Chapter 6: Igniting A Hurricane

"A year from now you will wish you had started today" - Karen Lamb

First of all, you should know that from freezing phones to computers crashing, I have always had the worst luck with electronics. This is probably due to a curse I developed as an adolescent when I stuck my mother's bobby pins in electrical outlets to see what it would feel like. It sure felt cool, but scared the beheysoux out of me too. Experiences like that will always stick with you....kinda like static but more annoying....

This is the first obvious upgrade to this project that is up to date with modern technology. The process of turbocharging the engine in this car has required me to amp things up a little, pun intended. A stronger ignition system is absolutely necessary anytime higher engine performance is to be obtained. Not only that, but having control of the ignition system is just as important, as will be shown when it comes time for tuning.

Lets start by taking a look at how the ignition system works. If you are not fluent on electricity, forget everything that you think you know about it and read with a purpose. When it comes to electrical current flowing through wires, only so much can go through. Once this current hits a break in the line it will cross to the other side as a spark, but only if it is strong enough. This concept is how a spark plug does its job. The small amount of space in the gap of its tip is essentially the only thing in the line responsible for sparking to ignite the cylinder full of compressed gasses, so if the air pressure around the gap is high enough, it can actually restrain the spark from jumping to the other side. To understand things a little bit better in this section of the blog, you should understand basic electrical fundamentals by taking a look at Ohms Law.

Ohms law states that the electrical current flowing through a conductor between any two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Don't over think it. Yes, this sounds like French, but this is represented by a mathematical formula. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out but it sure helps muahahaha!!!

I = V/R

I represents current in amps
V represents electrical pressure in Voltage
R represents resistance to flow in Ohms

To easiest way to understand the terms in ohms law are by comparing it to water in pipes, respectively. In this case, current would be the volume of electrical flow, voltage would be the amount of pressure, and resistance would be any obstruction in the line. The resistance that is found in an electrical circuit is called a load and is the object that is there to use the electrical power. This is can be anything such as a light bulb, motor, or horn. Resistance is good because it controls current flow so wires don't melt and catch on fire, so ALWAYS use a load.... though fire is kinda cool!

The basic ignition system of a car uses two circuits to function, known as a primary and secondary. The primary circuit runs electrical current from the battery through a tightly wound section of wires surrounding a soft metal core called a coil, then through a switching device so it can be turned on and off, and finally back to the battery to complete the circuit. When the switching device is closed and the coil is energized with flowing electricity, it induces a magnetic field around this soft metal core. When the electricity through the coil windings is turned off via this same switching device, the magnetic field collapses and the soft metal core will discharge all of the induced electrical energy to the nearest object as a spark. Sounds like something Yoda would say, crazy huh?! So the Prophecy says.... hooking a wire to this iron core to create a secondary circuit will allow the spark to be directed where it needs to go, such as the cylinder of the engine. What this means is that every single time the engine needs to fire a cylinder full of compressed gasses, it has to charge and saturate the coil, then discharge it so that it can send a single spark out to create an explosion inside the engine. This happens in milliseconds though, and the faster the engine speed, the faster the coil must be saturated with energy and discharged. It sounds complicated, but it is so simple that it would need some control so that it is more reliable in an engine with extreme cylinder pressure at blindingly fast engine speeds.

The black is the primary circuit which is switched on and off by the contact breaker points. The red is the secondary circuit that induces current and fires a spark when the black is turned off.

The 50,000 volt coil on my Tempest. The electricity (12 volts) goes into one wire and flows through all of the coil windings (inside the epoxy) and then back out the other wire to ground. The discharge point of the coil is the circular spot on the left side.

The original ignition system on my car is about as useful to me as a sling-shot would be to a soldier during the Cold war. It was crude and needed constant tuning, but it worked at the time. It was called "points ignition", and worked by using a mechanical system, consisting of two contact points and a rotating cam, to switch off the primary circuit charging the coil every time it needed to fire a cylinder. This is located inside of the distributor. The distributor is exactly what it is named after...it distributes the spark from the coil to the correct cylinder. It is basically a rotating electrical switch, driven mechanically from the engine, that points to the cylinder that needs the spark. A long time ago, I already upgraded to a more powerful coil as well as a more modern (1980's) style ignition system, called HEI, which replaces the points ignition.

*HEI: High Energy Ignition: Instead of using a mechanical separation of the primary circuit to fire the coil, it uses a magneto reluctor. It is basically a rotating metal wheel that changes the polarity of a nearby magnet every time one of its tips passes by the magnet. The changing polarity of the magnet signals a small computer chip called an ignition module. The ignition module then knows exactly when to discharge the coil to fire the cylinder. It is more reliable then the points style ignition because there are no delays due to the mechanical wear of parts.

The magneto reluctor on the inside of the distributor of my Tempest: The round thing with tips on the inside is driven by the engine using a gear. Every time the tips of the inside ring pass by the tips on the magnetic outside ring, the outside ring sends a signal to the ignition module.

Dirty but working well: This is the ignition module computer chip that receives a signal from the tips of the magneto reluctor . Every time the ignition module gets a changing signal from the tips of the magneto reluctor it shuts off the primary circuit to fire the coil.

Now that you understand (if your read a with a purpose) how the coil works and how it is currently triggered, we can look at upgrading its performance. Compressing air into the engine with the turbocharger will create a higher cylinder pressure than I have now. Because it is hard for the spark to enter the cylinder of the engine when it is under boost, it will require a higher voltage to jump the gap at the spark plug. A stronger spark is created by using a better coil, typically one that has more wraps of primary wire inside to create a bigger magnetic field. In its upgraded form, 12 volts of battery power are sent through my coil to saturate it, and then it fires about 50,000 volts as a spark. Sounds like a lot, but we are going to need some serious fire power here, so this little pea-shooter wont exactly do the job. There are definitely cannons out there, but here is the machine gun of ignition systems and is perfect for my application:

The Hyfire 685 by Mallory Ignition Systems packs thunderstorm power in a small sexified box:

A transformer: Not a Decepticon or Autobot, but a true transformer. It multiplies any electrical current to a higher amount than what was given to it. In goes 12 volts from the battery, and out goes 525 volts to the coil.

Soooo, 525 volts to the coil means that the coil is getting about 44 times the amount of energy it would normally. This intense amount of energy creates an extraordinary spark out of the coil that would look like a shooting star compared to the original lil' putter. Definitely don't be on the other end of the line unless you want your finger nails to chip and turn black. You seriously have to love modern technology though...just like an infomercial goes.... "But wait, there's more!" It also features:

-Automatic start retard: Retards the ignition timing for easier engine starting.
-Single stage adjustable timing retard: If I use nitrous oxide this will be applied when it's engaged. Hmmmm...
-2 stage rev limiter: Limits engine speed by cutting out spark to cylinders for 2 different user purposes
-Tachometer calibration: Fine tune the gauge at which my engine speed is displayed
-Adjustable RPM window switch: Used if I want to control something during a certain engine speed range
-Boost proportional retard capability: pulls back the spark advance proportional to intake manifold pressure

*Ignition timing: The time the spark enters the cylinder of an engine will make or break it's performance. The spark is supposed to enter the cylinder at the perfect time before it is done compressing the gasses so that it has time to ignite the mixture. This is represented as degrees of crankshaft rotation of the engine for the piston's position in the cylinder (see my blog post titled "Geometric Craigslist Portal"). Moving the timing of the spark's entry to the cylinder before the piston is at the very top is called advancing the timing, and moving it after is called retarding the timing.

Not sure if you read the specs right, but this thing gives nearly complete control of the ignition system, and the last feature is a MUST for what we are doing here. Normal engines inhale their own air which is always the same pressure, so the faster the engine speed, the sooner (more advanced timing) the spark must enter the cylinder to compensate for burning time against the piston speed. When it comes to an engine having air forced into it though, this is not the case. Because cylinder pressure rises during the application of turbo boost, the timing needs to be retarded in order to provide proper engine operation without detonation problems, as described in the same previous blog post as mentioned above. This is the main reason that a computer controlled ignition system is necessary for what I am doing.

Installation of the ignition box was fairly simple. As far as wiring goes, I had to wire it in path between the ignition module and the coil so that instead of using the ignition module to fire the coil, the ignition module now signals the ignition box, and the ignition box fires the coil for it. The only problem that I ran in to is that the directions which came with it didn't match the colors of the wires on my car. The reason for this was because the magneto reluctor distributor that is on my car is from a newer style vehicle so all the wire colors are different. Digging into a wiring schematic for my vehicle allowed me to match up wire colors, but I would say that this led to the nightmare of building my own wire harness to hook the thing up.

Spaghetti and meatballs: These were the simple ones.

Check 3 times, cut and splice once. If luck plays out maybe you'll just have a malfunctioning system, but wiring things wrong may just blow a fuse, start a fire, break something, or all do all three. No MacGyvering things here, it should be taken seriously.

*MacGyver: A form of modern art. Also known as Jimmy rigging, Jerry rigging, and Kludging, it is a way of temporarily fixing things in the most obscure way possible using limited resources while disregarding any potential hazardous risks. Usually performed by backyard mechanics and urban innovators, the possibilities of repair procedures are endless. Check out the so named television show in the late 80's or the following website for more info: http://thereifixedit.failblog.org/


Soldering each connection requires some patience, but it leaves a clean, professional, permanent, and safe repair of the joined wires. It involves a small process but works quite well. A flux paste is applied to the part that will be soldered so that it can keep it from oxidizing and ruining the joint. The soldering gun heats up the wiring to a very high temperature and then a rod of a filler metal with a lower melting point is melted to the work piece. A piece of shrink tubing is then put over the work piece and then heated with a cigarette lighter to shrink down and cover the joint. The hardest part is actually remembering to put the heat shrink tubing over the wires before soldering them together. This seriously gets me just about every time I solder wires. Where is Homer Simpson when you need him?

A solder gun, spool of solder metal, and corresponding tools for the job

A completed solder connection with shrink tubing ready to be slid forward and heated for shrinking.

I decided to mount the ignition box inside the cabin so that it is protected from the heat and chaos of the engine compartment. Limited on space, I crafted a set of brackets that allow the ignition box to be bolted to the back of the glove box. This mounting location would soon become my culprit though...

The bottom of the ignition box: Using foam sheet (available from any arts and crafts store) at the mounting points absorbs vibrations from the vehicle which would otherwise shorten the life of the ignition box.

The other item installed with this box is a double barometric manifold absolute pressure sensor. How is that for French huh?! It is abbreviated as a 2 BAR MAP sensor. It measures the amount of pressure or vacuum in the intake manifold of the engine so that the ignition box can retard the timing and make the engine run properly. Logically, a 2 BAR MAP sensor is only good to double the normal atmospheric pressure then. Adding more boost than 14.7 psi above atmospheric pressure will require a 3 BAR MAP sensor. I simply screwed it on to the firewall of the engine compartment and attached the corresponding wiring harness that comes from the ignition box.

*Barometric pressure: The scientific unit for the measurement of atmospheric air pressure. At sea level the air pressure is about 14.7 psi which is the equivalent to about 1 BAR. Doubling the surrounding air pressure to 29.4 would be called 2 BAR, and so on. It is easy to get this confused with engine boost, so just to clarify, 29.4 barometric pressure is the same as 14.7 psi boost pressure into the engine.

The 2 BAR MAP sensor will have a hose connecting it to the intake manifold of the engine. This is a GM style sensor used for the ignition box. Pop the hood of any GM car, and you should be able to find something that looks like this, though it will be a 1 BAR MAP sensor on most vehicles.

Way overdue, this upgrade came a basic ignition system overhaul to ensure its longevity and proper function. The ignition cap and rotor (parts responsible for picking which plug wire to send the spark through) were severely carbon tracked and pitted, and the spark plug wires looked like post-Vegas hill billies which were failing to visualize the rest of the engine compartment.

*Carbon Tracking: the dust formation of deteriorated metals due to electrical sparking. Anywhere that a spark jumps a gap this stuff will form. It is reddish brown in color due to oxidation of the metal, and if allowed to build up can cause the spark to flow somewhere else instead of to it's intended path of the spark plug.

All the parts laid out for the distributor tune up

Heavily corroded terminals on the inside of the old cap

Although the old rotor has little corrosion, it is completely covered in carbon deposits which would  lead to a misfire

For the tune up, I chose the low resistance MSD Street Fire racing wires because they can handle the new load from the hotter spark. They are armed with a helically wound conductor to combat EMI, as well as a Kevlar core and silicone boots to provide endurance in high heat conditions. Well that, and they are black which make them look classy under the hood with all the other new hardware. They even came with a really pimpin' tool that helps crimp them together.

*EMI: electromagnetic interference: The interference of nearby electronics caused by having high current traveling through wires. Older racing wires were designed with solid wire cores which would disturb anything electronic near the car. Newer racing wires are designed with thick insulation and spiral wound cores. This splits the current up and reduces the strength of its magnetic field so that your car radio and other on board electronics can still work.

The installation of the new spark plug wires started with cleaning up the wire looms and brackets.

The old crusty blue racing spark plug wires

A fresh coat of gloss black high temperature engine paint for the old spark plug wire brackets

Crimping the wires involves trimming them to the correct length, and then cutting away the insulation so that the center protrudes out still. Bend the center back and attach the terminal and crimp it down. To finish it, simply slide the boot over the terminal.

The parts combined to create the end of the wire

The finished product installed on the engine

This is America, where watching TV is what unfortunately defines our culture. While lounging around chugging greasy burgers and diet soda for dinner, we have all seen advertisements about spark plugs. The thing about spark plugs is that they are the most overly refined automotive part on the market. Even the simplest plugs work great in a performance application as long as you choose the correct heat range. They are available with different conductive materials like copper, platinum, or iridium which also have ascending life spans in that same order. It is a simple part that has a metal core insulated inside of a ceramic material so that it makes the spark travel through the plug and not short out on the engine. The spark comes out of the other side and reaches the tip of the plug where it will jump the precisely spaced gap to the other side known as the ground strap and complete the electrical circuit.

*Heat Range: The only confusing thing about a spark plug. The plug must be heated to a certain temperature during the combustion cycle of the engine because it needs to be able to prevent fouling up with oil and gas deposits by burning them off. The only problem is that if the plug gets too hot it will become a glow plug and cause pre-ignition, the exact thing that this whole ignition upgrade is here to prevent. The heat range is differentiated by changing the length of the ceramic insulator around the tip of the plug so that the amount of heat it absorbs is controlled. Different manufacturers have different ways of listing heat range, so it is hard to figure out the correct ones needed if you switch brands. For NGK, they are listed 1 through 10, and higher numbers mean colder plugs (go figure). Inspecting the spark plugs between engine load sessions will give you an indication of how the plugs are dealing with the combustion. Too hot of a plug will typically show black spots on a very white ceramic insulator. Too cold and the ceramic insulator will typically be dark and covered in carbon deposits. The color that you want is a very light and clean brown.

Correct operating temperature should be between 932°F and 1472°F, as if you were to measure it or something. Photo courtesy NGK Spark Plugs USA.

A call to NGK started me off with a plug that is the stock range of 5. This should prove to be a good plug heat range to about 10psi boost, but tuning may require me to bring it into the colder range of 6. I chose the NGK UR5-2271 plugs for tuning because their cost was so low. Once I have the correct plug heat range narrowed down, they will be replaced with expensive iridium which is 6x harder than even the premium platinum plugs and will last much longer. Like all things in the automotive world, you get what you pay for.

Two pumps on the accelerator pedal and a gasp of fresh air, it was finally time to start the car. It was quite cranky, but gave me nothing. Not a single shot fired and it smelled like petroleum. After checking all the wiring connections and orientation I started to psyche myself out because I couldn't find anything wrong. After tracing my steps and chasing my tail in circles, the only thing left to conclude was that the ignition box was faulty from the factory. Supplied with the ignition box is a wire harness bypass connector which allows the ignition system to be operated like it was before the box was installed. Plugging it in made the engine boast and crackle to life. This meant that all the wiring I had done was correct.

After a couple of phone calls to Mallory Ignition Systems for a confirmed diagnosis, it was believed that I did  indeed have a bad ignition box. Pale faced and well past the 90 day return policy, I got lucky as Summit Racing took it back and swapped it out for another one.

The new one shows up, and I make haste to plug it in and start the engine. NOTHING....AGAIN!!! This time it was a popped fuse. Fuses only blow when there is an uncontrolled amount of current flowing through the wires. A fuse is supposed to protect a circuit, but as my luck kicked in, it did not do so. I had just fried my second new ignition box. This didn't make sense though, and I eventually figured out why:

Old box harness VS new box harness. Too good and sad to be a true but it is. The connector is the same but the wires are different! 

The wire harness physically only plugs together one way. I plugged the new box into the previously installed harness which for some reason was manufactured backwards. Two boxes charred and readily swapping for a third, I was being optimistic because none of this disaster was my fault. After ensuring the connector wires matched and plugging in a third, I angrily refused to cross my fingers as the engine roared to life through all the new electronics for once.

Then, suddenly my real luck kicked in. The car drove fine, but the auxiliary transmission was in need of some serious discipline. The transmission can be turned on or off with a button on the shifter. Sometimes it would respond to the button and other times not. It would shift into overdrive and other times would refuse to. It would get stuck in overdrive even in reverse, constantly cycle on and off, or wouldn't work at all, but in the end it would drive me crazy because it didn't know what it wanted to do and was completely unpredictable. The EMI gremlin had found me and struck with much haste..... 

The auxiliary transmission control box and its spaghetti. 

Mounting the igniton box near the transmission controller was causing electromagnetic interference and disturbing its basic functions. Spending hours relocating the transmission controller and re-routing all of its wires to the other side of the car, the car finally drove classy.

Three times a charm and a shift in another direction with my patience diminishing quickly, I was finally one successful step closer to getting the car turbocharged. I am never sticking bobby pins in an electrical outlet ever again, though if I do, do you think it will reverse and cross cancel my bad luck?