern ones only need between 2-3 seconds, in the snow/alpine areas up to 5 seconds. we have a 03 patrol turbo diesel.

On the topic of individual coil packs, the user "Meh" is running that setup on his ralliart engine.

Even i know that there are diesel engines that run on glow plugs and ones without but my question was how do cars without sparkplug leads work lol

On the topic of individual coil packs, the user "Meh" is running that setup on his ralliart engine. Anyone know more about this? It sounds interesting.

but my question was how do cars without sparkplug leads work lol

Well spark plug leads carry the high spark energy from a distributer to the spark plugs. If you have individual coils on each spark plug you no longer need high energy leads ..lol But you will find there is an ignition module that sill has wires leading to coil packs, but they are not usually as thick as leads as they don't carry the same amount of energy.

In cars like the ecotec Commodores where they run a shared coil pack arrangement (1 coil pack per two plugs, 3 coils in total), they still have spark plug leads going to the spark plugs as the coils are usually remotely mounted.