Wasted Spark kits

[cossiedavid]

When i was on L8 and using a wasted spark i allways had a miss fire at 6500rpm put a dissy back in had no problems dont waste your money

[Simon T]

I agree, and as I've not got it fitted I can't really judge a before and after (im on EECIV which is distributor-less anyway). I've got a mate with it on a 4x4 sierra and it got rid of a miss at high RPM, but as David has said it caused him an issue.

[James @ Auto Dynamix]

Common issues I see with them are normally wiring related,
The Ws kit uses the oe ign amp feed, and Spurs off using the power to the amp for a split to power 2 ign amps and the coil. Many old looms already struggle with voltage at the ign amp and coil and this split makes it even worse. As it's all powered by one single already degraded cable,
If you have issues, measure the voltage at the amps and coil under load.

The answer really is to build it into a new engine loom taking feeds for the coil and 2 amps from a good strong source and ensure they keep battery voltage under load.
Also the driver seems to make the ecu far more sensative to noise and poor signal strength, so a loom using sheilded cable is more critical, many aftermarket looms are not sheilded and I've seen some that won't even start up when you use the starter motor as the rf pumping out the starter causes havoc which you can see when tracing on the emulator, bump start no problem!

There are quite a few gains to a good Ws system when they are working well, coils have double the charge time, so spark is far stronger, so you can run bigger plug gaps.
You also have far more scope to pull timing when you need to for the use of als and lc,
Lc can struggle to hold rpm on std ign as you are bound by the amount of timing you can pull by the rotational dizzy, on Ws you are able to pull double the timing out if needed to get it operating far far better.

[biz]

Common issues I see with them are normally wiring related,
The Ws kit uses the oe ign amp feed, and Spurs off using the power to the amp for a split to power 2 ign amps and the coil. Many old looms already struggle with voltage at the ign amp and coil and this split makes it even worse. As it's all powered by one single already degraded cable,
If you have issues, measure the voltage at the amps and coil under load.

The answer really is to build it into a new engine loom taking feeds for the coil and 2 amps from a good strong source and ensure they keep battery voltage under load.
Also the driver seems to make the ecu far more sensative to noise and poor signal strength, so a loom using sheilded cable is more critical, many aftermarket looms are not sheilded and I've seen some that won't even start up when you use the starter motor as the rf pumping out the starter causes havoc which you can see when tracing on the emulator, bump start no problem!

There are quite a few gains to a good Ws system when they are working well, coils have double the charge time, so spark is far stronger, so you can run bigger plug gaps.
You also have far more scope to pull timing when you need to for the use of als and lc,
Lc can struggle to hold rpm on std ign as you are bound by the amount of timing you can pull by the rotational dizzy, on Ws you are able to pull double the timing out if needed to get it operating far far better.

Interesting, James - but the bottom line as I see it is that for a normal road car, or a mildly tuned one, none of that is really relevant, and even with a competition engine (and let's face it, the YB is past it as far as serious competition goes) it's money spent that does not give a single HP increase on its own. My original point remains, then - why spend money on these when they are - generally speaking - by and large, an irrelevance for most cars. My car runs perfectly well as it is, so why would I want to run larger plug gaps...? (Again, just my opinion!)

[James @ Auto Dynamix]

Larger plug gaps mean a better burn, it drastically drops hydrocarbon levels and in many cases can be the difference between the car passing or failing a static mot emission test.
I've seen the hydrocarbons half on cars speced with 403 grey injectors when you can run a 0.8mm plug gap, over a 0.5 on a std coil set up.

Why do manufacturers spend the extra money making modern cars coil on plug or wasted spark?
Burning leaner mixtures means you do need a stronger spark, and they find plenty of reasons not to use an oil coil and dizzy cap.

[markk]

That's it, everyone back on distributors, I've removed the injectors, got myself a nice set of performance carbs and I've emailed all the manufacturers to tell them the same.

[NSR500V]

I kind of like having a distributor, feels more raw, more purposeful. As mentioned I pull my dizzy cap off every 6 months, about 10,000 miles just to de-fur the poles and check the rotor arm. Not much work and only takes about 10 mins. I'm sure I wouldn't have to do this if I wasn't driving it in the rain and cold constantly!