distributor

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tbmw
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Post Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:39 pm

not sure if this the correct section so if not feel free to move it to the correct one

my question is this have seen a couple of e30's running distributor less ignition systems, can anyone tell what actual benefits this would produce?
just curious at the moment
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fuzzy
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Post Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:46 pm

i was reading about this in a ford mag, its seems that you can run with a larger spark gap in your plugs which somehow leads to better fuel ecconomy, smoother idling and a slight increase in performance.not sure how or why and im sure ive forgotten half of it but that was the basics of it
JazzMan
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Post Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:48 pm

I've seen conversion where the distributor arm is replaced with an optical gate and a control box sends the spark out to the right place - is this what your talking about?
Last edited by JazzMan on Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
tbmw
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Post Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:55 pm

dont think thts what i'm talking about jazzman no

simply removes the distributor from the front of the engine and just has a coil, as per the pics of player6's engine bay, he's the only one on here tht i know to have done it
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Turbo-Brown
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Post Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:16 pm

I'm running dizzyless now.

Pretty sure you need an ECU capable of triggering more than one coil though and that the original won't be able to do this.

As said, the advantages are that you get a fatter spark which means you can run a bigger gap. This the fatter spark is caused because the coils have longer to charge soak before going off.

The optical gates are just to convert from 'points' based systems to electronic triggering, don't think they're electronic ignition as such though.
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Brianmoooore
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Post Wed Dec 28, 2005 7:28 pm

E30s with M50 engines don't have distributors. Each plug has it's own ignition coil mounted directly above it, conrolled by an ECU that has an individual ignition output for each cylinder.
Some cars use a "wasted spark" system which uses a double ended coil for each two cylinders. This would only need three coils and ECU outputs for a six cylinder engine, and fires the plugs for the cylinder at the end of its compression stroke and the one at the end of its exhaust stroke at the same time.