The Primary Coil: Understanding its Function and Importance
In a typical automotive ignition system, there is a primary coil which plays a crucial role in producing high voltage for sparking the fuel-air mixture in the engine's cylinders. This coil takes in the voltage from the car's battery and converts it into a higher voltage required to create a spark in the combustion chamber. The primary coil serves as an essential component of the ignition system, ensuring that the engine can run smoothly and efficiently.
The Secondary Coil: Producing Higher Voltage
Attached to the primary coil is a secondary coil, which has more coils than the primary coil. This secondary coil produces even higher voltage and is connected to the ignition coil. The secondary coil's increased number of coils enables it to produce a stronger magnetic field, resulting in a higher voltage output. This higher voltage is then transmitted from the secondary coil to the ignition coil.
The Ignition Coil: Distributing High Voltage
The ignition coil takes the high voltage produced by the secondary coil and distributes it to the distributor. The distributor is responsible for sending the correct amount of fuel-air mixture into each cylinder at the right time, ensuring that the engine runs efficiently and smoothly.
The Distributor: Rotating Contacts and Firing Order
Inside the distributor cap are rotating contacts that are carefully arranged in a specific pattern. This pattern determines the firing order of the cylinders, which is essential for achieving efficient engine performance. In most inline-four cylinder engines, the firing order follows a specific sequence, such as 1-3-4-2. The rotor's movement triggers these contacts to make contact with the spark plug wires, allowing the high voltage to reach each cylinder.
Firing Order and Engine Balance
A well-balanced engine is crucial for efficient performance, and the firing order plays a significant role in achieving this balance. By carefully arranging the spark plug firing sequence, the engine can achieve optimal performance. In the example of a four-stroke engine with inline-four cylinders, the firing order would be 1-3-4-2. This ensures that each cylinder fires at the correct time, ensuring that the engine runs smoothly and efficiently.
The Advantages of Modern Ignition Systems
Modern cars often feature distributorless ignition systems, which have several advantages over traditional distributors. One key benefit is the elimination of high voltage wires, which can be prone to leakage or damage. Instead, each spark plug has its own ignition coil, allowing for precise tuning of spark timing. This enables drivers to achieve greater efficiency and power from their engine.
The Importance of Electronic Control Units
Electronic control units (ECUs) play a crucial role in modern ignition systems, allowing for precise tuning and optimization of the engine's performance. By monitoring various parameters such as temperature, air-fuel mixture, and spark timing, ECUs can make adjustments to ensure optimal engine performance. This advanced technology enables drivers to achieve greater efficiency, power, and reliability from their vehicle.
Conclusion
In conclusion, understanding the primary coil, secondary coil, ignition coil, distributor, and electronic control unit is essential for appreciating how modern engines operate. By carefully arranging the firing sequence and optimizing spark timing, drivers can achieve optimal engine performance, efficiency, and reliability. Whether through traditional distributors or modern ignition systems, these components work together to ensure that vehicles run smoothly and efficiently.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enin this video I'll be explaining the ignition system and how the firing occurs for each of the different cylinders uh the timing of the spark plugs so to start off the ignition system you're going to have your battery which is going to send a voltage to your ignition coil now your ignition coil is just a system of two coils and you have a primary coil which just taking in the voltage and it's going to pass that current to a secondary coil now the secondary coil is going to have more coils and it's going to be uh at a higher voltage and then it's going to send this higher voltage from the ignition coil to the distributor now the distributor is what distributes the uh voltage to each of the cylinders to each of the spark plugs so you're going to have a high voltage coming in and you're going to have this rotor here that's going to be spinning around now in this rotor there's cont cont points uh every 90° this is for a four cylinder fourstroke engine so every 90° you're going to have a contact point and when the rotor is coming into contact with this contact point it's going to pass that voltage across to the spark plug and then it'll fire so one thing to note is that they're not actually in contact they're just going to be very close and then you're going to have a spark pass between the two um and so it'll just rotate around and then pass that spark which will send the voltage to each of these spark plugs now the order of the firing is pretty important so in a fourstroke engine you've got your four strokes you've got intake where you pull in the air compression you compress the air fuel ratio or the air fuel and then power where you set a spark in there and it uh expands and pushes down the piston and then exhaust or you force back out that that wasted air or the used up air so when you let's say we start with our first cylinder here and so the distributor cap is going to send the voltage to the current to the first part plug which is going to be in the power stroke okay so then it's going to move to the third uh cylinder now the third cylinder is going to be in compression when it's right here when the distributor when the rotor is right here and then as it rotates to here that compression that cylinder uh the Piston's going to move up and it'll be at three now and then three will be at a power stroke so you can see that transfers there now after three we for uh most inline four cylinders you're going to have a firing order of 13 42 and that's so that they're balanced them as you can see you've got these two pistons on on the outside at the upper and the two pistons on the inside side at the lower position so these will move uh together and so the engine will always be balanced so as this rotates around you've got 1 3 4 2 and so each of these uh three will be one step behind one four will be two steps behind one and two will be three steps behind one so we'll have the first cylinder will be in power the second will be in exhaust the third will be in compression and the fourth will be in intake and that's so it's all balanced and as this rotates around it will fire the different cylinders and so keep in mind from this rotating for example from here to here that'll be 180° change so four will have gone down it will have done the intake it'll have done the compression and then the spark will send it uh and you'll have the spark and light the air fuel mixture and then you'll have your power stroke so I figured I'd show you guys what this look looks like on my car um I've got an Acura Integra here it's an inline 4 so we're going to look at the spark plugs um so we've got them coming in here on the top so here's your first one and remember we said the firing order was 1342 so we're going to trace this back to the distributor so here's your one so then after that you're going to have this one firing so this should be three so we'll F follow this wire here and it goes to three all right after three we're going to go to this one this should be four so we'll follow that and as you can see that goes to the fourth and finally will'll we end up here and that should be two and we follow this wire it's going to go right here so that's going to be 1 3 42 uh just like I was saying for the balance of the engine and here's another look at that distributor now on Modern cars you can have distributorless engines and so with these they'll have a separate ignition coil for every single spark plug it'll actually be on the spark plug and what this allows you to do is have your electronic control unit your ECU uh specifically Time Each spark plug so the advantages of this is that you get rid of your distributor you get rid of your high voltage wires and you have precise tunable timing and so you can achieve greater efficiencies and more powerin this video I'll be explaining the ignition system and how the firing occurs for each of the different cylinders uh the timing of the spark plugs so to start off the ignition system you're going to have your battery which is going to send a voltage to your ignition coil now your ignition coil is just a system of two coils and you have a primary coil which just taking in the voltage and it's going to pass that current to a secondary coil now the secondary coil is going to have more coils and it's going to be uh at a higher voltage and then it's going to send this higher voltage from the ignition coil to the distributor now the distributor is what distributes the uh voltage to each of the cylinders to each of the spark plugs so you're going to have a high voltage coming in and you're going to have this rotor here that's going to be spinning around now in this rotor there's cont cont points uh every 90° this is for a four cylinder fourstroke engine so every 90° you're going to have a contact point and when the rotor is coming into contact with this contact point it's going to pass that voltage across to the spark plug and then it'll fire so one thing to note is that they're not actually in contact they're just going to be very close and then you're going to have a spark pass between the two um and so it'll just rotate around and then pass that spark which will send the voltage to each of these spark plugs now the order of the firing is pretty important so in a fourstroke engine you've got your four strokes you've got intake where you pull in the air compression you compress the air fuel ratio or the air fuel and then power where you set a spark in there and it uh expands and pushes down the piston and then exhaust or you force back out that that wasted air or the used up air so when you let's say we start with our first cylinder here and so the distributor cap is going to send the voltage to the current to the first part plug which is going to be in the power stroke okay so then it's going to move to the third uh cylinder now the third cylinder is going to be in compression when it's right here when the distributor when the rotor is right here and then as it rotates to here that compression that cylinder uh the Piston's going to move up and it'll be at three now and then three will be at a power stroke so you can see that transfers there now after three we for uh most inline four cylinders you're going to have a firing order of 13 42 and that's so that they're balanced them as you can see you've got these two pistons on on the outside at the upper and the two pistons on the inside side at the lower position so these will move uh together and so the engine will always be balanced so as this rotates around you've got 1 3 4 2 and so each of these uh three will be one step behind one four will be two steps behind one and two will be three steps behind one so we'll have the first cylinder will be in power the second will be in exhaust the third will be in compression and the fourth will be in intake and that's so it's all balanced and as this rotates around it will fire the different cylinders and so keep in mind from this rotating for example from here to here that'll be 180° change so four will have gone down it will have done the intake it'll have done the compression and then the spark will send it uh and you'll have the spark and light the air fuel mixture and then you'll have your power stroke so I figured I'd show you guys what this look looks like on my car um I've got an Acura Integra here it's an inline 4 so we're going to look at the spark plugs um so we've got them coming in here on the top so here's your first one and remember we said the firing order was 1342 so we're going to trace this back to the distributor so here's your one so then after that you're going to have this one firing so this should be three so we'll F follow this wire here and it goes to three all right after three we're going to go to this one this should be four so we'll follow that and as you can see that goes to the fourth and finally will'll we end up here and that should be two and we follow this wire it's going to go right here so that's going to be 1 3 42 uh just like I was saying for the balance of the engine and here's another look at that distributor now on Modern cars you can have distributorless engines and so with these they'll have a separate ignition coil for every single spark plug it'll actually be on the spark plug and what this allows you to do is have your electronic control unit your ECU uh specifically Time Each spark plug so the advantages of this is that you get rid of your distributor you get rid of your high voltage wires and you have precise tunable timing and so you can achieve greater efficiencies and more power\n"
