Technical Single ignition wire firing each bank of V-8

So how do you reengineer a nail head to give at least 14-1 compression and get the crank, rods, pistons and main webs to survive? Anybody have the magazine article, or at least the HAMB thread on this engine?

 

Not to hijack the thread but has anyone seen or ran a one coil per cylinder setup? Theoretically running a standard stranded wire from the distributor cap to feed a coil at each cylinder?

Yea… THAT would be cool

 

Seb>>Yes I believe it was in HRM. I remember Konig as being the name of the system. Should be in HRM archive's.>>

Yep. I think the article's title was "IT WON'T WORK". But it does. Small pre-combustion chambers are welded into the head with plug inside this small chamber. An essentially continuous spark is applied to each plug. Timing is achieved similar to diesel in which the piston compresses some of the air fuel mixture into the pre-combustion chamber. The air-fuel ignites inside the small chamber. Which then fires the main charge thru a small hole..I think they also fit the system to a Chevy or GMC stovebolt. Frank Kaehni of Economy Engines in Ohio pioneered the concept in mid-50s.

 

When GM wanted Diesel V8s they converted an Olds 350.
There wasnt much difference between the gas and diesel engines. Heads were modified(no combustion chamber just a prechamber and provisions for injector and glow plug) and intake was different, mostly to accomadate the diesel injector pump that resided in the lifter valley. Crank/rod journals were larger "Big Block Olds" size, still same stoke, rods were beffier but nothing special.

Modifying a gas engine, that is already stout(structurally), to a diesel doesnt take much. Will it be as good as a dedicated diesel, no. But you can make a low power diesel that would get better mileage than a comparable gas engine.

 

Loads of modern engines run one coil per plug, and in general it's a great design. It would take a bit of job to figure out how to trigger each coil at the right time if you have an old distributor to work with, but I suppose it could be done, especially if electronics would be allowed.

 

Henry did it a long long time ago.

 

Right that’s what got my wheels turning. I doubt it would take any electronics at all.

 

As Johnny pointed out, it has already been done a hundred years ago, so absolutely possible without electronics. I'm just thinking it'll be easier to build some slightly more modern electronic triggering, possibly hall sensor or optical sensor based (if you build it so the design locates the sensors with good enough precision you could get the timing interval between each coil setup correct automatically), rather than building a "distributor" with one set of mechanical points per cylinder and make something that will be reliable and easy to tune. Could you imagine having eight sets of points to adjust for a V8 to get them all to open at exactly the right time, and not just set and forget, they'll need readjustment as they wear. Doable for sure... but time consuming.

Aaaaaanyway. I know better than spending too much time advocating modern, 1960's electronics around here.

 

@G-son Modern "E" Timer for the Model T uses a Hall sensor and replaces the mechanical timer....https://modeltetimer.com/
but then there is the coil saturation rate and maybe a set of points arcing causing a different timing of the plug firing.
The Montana 500 (mile) race is for stock Model T's and the winners average 53-54 miles per hour. A lot of time is spent building identical coils and timers that energize the coils exactly 90 degrees apart.
.....but none of it is one wire
back to the normally scheduled program....

 

I remember the Konig Ignition. As to how well it worked I have no idea. I do know there was much discussion at the time in the letters column the next month and a follow up article later.

I have a MAC tools emergency ignition similar to the one mentioned from SnapOn. I have driven a car on it for about 100 miles one time in an emergency, but it only would work up to about 2500RPM

 

Plug anti-foulers can also be used as pre-chambers but must be made from copper, aluminum or finned to promote cooling. Timing can be affected by pre-chamber dimensions among other things. Lots of variables to consider to get it right.

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If there was a device to detect either a cylinder max pressure or a distance detector (part of spark plug possibly) to signal shortest distance to piston top, then this might actually work.