How Ignition Systems Work

Beforeyoucanfigureouthowtomakesomethingworkbetteryoufirstneedtounderstandhowit
works. An ignition system builds up a charge then releases it at the right moment to ignite the air fuel
mixture in the cylinder. There are two ways to improve an ignition system, increase the amount of
energy that is thrown at the spark plug to increase the chances of lighting the mixture, and better time
the spark delivery to get the most from the burn. The timing issue is covered on the Ignition Curve
page. On this page I'll do my best to explain how ignition systems work. But first...
What the ignition system does
Theinternalcombustionengineisthemostpopularmotivatorofvehiclesbigandsmall.Internal
combustion engines convert the energy of burning fuel into mechanical motion. An engine ingests
fuel, along with air so the fuel will burn, compresses it then burns it. The burning mixture expands
rapidly and pushes a piston, rotor, or turbine. Gasoline is the fuel of choice for most road going
vehicles because it packs a lot of power per gallon (you can go farther with fewer and quicker fillups). The biggest problem with using gasoline is that it must be vaporized and mixed with the proper
ratio of air or it will not burn. The flammability range is 1.4% to 7.6% (by mass not volume), so for
every pound of air the motor pulls in you must mix in 0.224 to 1.216 grams of vaporized gasoline.
Any more or less and it will not burn. The duty of the carburetor or fuel injection is to monitor the air
input and meter the appropriate amount of gasoline. The engine then compresses the volatile air fuel
mixture. The more its compresses the more power will be extracted from it when burned.
Compressing the mixture heats it, if you compress it too much it will ignite on its own. That is how
diesel engines work, however gasoline tends to explode rather than simply ignite which will tear an
engine apart. The goal is to compress it as much as you can without it self igniting. Then apply more
heat (from an external source) to a point in the cylinder to initiate combustion. Early engines used a
glow plug. Sometimes that was as simple as a copper rod threaded into the head and heated with a
torch. Eventually, they figured out the same could be done by creating a spark inside the cylinder.
The first spark ignition systems made a constant spark so they functioned the same as a glow plug.
The revelation that changed gasoline engines forever was the timed spark ignition. Instead of
creating a constant spark that would light the mixture at any random time, a single spark is delivered
with precise timing to most efficiently burn the fuel.
Thereareseveralchallengeswithtimedsparkignitions.Thesparkonlylastsaboutamillisecond.
If the conditions are not just right for that one millisecond then the fuel will not be ignited. The
carburetor or fuel injection doesn't always add the right amount of fuel. Even if the exact amount of
gas was mixed with the air it doesn't mean that every cubic centimeter of the cylinder has the perfect
air fuel ratio. There will always be pockets of rich and lean. On top of that, not all the gasoline will be
completely vaporized. Better fuel systems, intake manifolds, and heads are constantly being
developed so that the mixture inside the combustion chamber stays as accurate and consistent as
possible. But even with all the advancements and technology put into modern engines the ideal
conditions for combustion are not always met. A good ignition system can not compensate for these
bad conditions but it will increase your chances of lighting a less than perfect mixture. One trick is to
increase the size of the spark gap. Making the spark travel through more air fuel mixture increases
the odds that it will hit a pocket that is combustible. Another trick is to make the spark last longer. The
air fuel mixture is swirling around in the chamber, the longer the spark is present the better the odds
are that a good pocket of fuel will run into it and burn. To get a larger and/or longer spark you need to
throw more energy at the spark plug. To do that you need to know...
How ignition systems work
Ifyouwanttomakeasparkyouneedasparkgap.Theelectricityhastojumpfromsomewhereto
somewhere. Since the spark gap is subject to erosion and fouling it is made to be easily removed
and replaced. There is a threaded hole in the head that leads to the combustion chamber. The spark
gap threads into this hole and plugs it so the chamber is sealed. That's as good a reason as any to

call it a spark plug, I guess. A spark plug has three main parts, the center electrode, the porcelain
insulator, and the body. The center electrode is what carries the electricity into the combustion
chamber. The porcelain insulator keeps the electricity in the center electrode from grounding out to
the head before it has a chance to jump the gap. The body of the spark plug is what threads into the
head and it also has a ground electrode connected to it which catches the spark from the center
electrode and grounds it to the head.
Onmanyenginesthesparkplugisfedelectricitythroughasparkplugwire.Sparkplugwiresneed
to contain very high voltage so the insulation is extremely thick. The conductor is often a resistive or
inductive material to reduce electro magnetic interference which can interfere with electronic
components. On older multi-cylinder engines the spark plug wires were connected to a distributor. A
distributor is a rotary "switch" that is used to feed the spark to the appropriate cylinder. The
distributor is fed a spark through a coil lead, which is the same thing as a spark plug wire. The other
end of the coil lead is hooked to the coil. The coil is what produces the high voltage necessary to
generate a spark. In an effort to simplify systems and increase service life, the coil lead was
eliminated and the coil was mounted inside the distributor. The next step was to eliminate the
distributor and instead hook several coils straight to the spark plug wires, often referred to as a
Distributorless Ignition System or DIS. The next inevitable step was to eliminate the spark plug wires
and mount the coils right to the end of the spark plugs, called Coil On Plug or COP.
Theignitioncoiliswhatproducestheseveralthousandvoltsneededtomakeasparkacrossthe
spark plug gap. Surprisingly the basic design of ignition coils hasn't changed at all in the last century.
What we call a coil is actually two separate coils wrapped around a common metal core. In any other
electrical system this would be called a transformer. The coil you put electricity into is called the
primary and the coil that sends the electricity out is the secondary. Transformers are used to step up
or step down voltage. The voltage is changed according to the ratio of the turns. Say you have a
transformer with 50 turns of wire on the primary and 100 turns on the secondary, a 1:2 ratio. If you
put 10 volts into the primary you will get 20 volts out of the secondary. The trick to transformers is
that to see anything from the secondary the current of the primary must be changing. If you put a
constant DC current through the primary you will have no current flow through the secondary.
Transformers are usually used in AC systems since the current is constantly changing. If you put
120 volts AC through a transformer with a turns ratio of 10:1 then you will get 12 volts AC out of the
secondary. An ignition coil isn't fed with a constant AC signal. All we need is one spark so all we are
going to put into the primary is one voltage spike. An ignition coil typically has a 1:100 turns ratio, so
if 10,000 volts is required to generate a spark then we need to feed the primary a 100 volt spike.
NoticeIsaidif 10,000 volts is required. The required voltage changes constantly. Firing a spark
plug outside the engine requires far less voltage than it does when firing an engine at wide open
throttle. Pressure plays a major role, the higher the pressure in the chamber the more voltage is
required. The size of the spark gap is the other big factor, the further the spark has to jump the more
voltage is required. Firing a spark through an air fuel mixture requires more voltage than it would in
pure air, especially with exotic fuels. There are many other small factors that determine how much
voltage will be required to make a spark. You may see "high performance" coils advertises as
50,000 volt coils but all that is meaningless since under most conditions you will only need 5,000 10,000 volts. Now if you are running wide gap plugs in an alcohol burning, supercharged engine then
you will likely need to step up to a system with a higher voltage potential.
Soallthat'sleftistoexplainwherewegetthelargevoltagespikefortheprimary.Theignitioncoil
may not have changed in the last 100 years but the primary circuit sure has. There are two different
types of ignition systems, inductive and CDI. Each system has its strengths and weaknesses. The
ignition coil, spark plugs and such are the same between them. The difference is how they generate
the primary voltage spike that drives the coil.
Inductive Ignition
Inductiveignitionsystemshavebeenaroundalmostaslongastheinternal
combustion engine. It is a simple and rugged design which is why it is still being used on
new cars today. With an inductive ignition all that's needed to make enough juice for a
sparkistheignitioncoil,aswitchandalowvoltagepowersource.Waitaminute,how

do you get a big voltage spike from a 12 volt battery with only a switch? The truth is, an inductive
ignition doesn't actually throw a voltage spike at the primary. Instead, it makes the primary generate
its own voltage spike. Oh, ok... wait... what? A coil of wire, also called an inductor, exhibits strange
properties when you run electricity through it. You probably remember from elementary school what
happens when you wrap a bunch of wire around a metal object then hook it to a battery. That's right,
you get a magnet. The more current you run through a coil the greater the magnetic field. What you
probably don't remember (unless you happened to be touching both ends of the wire when you
disconnected the battery) is that the magnetic field is actually stored energy, and when the current
flow through the coil stops the stored energy causes a voltage spike. Inductors resist current
changes. Think of them like the electrical equivalent of a flywheel. When current is low and you try
increasing it, the inductor will add resistance to try and keep the current low. When current is high
and you try reducing it, the inductor will increase voltage to try and keep the current high. Since the
current flow in the primary of our ignition coil goes from several amps to zero amps almost instantly,
the voltage will rise very fast until it can get the current flowing again. The goal is to prevent any more
current flow in the primary so the coil will start the current flowing again in the secondary, giving us a
spark.
Inductiveignitionsareselfadjusting.Ifa100voltspikeisneededtoinitiateasparktheprimarywill
only rise to 100 volts. The spark will then burn until all the energy in the coil is used up. The lower the
voltage the longer the spark will last. Let's say you open up the spark plug gap and now 150 volts is
required to fire the coil. When the current is interrupted on the primary, the magnetic field will cause
the voltage to rise rapidly. The voltage will rise until it reaches 150 volts at which point the spark plug
will fire. After the spark is started the voltage will actually drop since it takes less voltage to maintain a
spark than it does to start one. The spark will continue to burn as long as there is energy left in the
coil. Only now the spark duration is shorter since the spark fired at a higher voltage than before.
Increasing the spark plug gaps without increasing the amount of energy stored in the coil can actually
hurt performance. If most of the energy is used to initiate the spark then there will be little left to
maintain it. It's even possible there won't be enough energy to make a spark in the first place. To get
the benefits of wider spark gaps you need to put more energy into the coil. When you put more
energy into the coil you will increase spark duration. When you have longer spark duration you can
afford to lose some by opening up the spark gaps.
Earlyinductiveignitionsactuallyusedamechanicalswitch,commonlyreferredtoaspoints,to
physically break the primary circuit. When the points close it closes the primary circuit and current
flows through the primary, when the points open the circuit is open and there is no current flow. In the
seventies points were phased out in favor of electronic ignitions. Electronic ignitions use a transistor
to switch the current on and off instead of a mechanical switch. There is no magic to electronic
ignitions,theyarejustaswitchthesameaspoints.It'stheswitchopening(stoppingcurrentflow)that
triggers the voltage spike that fires the coil.
Whentheswitchclosescurrentflowsthroughtheprimary,butittakesawhileforthecurrentto
build up. That is the biggest issue with inductive ignitions. The inductance of the coil limits change in
current. When the switch is open there is zero amps flowing through the primary. When the switch
closes the current starts at zero and ramps up until it reaches its limit. It takes time for the current to
build up. You can calculate how long it takes for a coil to charge with this formula, T = ( L * I ) / V
where T is time in seconds, L is inductance in henries, I is amps, and V is volts. Say you have a 7
millihenry coil and want to charge it to 6 amps with 14 volts. T = ( .007 * 6 ) / 14 It will take 3
milliseconds (0.003 sec.) for the coil to reach six amps. That is not much time at all, so what's the
problem? Believe it or not you don't always have that much time to charge the coil. For example, a V8
with a single coil running at 5000 rpm fires every 3 milliseconds. If you take away one millisecond for
the spark that only leaves two milliseconds to charge the coil. In two milliseconds the coil will only
reach four amps before it has to fire again. The energy stored in the coil is determined by the
inductance and the current. The formula is, J = 0.5 * L * I * I where J is the energy in joules, L is
henries and I is amps. Notice amps is squared which means small changes in amps will greatly effect
the amount of energy stored. Our 7 millihenry coil at 6 amps holds 126 millijoules (0.126 joules), the
same coil at 4 amps only has 56 millijoules of energy available to fire the spark. So more amps mean
more energy but it also means more heat. The current needs to be limited or the coil will go up in
smoke.

Onestrategyforcontrollingcurrentistoaddresistancetotheprimarycircuit.Ohm'slawsaysthat
current equals volts divided by resistance, I = V / R. If you run 12 volts through a coil with a primary
resistance of 3 ohms then the peak current will be 4 amps. Running a coil with a high primary
resistance is the simplest way to limit current but far from the best. When voltage drops, like when
the starter motor is engaged, the peak current drops and as a result you're spark output drops. A
band aid fix is to use a lower resistance coil and add a ballast resistor. On many old cars you will see
a 1.5 ohm coil and a 1.5 ohm ballast resistor, total series resistance is still 3 ohms so the peak
current is the same. The trick is that the ballast resistor is bypassed when the starter motor is
engaged so the circuit consists of only the 1.5 ohm coil. Now if the voltage drops to 9 volts when the
starter is engaged your peak current will be 6 amps. That means you will have a more powerful spark
when starting than you do when the engine is running which is good since it's harder to initiate
combustion in a cold engine. The coil can handle the increased current because it is only done for a
short period of time. If you bypassed the ballast resistor permanently you would likely burn up the coil.
Early electronic ignitions still used a ballast resistor but they soon figured out the same task could be
accomplished with the switching transistor. This makes the circuit simpler since there is no longer a
ballast resistor or bypass circuit. But the big advantage is that it can automatically adjust resistance
to keep the peak current consistent. If you have a 1.5 ohm coil it will add 1.5 ohms to keep peak
current at 4 amps. If voltage drops to 10 volts it will only add 1 ohm so peak current will remain 4
amps. If you swap to a coil with a 0.5 ohm primary it will add 2.5 ohms. An automatic current limited
works well but puts a greater load on the ignition module. A big heat sink is required to dissipate the
heat from the switching transistor since it is still using resistance to limit current. With computer
controlled dwell came the "ramp-and-fire" dwell strategy. Since the current ramps up gradually and at
a known rate, the computer starts charging the coil late enough that there won't be enough time for it
to go over current. If it takes three milliseconds for the coil to reach 7 amps then the computer will
start charging the coil exactly three milliseconds before it has to fire. With this strategy you can run
higher peak current without over heating the coil or module.
Thatseguesusnicelyintothenextcriticalelementofinductiveignitions,coilchargetimealso
known as dwell. Most guys when they hear the word dwell immediately think of old breaker point
systems where you would set the dwell by adjusting point gap. Dwell readings were in degrees. Thirty
degrees dwell meant that the distributor rotated 30 degrees between the time the points closed and
when they opened again. When the points are closed the coil is charging. A V8 fires every 45
degrees of distributor rotation so the coil is charging for 30 degrees and is given 15 degrees to
discharge. When the engine is running the coil is being charged 2/3 of the time regardless of engine
speed. This is not a good dwell strategy. To see why, you have to look at dwell as time and not some
arbitrary distance. At 1000 rpm it takes 15 milliseconds for the distributor to turn 45 degrees, so the
coil will be charging for 10 milliseconds and given 5 milliseconds to discharge. It only takes 2
milliseconds for the coil to reach 4 amps where it stays for 8 milliseconds before the points open and
the coil fires. The coil has reached its full power potential after 2 milliseconds, the additional 8
milliseconds does nothing but heat up the coil and waste power. The dwell strategy on early
electronic ignitions wasn't much better than points (some were considerably worse) but as they
improved the dwell times got closer and closer to the actual charge time of the coil. This means less
power was being wasted. Coils were running cooler, so the peak current could be increased. More
amps into the coil mean more energy out of the coil. As stated before, with more energy you will have
longer spark duration and can run larger spark gaps. When you improve both of those you increase
your chances of lighting the fuel mixture which ultimately means more power and better fuel
economy.
Tosumitallup,inductiveignitionsaresimpleandmakeanicelongdurationspark.Todosothey
need as much current run through the primary as possible, which if not controlled can burn up the
coil. It takes time to build up primary current and as rpm increases the time available to build up
current decreases. When there is insufficient time to reach a high current, the energy available to
fire the spark plugs drops significantly. This leads to misfiring at higher rpms.
CDI (Capacitive Discharge Ignition)
CDIsystemscameoutaboutthetimeinductiveignitionswerebecoming

electronic. Conventional electronic ignitions simply replaced the points with a

transistor but CDI completely reinvented the way the spark is generated.
Instead of slowly charging the coil then relying on it to generate its own
voltage spike, capacitive discharge ignitions charge a capacitor with high voltage which is discharged
through the coil to make a spark. The capacitor can charge and discharge much faster than a coil so
a CDI can operate at a much higher speed than an inductive ignition. The basic components of a
CDI are a high voltage power supply, a capacitor, a switch, and a coil. The construction of a CDI
system is a bit more complicated but the principle is quite simple. The capacitor is connected to the
high voltage supply and charged. When it's time to fire, the capacitor is connected to the coil. The
high voltage applied to the primary causes current to rise very rapidly and that's where the secondary
get the power to make the spark. So the coil is basically just used to step up the voltage that the CDI
module produces. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between a conventional electronic ignition
module and a CDI module. A CDI module puts out power where a conventional ignition module simply
switches the power to the coil on and off like a switch. Some guys refer to any electronic ignition as a
CDI but it's only a CDI if spark is achieved by discharging a high voltage capacitor through the coil.
Itallstartswiththehighvoltagepowersupply.Therearetwocommonapproachestogenerating
the necessary high voltage. One is to have a voltage converter built into the module that converts the
12 volts from the vehicles electrical system into a high voltage. The converter consists of an
oscillator to convert the 12 volt DC to 12 volt AC, a transformer to step up the AC voltage to several
hundred volts, and a rectifier to make the AC back into DC. This arrangement is what makes CDI
modules more complex and costly than a conventional electronic ignition. You will see voltage
converters used mainly on cars and street bikes where there is a battery and charging system to
power it. The alternative is to use the alternator to produce a high voltage AC signal. Then the CDI
module only has to rectify it before it can be used to charge the capacitor. This design is generally
used on dirt bikes and lawn equipment where there is no battery or charging system. It's also used on
many quads and enduros, even those that have a battery and charging system. In a setup like that
the alternator has two outputs, a high voltage output to power the ignition and a 12 volt output to run
the lights and charge the battery.
Thehighvoltagesupplyisusedtochargethecapacitor.Thecharacteristicsofacapacitor
charging are the opposite of a coil. When you put power to a coil the current starts at zero then
ramps up at a linear rate as high as it's allowed, and you need to keep the current flowing through it to
keep it charged. The amount of time the power is applied to the coil is critical. Too little time and the
coil will not be charged. Too much time means that the current used to maintain the charge is being
wasted heating up the coil. CDI eliminates these concerns. When you put power to a capacitor the
current starts extremely high then drops exponentially as the capacitor charges. When the capacitor
is charged the current flow is nearly zero amps. You can leave the capacitor hooked to the power
and almost no energy is wasted. You can even disconnect the power and the capacitor will retain its
charge. As you can see, with CDI there is no need for a current limiter or finely tuned dwell time.
Generally, CDIs are more efficient since very little energy is wasted charging the capacitor.
Theenergystoredinacapacitorisdeterminedbythesizeofthecapacitorandthestoredvoltage.
J = .5 * C * V * V Inductive ignitions take a long time to charge because of the large coil required to
hold a charge. A CDI can hold the same charge with a very small capacitor since it is being charged
with several hundred volts. For example, an MSD 6 ignition charges a 1 microfarad (.000001 farad)
capacitor to 500 volts. Do the math and you see that it stores 125 millijoules (0.125 joules). That's
the same as the inductive ignition example in the previous segment. However, the inductive ignition
took 3 milliseconds to charge where the CDI charges in only a few microseconds.
OK,sothecapischarged.Theonlystepleftistodumpthechargeintothecoil.Forthatweneed
a switch. The schematic above is an overly simplified representation of a CDI circuit. An actual CDI
circuit doesn't use a physical switch. Instead, an SCR is most commonly used as the switch. An SCR
is basically a transistor that when turned on, stays on until current stops flowing through it. That
eliminates the need to control the switch time. All you have to do is trigger the SCR, it will stay on as
long as the capacitor is discharging and shuts off automatically when the cap is empty.
ThereareafewvariationstoCDIcircuitsbuttheoneshownisaverycommonscheme.It'sabit
hard to see how it works when you first look at it. I animated the drawing to make it a little clearer.
The process starts when the switch is open. The high voltage supply charges the capacitor. Notice

how the current flows through the diode, bypassing the coil. [A diode is like an electric check valve,
current can only flow through it one way.] The diode is not mandatory, many circuits don't have this
diode, I only added it to make it easier to see when the cap is charging and when it's discharging
through the coil. When the capacitor is fully charged the current flow stops. The fully charged
capacitor sits waiting to be dumped. When the switch closes it connects the positive side of the
capacitor to ground. This in effect bypasses the power supply and hooks the capacitor straight to the
coil. Notice the positive side of the capacitor is hooked to the negative side of the coil. This is why,
on many CDIs, you see a negative voltage when probing the positive coil lead. Once the capacitor is
drained the switch turns itself off and the capacitor charges again.
Aninductiveignitionchargesacoilthenallowstheprimaryvoltagetorisehighenoughtoinitiatea
spark. CDIs don't wait for the coil to do the work. The high voltage surge from the capacitor causes
the voltage on the primary to rise much faster and higher than it would on its own. This creates a very
intense spark. [CDI is great for two strokes since the hotter spark can better fire an oily spark plug]
Unfortunately to get the big hot spark you have to give up duration. A CDI spark may last only 50
microseconds (0.00005 seconds) where the spark from an inductive ignition typically lasts about 1
millisecond (.001 seconds). The short spark can hurt both driveability and gas mileage. A common
approach to covering up this deficiency is to fire the CDI multiple times at lower rpm. While a few
short sparks are better than one short spark, it's still not as effective as one long duration spark.
Which is better
Eachsystemhasit'sstrengthsandweaknesses.Thequestionisn't'Whichisbetter'butrather
'Which is better for my application'. Inductive ignitions are rugged and simple. An inductive ignition
with good current control and well timed dwell works excellent for most applications. However,
inductive ignitions can't keep up on a high revving, multi-cylinder engine running a single coil. Modern
motorcycle engines spin fast enough that even with a distributorless setup there is not enough time
to fully charge the coils. That's why capacitive discharge ignitions are seen mostly on race cars and
motorcycles.

If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me at mrriggs@gofastforless.com.

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