Nology leads

Just read this criticism. Of course, it's made by the competition, but if their arguments are sound....(not that I know enough to really judge)

The most notable of exaggerated claims for ignition wires are made by Nology, a manufacturer of ignition wires promoted as "the only spark plug wires with built-in capacitor." Nology's "HotWires" (called "Plasma Leads" in the UK) consist of unsuppressed solid metal or spiral conductor ignition wires over which braided metal sleeves are partially fitted. The braided metal sleeves are grounded via straps formed from part of the braiding. Insulating covers are fitted over the braided metal sleeves. These wires are well constructed. For whatever reason, Nology specifies that non-resistor spark plugs need to be used with their "HotWires." In a demonstration, the use of resistor plugs with "HotWires" will nullify the visual effect of the brighter spark.

Ignition wires with grounded braided metal sleeves over the cable have come and gone all over the world for (at least) the last 30 years, and similar wires were used over 20 years ago by a few car makers to solve cross-firing problems on early fuel injected engines and RFI problems on fiberglass bodied cars — only to find other problems were created. The recent Circle Track Magazine (USA, May, 1996 issue) test showed Nology "HotWires" produced no additional horsepower (the test actually showed a 10 horsepower decrease when compared to stock carbon conductor wires).

The perceived effect a brighter spark, conducted by an ignition wire, encased or partially encased in a braided metal sleeve (shield) grounded to the engine, jumping across a huge free-air gap (which bears no relationship to the spark needed to fire the variable air/fuel mixture under pressure in a combustion chamber) is continually being re-discovered and cleverly demonstrated by marketers who convince themselves there's monetary value in such a bright spark, and all sorts of wild, completely un-provable claims are made for this phenomena.

Like many in the past, Nology cleverly demonstrates a brighter free-air spark containing useless flash-over created by the crude "capacitor" (effect) of this style of wire. In reality, the bright spark has no more useful energy to fire a variable compressed air/fuel mixture than the clean spark you would see in a similar demonstration using any good carbon conductor wire. What is happening in such a demonstration is the coil output is being unnecessarily boosted to additionally supply spark energy that is induced (and wasted) into the grounded braided metal sleeve around the ignition wire's jacket. To test the validity of this statement, ask the Nology demonstrator to disconnect the ground strap and observe just how much energy is sparking to ground.

Claims by Nology of their "HotWires" creating sparks that are "300 times more powerful," reaching temperatures of "100,000 to 150,000 degrees F" (more than enough to melt spark plug electrodes), spark durations of "4 billionths of a second" (spark duration is controlled by the ignition system itself) and currents of "1,000 amperes" magically evolving in "capacitors" allegedly "built-in" to the ignition wires are as ridiculous as the data and the depiction of sparks in photographs used in advertising material and the price asked for these wires! Most stock ignition primaries are regulated to 6 amperes and the most powerful race ignition to no more than 40 amperes at 12,000 RPM.

It is common knowledge amongst automotive electrical engineers that it is unwise to use ignition wires fitted with grounded braided metal sleeves fitted over ignition cable jackets on an automobile engine. This type of ignition wires forces its cable jackets to become an unsuitable dielectric for a crude capacitor (effect) between the conductor and the braided metal sleeves. While the wires function normally when first fitted, the cable jackets soon break down as a dielectric, and progressively more spark energy is induced from the conductors (though the cable jackets) into the grounded metal sleeves, causing the ignition coil to unnecessarily output more energy to fire both the spark plug gaps and the additional energy lost via the braided metal sleeves. Often this situation leads to ignition coil and control unit overload failures. It should be noted that it is dangerous to use this style of wires if not grounded to the engine with grounding straps, as the outside of the braided cables will be alive with thousands of volts wanting to ground-out to anything (or anybody) nearby.

Unless you are prepared to accept poorly suppressed ignition wires that fail sooner than any other type of ignition wires and stretch your ignition system to the limit, and have an engine with no electronic management system and/or exhaust emission controls, it's best not to be influenced by the exaggerated claims, and some vested-interest journalists', resellers' and installers' perception an engine has more power after Nology wires are fitted. Often, after replacing deteriorated wires, any new ignition wires make an engine run better.
www.magnecor.com/magnecor1/main.htm

Personally, I reckon any sort of lead other than a standard piece of wire is not worth it.
The ignition system can only supply as much energy as is put into it, which is limited by how much energy the flywheel and CDI supply to the coil. Anything that goes in the plug lead to "boost" the spark is likely to reduce the efficiency.
For example those doodads that into the lead halfway down are probably a wound inductor. They probably will make the bike easier to start by delaying the spark, i.e. retarding the firing. The closer to TDC the sparkplug fires the easier the bike will be to start, assuming the rest of the bike is fine.
Its true that inductors or capacitors that take the available spark energy, save it up and let it go in a shorter, higher voltage spark could have a positive effect, especially if you have a high compression engine, which may need a higher potential difference top create the spark, but they just as easily could have a negative effect. There is such a thing as having too short a duration for a spark, and remember, if you up the voltage in the secondary side of the coil without increasing the amps in the primary side, then you must have reduced the amps in the secondary side. You can only get out the energy you put in. lets not worry about the inherent losses in transformers.
I would not bother, I really doubt that the ignition system is the limiting factor on the performance of an SR.
The ignition on an SR is only firing 6000 times a minute (it fires on the exhaust stroke as well, I believe) when the bike is doing 6000 rpm. The points ignition on an V8 is firing 24,000 times a minute when the engine is doing 6000 rpm. So the old points crud only has on quarter of the time to charge up the coil and collapse the fields in the primary windings, and it works fine when its in good nick.
Mick

Hi all,

I have been keeping any eye on this topic for a while and thought that I would throw in my 2 cents worth.

Having been in the electrical / electronics trade since 1975 (33 years this year, now that makes me sound old) I will agree with Carl that none of these types of devices can give you anymore that what is put in, i.e. there is no free lunch!

Most good transformer (an ignition coil is nothing more that a transformer) are 99+ % efficient, which means you are still loosing at least 1% of the energy that is put in.

The windings of an ignition coil are a fixed physical relationship, i.e. 'X' No. of turns on the primary winding 'Y' No. turns on the secondary. So if a hypothetical ignition coil with 12V on the primary gives 12000V on the secondary you have a ratio of 1000:1, the only way to get a greater voltage on the secondary is to increase the voltage on the primary, nothing added before or after the coil can affect this relationship. After market coils often have different turn ratios to the std coil and will therefore give a higher voltage spark from the same primary voltage.

Fitting of capacitors and/or inductors (chokes) in the ignition lead can effect the dwell period (duration) of the spark and this can have an effect of the power outut of an engine, but generally the engineers who designed the engine/ignition system knew what they were doing and set the dwell to the best duration. Having said that, in the case of a highly modified race engine there could be some gains by altering the dwell period, but if I had done that much work on an engine I would not be using a STD SR ignition system, but would have changed to a decent system which would allow full variable tuning of all ignition timing functions.

Well thats my 2 cents worth!

CJ

Personally, I am keen to get hold of a CDI with bolt on knock sensor that will work with the rest of the SR system.
I've had a search of the net, but one that does the deal for plugging straight in and also has the knock sensor seems to be rare as.
Mick

I eyed off those Jaycar kits too, CJ. I'd be keen to see how you get on. The issues don't look total insurmountable, but it'd be a lot easier if we could just use the std coils for triggering.
Where would you bolt the knock sensor?
mick