05YellowGT

Dave , no there was no issue drilling into the firewall there at all. As far as the vacuum line my Magnacharger had two barbs on the manifold , a 1/4" one that is the same size as on the MAP sensor but it was used for the fuel pressure sensor. The other one wasn't used , but it was 7/32" so I had to get an adaptor to step the hose up to 1/4" at the Map sensor. You should be fine tapping into the TPS , I only changed it to eliminate any possible link to my idle problem and like I said it had none. The only other thing I can recommend about the install , and as this is very important , is to make sure your Beer is very cold ...

tom281

Great advice on that! ~28 degrees is my recommendation.

uberPony

or you can set the plug gap .028"


degrees?????????????????????

tom281

I was referring to the last sentence in post #21.

Steve@GMS

Burke0011

oh H E L L yeah

Burke0011

05YellowGT

I pulled the plugs this weekend and replaced them with new ones and the MSD COP's with the GMS. On the old plugs the .032" wire would pass through with no resistance , so the gap was definitely larger. If Steeda had actually gaped them to 0.30" , and I'll tell you why I say that in a minute , then the gap had opened that much in 6600 miles. Is that a normal range for the mileage ? If so , then it looks like I'll need to reset the plug gap every 6000 miles. Now the reason I said if they were actually set to .030" is because , I discovered on the 3rd plug that you can't check the gap with the gaping tool still applying pressure. I was setting the gap to .030" and for some reason I decided to check the gap after I had removed it from the tool and the .032" wire was passing through with no resistance. You have to release the screw and the gap opens back up a little. If Steeda set the gap with the pressure on then it was actually .032" instead of .030". Anyway , I've got the gap set correctly to .030" now and with the new GMS COP's which are 60,00 volts I hopefully have my spark blow out fixed. I'll probably pull the plugs again in 6600 miles to see what the gap is , this should give me an idea of how long I can go without resetting the gap. As for the COP's , I really like the steel rope connectors as opposed to the springs on the OEM and MSD ones I had. Steve , the only thing I didn't like about them is that you guy's have the connectors in a different location than the OEM or MSD. The connector on yours are on the side and interfere with the wiring harness that are there. It makes the install a lot harder , is there some reason you guy's put them on the side ?

jamesdem1123

anyone trying the boost-a-spark from kenne bell?

http://www.kennebell.net/accessories...oostaspark.htm

i think ill probably be the guinea pig for it... :/

EastCoast07GtCs

Hmmmm, Boost-A-Pump, Boost-A-Spark... I could use a Boost-A-Bank Account! LOL

RRRoamer

You get that one figured out and I will be MORE than happy to beta test it for you!

RRRoamer

That actually looks like a good idea. It appears to be pretty much the same idea as the boost-a-pump: step up the voltage feeding the primary side of the coil to increase the power being delivered to the coil.

We are trying to get around 20k to 30k volts out of the secondary winding with an input of only 12V on the primary side. If you coil is marginal (say only able to deliver 30k volts at plug FOR EXAMPLE!) at WOT at 12V, when you bump it up to 18V, you should be able to deliver up to 45k volts at the plug. Remember, the voltage only rises until there is enough potential to ionize the gasses in the combustion chamber and cause current to flow. The resistance across the spark gap takes a HUGE drop at that point and the voltage collapses while the current spikes up. But your ignition system must be able to provide that ionization potential (voltage) that your car needs under it's specific operating conditions, or there is no spark. And the higher the combustion chamber pressure, the higher the voltage required to cause ionization. The ionization voltage is also pretty much proportional to the spark gap (if my memory is correct it is linear...), which is why decreasing the spark gap helps if your coils are marginal.

I also suspect that part of the problem is voltage drop on the primary side caused by too much resistance in the wiring feeding the primary coil (not the little spring or wire rope that attaches to the coil, but the wire that provides power to the coil from the battery). As the current flow builds in the coil, the voltage feeding the coil will sag due to resistance. How much it sags is completely dependent on the series resistance of the circuit (which includes the battery, the alternator, the wiring to the coil, the coil's primary winding resistance, the ground path resistance and the resistance at any connectors).

You have to remember in order for these coils to provide their maximum power (voltage and current) to the spark plug, the primary coil has to reach saturation (which basically means the magnetic field around the primary coil is the strongest it can get with the power being fed into it) BEFORE the ECU fires that coil, which takes time. The faster the engine is running, the shorter the amount of time the coil has to reach saturation before the next spark event.

If there is too much resistance on the power coming into the primary of the coil, it will never reach saturation before the ECU "tells" it to fire. That means the magnetic field will be weaker, which means the secondary coil will not produce full voltage or current to the sparkplug, which could lead to a plug that doesn't fire, or one that fires very weakly for a very short amount of time (aka: blowout).

Power is dependent on voltage, but it is NOT linear! P=V^2/R (voltage squared divided by the resistance the current is flowing through). So if high resistance feeding the primary coil is causing a problem, by increasing our source voltage from 12V to 18V we don't increase the power going into the coil by 50%, we increase it by 125% (or 2.25 times more power). Of course, even if the problem is not due to high resistance on the primary side, increasing the primary voltage STILL helps to address the low power to the plug issue.

This whole power problem at low voltage (12V is VERY low voltage when you are trying to "do stuff" like turn a motor or fire a coil) is why the auto companies keep talking about moving up to a 36/42V system (basically the same as running three 12V batteries in series, but running, the system voltage would be around 42V to keep things charged). With three times the voltage, you need 1/3 the current to do the same job.

Your starter and alternator would both GREATLY benefit from this change. The starter would only need (around) 70 to 80 amps to start the car instead of 200 and an alternator putting out 50 amps would blow away a 12V alternator putting out 150 amps. Think how much lighter the wiring could be for that.

I suspect that this change would make these types of problems (coil) a thing of the past as well as help out with a lot of other issues.

But I digress...

jamesdem1123

very informative RRRoamer...

i had heardsomething about auto companies wanting to switch to a higher voltage so they could reduce the size of the wire used because you wouldnt need to run as high of a amperage to get the same power (P=VI "i" being current and v voltage, equation was something like that..). I think its an alright idea, only problem though is you have more problems IF theres a short circuit. Im in Iraq and I install all sorts of accessories on humvees, both 12 and 24 volt and sometimes when your tightening the battery terminals on the 24 volt positive side you'll ground out and it makes a HUGE arc compared to the 12 volt side.

ill definatly be installing a boost a spark for use with my nitrous system and ill let everyone know what i find, before and after dynos and what not.

RRRoamer

FYI: There are three different power laws: P=VI, P=V^2/R and P=I^2R. They all produce the same number in the same circuit.

There are definitely down sides to going with higher voltages. More potential means just that: More potential when something undesirable happens (shorts). The batteries are generally bigger (although you get to trade AH capacity for V potential), and as 36V is not a standard right now, these new batteries WOULD be more expensive initially. I also suspect they would last a lot longer as well, but that is more a feeling based on usage then cold hard facts. The reason they stopped at 36V instead going up the even amount to 48V is that under charge, the 48V system would be at 60V. And that is enough juice to electrocute people even with dry skin. Which is why there are OHSA limits to normal hot work that kick in at 48V.

And let's not forget that pretty much every single electrical component on the car would have be redesigned for 36V operation. I suspect that 12V accessory ports inside cars would remain at 12V for some time...

The upside of going to 36V is nice too: All the wiring could be much smaller gauge. Increases in resistance due to corrosion of either wiring or terminals would not result in the same power drop at the component (head lights, for example) because the ratios are different: % wise, 12V - 1V (resistance drop) is worse than 36V - 1V. The total change in power is much less. Plus, for any give system, you would be running 1/3 the current anyway, so your voltage drop caused by resistance would only be 1/3 as much. So it would actually be 36V - 1/3V as comparison...

All of this means your wiring could be MUCH smaller to carry the load across the board. Heavy load applications like main battery cable, starter cable, alternator cable, headlight wiring, etc. would be much lighter. With the cost of copper going up the way it is, these costs savings are adding up quickly.

We made the switch from 6V systems to 12V, so I knew we can make the switch to 36V systems. And just think what they will be able to do with stereo systems with 3 times the input voltage and 9 times the power available to them? Amps would be a whole lot smaller and cheaper for your "normal" output amps and even the monster amps wouldn't need the garden hose size feed from the battery to keep them happy.