Chapter Seven
Ignition System
Ignition fundamentals and requirements of ignition system
How does a spark can be caused?
A spark can be caused by applying a sufficiently high voltage between two electrodes
separated by a gap, and there is a critical voltage below which no sparking occurs.
Functions of this critical voltage:
dimension of the gap between the electrodes
the fuel-air ratio
Pressure of the gas.
Under normal atmospheric (101 k Pa) conditions a voltage of 2 to 3 kV is required for
a spark to jump across an air gap of 0.6 mm.
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Con…………
While designing an ignition system the most important factors to be considered
include:
Combustion chamber design
Air-fuel ratio
Engine speed range.
Engine load.
Engine combustion temperature.
Intended use.
Emission regulations.
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Con…………
The requirements of such an ignition system are:
a)It should provide a good spark between the electrodes of the plugs at the
correct timing.
b)It should function efficiently over the entire range of engine speed.
c)It should be light, effective and reliable in service.
d)It should be compact and easy to maintain.
e)It should be cheap and convenient to handle.
f)The interference from the high voltage source should not affect the functioning
of the radio and television receivers inside an automobile.
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Types of ignition system
i. Battery Ignition Systems
The energy required for producing spark is obtained from a 6 or12 volt battery.
The essential components of the system are:
a)Battery: provide electrical energy for ignition, a storage battery is used.
b)Ignition switch: turned on or off the ignition system.
c)ballast resistor: regulate the primary current
d)Ignition coil: stores the energy in its magnetic field and delivers it at the appropriate time
in the form of a ignition pulse through the high-tension ignition cables to the respective
spark plug. The purpose of the ignition coil is to step up the 6 or 12 volts of the battery to
a high voltage, sufficient to induce an electric spark across the electrodes of the spark
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plug.
Con…………
e)Contact breaker: A contact breaker is a mechanical switch, activated by a rotating cam
that makes or breaks the ignition circuit to send a spark to the spark plug. The
contact breaker is a mechanical device in the distributor system and is used to break
the circuit.
f)Capacitor: stores an electrical charge and then discharges it through an ignition coil
in order to produce a powerful spark from the spark plugs in a petrol engine.
g)Distributor: to distribute the ignition surges to the individual spark plugs in the correct
sequence and at the correct instants in time.
h)spark plug: provides the two electrodes with a proper gap across which the high
potential discharges to generate a spark and ignite the combustible mixture
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Con…………
ii. Magneto ignition systems
Magneto is a special type of ignition system with its own electric generator to
provide the necessary energy for the system. Magneto ignition system is an
ignition system in which magneto is used produces
high voltage for the generation of electricity and further that electricity is used
in several things like to run the vehicles. This is basically used in two-wheeler
vehicles (Spark Ignition Engine) nowadays.
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Firing order
Firing order: is the order in which various cylinders of a multi-cylinder engine fire.
Firing order depends upon: number of cylinders and throws of the crankshaft.
There are three factors which must be considered before deciding the optimum firing
order of an engine. These are:
[Link] vibrations
[Link] cooling and
[Link] of back pressure
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Con…………
In four cylinder type of engines: If the next cylinder fired is cylinder number 2, this
imbalance in load on the two bearings would further aggravate the problem of
balancing of the crankshaft vibrations.
When the first cylinder is fired its temperature increases. If the next cylinder that fires
is number 2, the portion of the engine between the cylinder number 1 and 2 gets
overheated. Thus we see that the task of the cooling system becomes very difficult
because it is then, required to cool more at one place than at other places and this
imposes great strain on the cooling system.
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Con…………
Next, consider the flow of exhaust gases in the exhaust pipe. After firing the first
cylinder, exhaust gases flow out to the exhaust pipe. If the next cylinder fired is the
cylinder number 2, we find that before the gases exhausted by the first cylinder go out
of the exhaust pipe the gases exhausted from the second cylinder try to overtake them.
This would require that the exhaust pipe be made bigger. Otherwise the back pressure
in it would increase and the possibility of back flow would arise.
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Con…………
For four-cylinder engines the possible firing orders are:
1 − 3 − 4 − 2 or 1 − 2 − 4 – 3
For a six-cylinder engine the firing orders can be:
1 − 5 − 3 − 6 − 2 − 4 or 1 − 5 − 4 − 6 − 2 − 3 or
1 − 2 − 4 − 6 − 5 − 3 or 1 − 2 − 3 − 6 − 5 – 4
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Ignition timing and engine parameters
What is ignition lag?
Ignition lag is the time interval between the passage of spark and the ignition of the
fuel-air mixture.
Factors that ignition lag depends on:
Compression ratio
mixture strength
throttle opening
engine temperature
combustion chamber design
speed
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Con…………
Important engine parameters affecting the ignition timings:
o Engine Speed
o Mixture Strength
o Part Load Operation
o Type of Fuel
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Ignition timing and exhaust emissions
What are the conditions that produce excessive unburnt hydrocarbons and carbon
monoxide in exhaust?
a)Idling
b)Deceleration
c)Running rich
Emission quality is greatly affected by the ignition timing.
The ignition timing is measured in degrees of a crankshaft rotation before top
dead center (BDTC).
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Con…………
Retarding ignition timing at idle tends to reduce exhaust emission in two ways.
With retarded timing, exhaust gas temperatures are higher (fuel economy is adversely
affected), thereby promoting additional burning of the hydrocarbon in the exhaust
manifold. (The number of degrees of crank angle before T DC at the time of ignition
is decreased and the spark occurs closer to TDC).
Ignition timing advancing means that the spark plugs are firing earlier in the
compression stroke, farther from TDC.
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THANK YOU!!
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