TECHTALK

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NO, ITS NOT JUST A SPARK PLUG

IF PEOPLE WERE ASKED TO NAME ONE ENGINE COMPONENT WHICH APPEARS NOT TO HAVE CHANGED VERY MUCH IN RECENT HISTORY, THEY WOULD ALMOST CERTAINLY NAME THE SPARK PLUG. YET APPEARANCES ARE DECEPTIVE: THE TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS HAVE BEEN CONSIDERABLE, AND TODAY MORE THAN EVER, EFFICIENT ENGINE OPERATION DEPENDS ON RUNNING PRECISELY THE RIGHT KIND OF PLUG. Just consider for a moment. Todays new European-market cars have to meet at least Euro 3 emission limits, and several national markets offer fiscal incentives lower tax for cars meeting the very tight Euro 4. At the same time, the car manufacturers are worried about fuel consumption because of the need to bring corporate-average CO2 emissions below 140 grams/km (equivalent to around 47mpg) by 2008. Achieving all this demands very careful engine design. We are for example seeing the very rapid spread of direct petrol injection, and the computer-calculated control of airflow within the cylinder so that the air/fuel mix is not only near-perfect, but also that it is in exactly the right place when combustion begins. And having gone to all this trouble, engine designers are not going to specify any old spark plug even less so when consumers are also expecting spark plugs to last longer and longer, as part of the general trend of stretching service intervals. These days, therefore, an engine design team will work closely with a spark plug manufacturer from an early stage. The task of physically fitting the plug within the combustion chamber and ensuring the spark occurs in exactly the right place within the combustion chamber has now become a crucial requirement. This however is only part of the story. The spark needs to be totally reliable, because a misfire can not only send emissions off the scale, but very quickly damage the catalytic converter as raw fuel burns where it is not supposed to. In other words, the spark needs to be extremely strong enough to have something in hand when facing the most difficult conditions, for example during a cold start and possibly with fuel of marginal quality. Some of that strength will come from upstream in the ignition system, hence the still growing popularity of direct coil-on-plug ignition systems, but a lot of it will be down to the design of the plug itself, as will resistance to plug fouling.

Semi-Surface Discharge: Carbon on the insulator nose will reduce the overall resistence between centre electrode and metal shell, possibly causing a mis-spark. This design forces the spark to discharge across the end of the insulator nose, burning away the carbon and regaining the necessary resistence value.

DEAR DAVE
I have a problem with my Renault Safrane 2.2. About three months ago the car refused to start. My local garage traced the fault to an earthed-out starter motor live feed, which had burnt out the starter wire. It was rewired but since then theres been a progressive loss of power, accompanied by slight juddering, and now the cars virtually undriveable. Vehicle ECUs are very sensitive to power surges and high electrical loads, and my guess is that the short-out fault has damaged the sensor supply circuit out of the ECU to the various control sensors on the engine. It is possible to get this unit repaired by an electronics specialist. As a mechanical garage, we dont usually take on electronic work but on this occasion we didnt really have a choice. After replacing the head on a Fiat Punto T reg 1.2, the air bag light came on and stayed on. We have not been anywhere near the air bag or pretensioners. Fiat, in all its wisdom, earthed the air bag ECU to the inlet manifold and the earth wire does tend to become brittle. When you removed the earth from the manifold, it could have broken inside the wires insulation. Try replacing this wire back to the bulkhead and see if that cures the problem, but you will need to visit the main dealer to reset the fault codes. We are at our wits end with a Ford Fiesta 1.1 N reg single point injection. It has a good spark and fuel pressure, but no injection pulse. Investigation of wiring with an oscilloscope shows a good crank signal into the EDIS ignition module and a good ignition signal to the coils. If carb cleaner is sprayed down the inlet, the engine will fire up. There is no square waveform signal from pins one or three from the EDIS module feeding the fuelling ECU. This was assumed to be the problem and the EDIS module was replaced, but to no avail. Whats going on? Every thing has its feeds where it is supposed to; the EDIS module has all its lives and earths and a signal from the crank sensor; and pins one and three show continuity through to the fuelling ECU. But no signal is being generated by the EDIS. To answer this, lets run through a simplified version of how the system works. The EDIS module first receives an analogue signal from the crankshaft sensor. It then converts this signal into a

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More recently various advanced technologies have been introduced by the spark plug manufacturers to meet these challenges. New and improved materials are one way to go, even if they bring problems of their own to production. NGK for example now produces plugs with electrodes made from very fine wire; in some applications this is as small as 0.4mm. The wire is an alloy of platinum and iridium, very expensive but extremely durable. Questions of cost apart, how do you attach such a wire so that there is no chance of it falling off? NGK found the answer in a new kind of ultra-precise laserwelding that produces the formation of an alloy which is particularly effective in securing the small precious metal chips to the centre and ground electrodes. Of course, the very fine wire also brings a number of technical advantages. The electrode stays sharp and able to fire reliably over a wide gap, which among other things makes for steadier idling at lower speed. An alternative technology is that of the semi-surface discharge plug, a type once relatively familiar in powerful two-

NGKs new Hybrid-Type spark plug was developed exclusively for Audis new 2.0 FSI engine to achieve Audis demanding requirement for high spark energy, reliability and durability. It is fitted exclusively as OE on the new Audi A3.

stroke engines but now finding its place in the latest generation of plugs for direct petrol injection engines. For example, the NGK plug specified by Audi for their new 2.0 FSI engine in the recently launched A3 uses a hybrid design that employs a combination of a fine wire precious metal centre electrode, conventional shape ground electrode and two additional semisurface ground electrodes. In fact even the most basic aspects of the plug have improved almost out of recognition. Ground electrodes with copper cores for better heat dissipation, longer life and to guard against detonation? Not enough these days NGKs latest plugs have a three-layer ground electrode design to resist bi-metal distortion. And the high purity alumina ceramic used for the insulator is by no means the kind of porcelain that makes crockery. It all adds up to a component which is more special than it looks and is still remarkable value for money in relation to the job it now has to do. Just make sure you use the right one

SILENT WIPE
digital square waveform and sends it to pin 56 of the EEC IV ECU. This modifies the signal according to engine temperature etc. and sends it back to the EDIS module via pin 36. The EDIS module then uses this modified signal to adjust the ignition timing. The problem you are having concerns the lack of digital signal on pin 1 off the ignition module and pin 56 of the ECU. This is where the fault lies. The shielded wire that connect these pins has to be faulty more than likely the wire has earthed out to the shield thus suppressing the digital signal. It is not enough just to check for continuity from one pin to another; you must also make sure these pins have no continuity to earth. DAVE PEACOCK Federal-Moguls new Champion Aerovantage range of windscreen wipers features a series of innovations including a blade replacement reminder and an 'easi-clip' to help with the fitting process through a larger bridge window. The clip removes the need to fit an adapter on 98% of applications. Aerovantage also uses an integrated spindle, replacing the conventional rivet design, which minimises angular play and increases integral strength and corrosion resistance. For silent performance, Champion has reduced friction with a new rubber coating that combines graphite with its own unique 'Bromination' process.

LUCAS LINE-UP
From Lucas come latest catalogues covering rotating machines, bulbs and fuelling and emissions. New to the F&E publication is a range of new, rather than remanufactured, replacement air mass meters, along with an all-makes range of exhaust gas recirculation valves.

Motor Industry Magazine www.motor.org.uk Dec/Jan 2003/4 33

TECHTALK

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BACK TO BASICS WITH AUTO-SOLVE

IGNITION PRIMARY CIRCUITS The primary ignition is so called as it forms the first part of the ignition circuit. The primary circuit is used to provide the initial stage towards the secondary High Tension (HT) output. The primary circuit has evolved from the basic contact breaker points and condenser to the distributorless and coil per cylinder systems in common use today. The basic origin of all of these systems evolves around the magnetic inductance principle. The only system to differ from this principle is capacitive discharge, whose operation will be detailed in a later topic. This principle is based around a magnetic field (or flux) being produced when the coil's earth circuit is completed by either the contacts or the amplifier providing the coil negative terminal with a path to earth. When this circuit is complete, a magnetic field is produced and builds until the coil's magnetic field becomes maximised or saturated. At the pre-determined point of ignition, the coil's earth is removed and the magnetic field or flux collapses across the coils 250 to 350 primary windings, which in turn induces a voltage of 200 to 350 volts. This induced voltage will be determined by the following factors: The number of turns in the coils primary winding The strength of the magnetic field The rate of collapse, which is determined by the speed of the switching of the earth path The number of turns within the coils primary is preset from manufacture; however, the strength of the magnetic field, which is proportionate to the current within the circuit and the speed of the switching, can be seen in Fig 1.0 The current within the electronic ignition example shown sharply rises to 6 amps, at which point the current is held until the earth circuit is removed. The switching speed can be seen by the angle of the vertical line at the end of the trace. Any delay or slow switching will be seen as a sloping line. Any compromise in the switching speed will result in a lower induced voltage. The height of the induced voltage line can be seen in Fig 1.1. In this particular instance its maximum voltage is 326 volts. This is a result of the magnetic flux passing quickly across the coils primary windings. It is important to test this voltage as a low secondary HT output could result from a low primary voltage. One of the many compromises with contact ignition is the fact that the coils saturation time will reduce with increasing engine speed. In the illustration shown in Fig 1.2, the engine is running at approximately 1000 rpm and the points are closed for 16.3 milliseconds. This results in an induced voltage of 286.3 volts. As the engine speed is increased to 3000 rpm the coils available time to fully saturate will be reduced pro-rata. Illustration Fig 1.3 shows that the time available to charge the coil has now been reduced to 5.6 milliseconds. As a result, the induced voltage has been reduced to 275.4 volts and the coils HT output reduced accordingly.

FIG 1.1 FIG 1.3 DWELL PERIOD Dwell is measured as an angle: with contact ignition, the points gap determines the dwell angle. The definition of contact ignition dwell is: 'the number of degrees of distributor rotation with the contacts in the closed position'. As an example, a 4 cylinder engine will have a dwell of approximately 45 degrees, which is 50% of one cylinders complete primary cycle. The dwell period on an engine with electronic ignition is controlled by the current limiting circuit within the amplifier or Electronic Control Module (ECM). The dwell on a variable dwell or constant energy system will be seen to expand as the engine speed increases, compensating for the shorter time period. The term 'constant energy' refers to the available voltage produced by the coil. This, regardless of engine speed, will remain constant as opposed to contact ignition where an increase in engine speed means the contacts are closed for a shorter time period. The coils saturation time can be seen in Fig 1.4, where the time available to saturate the coil is a constant 3.0 milliseconds regardless of the engine speed. The saturation time is considerably lower than that of a contact system due to the coils supply voltage being approximately double that of a ballasted contact system and the coils primary

FIG 1.0

FIG 1.2

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resistance approximately halved. This will result in a far higher current, saturating the coil with amperage that would not be possible on a contact system.

the result is a different matter. This simple example shows the importance of testing any switching circuits earth path with the aid of an oscilloscope. An ideal earth would show an almost flat line; however, in practical terms the voltage may creep up as high as 0.3 volts. An old electrical law stated that we can lose up to 0.5 volts on any live circuit while the earth must remain below 0.25 volts. In all practicality, common sense must prevail so try to minimise the dynamic resistance in any important earth return circuit.

FIG 1.4 As with all electrical circuits, it is important for the technician to check the condition of the earth circuit. This cannot, however, be done by simply checking for good continuity using a multimeter. As an example, imagine an earth wire that has broken and is down to the last strand of copper wire. When testing for continuity, it will show next to zero resistance. Pass a current along the wire and

FIG 1.5 In Fig 1.5 we can see that while the coils

earth circuit is complete (the length of the dwell period) there is a small volt drop that increases as the current builds. In this example the circuit is increasing in current until the earth is removed. A poor earth will result in an increase in height to the earth ramps and a decision must be made as to whether the earth circuit requires any remedial rectification. All the example waveforms used were recorded using a PC based oscilloscope loaned by www.picotech.com. Other manufacturers equipment will have different voltage ranges but the resultant picture should be very similar. Please remember that using a higher voltage range will result in the waveform appearing to have a lower amplitude, although the overall voltage will be the same. In the next issue we will be looking at the components that initiate the coils primary circuit: the pick-up, crank angle sensor or an output signal from the ECM. We will also look at the waveforms required from the different components and the way in which they are formed.

COMPRESSED GUIDE
Compressed air products and systems supplier Thomas Wright/Thorite Group has produced an updated version of its free Pipe Up booklet. Its a guide to workshop airline systems, both ring main and spur line, for compressors up to 15HP . Copies are available on 0800 0345850.

EMISSION CONTROL
Forte is targeting service workshops with an Emission Control awareness campaign following the Department of Transports drive to step up its fixed penalty notice road side emission tests. A range of marketing materials are being dis-tributed among indepen-dent garages and fran-chised dealerships to help them educate motorists about the benefits of an emission control service as part of their normal service routine.

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