Questions about electronic vs HEI

Will try again later, posting problems.

ssba said:

If the mixture gets lit it makes no difference in the burn.
If it was done with a short gap set plug from a set of breaker points
or a long spark of an hei.
The problem is when it doesn't get lit. This is why points were replaced.
Points would bounce and no

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So the differences in how the engine starts and runs is all in our imagination when going from one to the other?

Not.

So what you are saying is that all the performance aftermarket ignition systems are all hype and as long as there is any spark at the right time nothing else matters?
MSD, FBO, HEI, electronic and plasma are all sales pitch?

Some of you guys crack me up.

No I said as long as the mixture is lit. Big difference.

ssba said:

No I said as long as the mixture is lit. Big difference.

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So the multi spark stuff and higher power ignition systems is all hype and sales then?

There's just not a chance in the world you will convince the people that swapped that it didn't make a difference, no matter how much you might say their engine could have run like it does with the original electronic.
Just ain't gonna happen.

Actually, there is a significant difference in the burn process versus spark energy and number of sparks per spark cycle. Even for one spark, the shock wave initiated by a higher energy spark is greater and creates a larger 'spark kernel', which spreads the flame faster through the burn process.

No, I did not just make this up.... although it may sound like it LOL! This type of knowledge has been around for decades, and is well documented in literature. Here is one such article: google "combustion flame velocity versus spark energy" and download the .pdf paper that shows up like this partial link:
smartech.gatech.edu/.../schild_iliss...

Start looking at pages 32-41... it takes some mental digestion, but the conclusions are there. Multi-spark discharge and HEI ignition systems have been out there since the 70's for a good reason.

A few years ago, Ford was considering going production on using a special head gasket with multiple fingers to throw a spark across the whole cylinder. Eliminating the spark plug would give many advantages, but I am guessing they feared that customers wouldn't appreciate having to pull the head for a "tune-up", plus might have needed a mega-HEI to jump all the way across.

But, there is much hype in spark plug world. Ever notice that the Split-fire ads said they first ran regular spark plugs (cold engine), then ran Split-fire (warmed up) and got improved HP. They never actually stated that was due to the spark plugs, so you couldn't sue them. Some tuners spend much time adding shims to try to "clock" their spark plugs, but the "optimal clocking" appears to be more an assumption than based on data.