Much Ado about Ignition Coils

**BOSERO** · September 8th, 2003 10:59 AM

Can anyone educate me about Ignition Coils or better yet, the whole ignition system?

I have a Suzuki Vitara JLX and have been hearing a lot about changing my ignition coil. What should I change it to? Where do I get it?

Somebody recommended Jacob's Electronics so I did some research on the net. From the write up I am interested in the Off-Road Package that Jacob's electronics has out together (ULTRA or ULTRA Torquer Coil + Up-Hill Module + Off Road Pack). Does anyone have any experience with this? Is this available locally? Would you know how much?

What other alternatives can you recommed and why?

Too many questions... Sorry. Hope you guys can shed some light on this.

Drive Safe. Always.
Daniel:confused:

**Bubbles** · September 9th, 2003 12:02 AM

um... diesel club to. wala kamint ignition system. pero ok lang hehe.

first, about electricity. high voltage won't kill you. high amperage will. a car battery can put out as much as 180 amperes. this will really kill you. the reason it is safe to touch both terminals with your hands is because low voltage will not travel through your body or any conductor with high resistance. on the other hand, the spark those electronic lighters produce or static that you feel can reach thousands of volts but is limited to milliamperes. thats why it stings and thats it.

if a car battery had higher voltage, you would die if you touched the two terminals. 1 ampere is fatal. the 80 amps of an ordinary battery is strong enough to weld with.

ingnition:
the ignition coil gets 12v energy from the battery, the internal windings of the coil (won't go into complete detail on how this works) convert the 12v into 50,000+++ (cheap coils) volts. This increase in voltage is what makes electricity jump or spark. this is low amp voltage so it won't kill you. but it hurts like hell

the coil is connected to the distributor which sends the spark to the proper cylinder at the proper time. also in the distributor is a device that signals when the coil should release the electricity.

the spark plug then gets the electricity that jumps the gap between the tip and the metal ear thing.

this is the basic way it works. modern cars sometimes have one coil per cylinder because the faster an engine revs, the more high volt electricity is released per minute. cheap coils will produce less voltage at high rpm than at low rpm. multiple coils have the advantage of having more time between firing.

there are muti coil systems available on the market. but for off roading, more coils mean more chance of failure. racing coils like that jacobs system produce up to a minimum of 75,000 volts and can cope with high rpms. therefore, a bigger gap on the sparkplug can be put. bigger gap means more exposure and bigger spark meaning better combustion.

I use jacobs setup also on my other car. works great. bought it in the U.S. don't know if available here. MSD meron dito but usually for on road use. you can use which ever on or off road. It doesn't matter. features lang nagkakaiba.

**Ungas** · September 9th, 2003 12:21 AM

Whoa! Fully detailed explanation by none other than Rod!

Matinik talaga...

**BOSERO** · September 9th, 2003 02:36 AM

Bubbles,

Thanks for the enlightenment!!! So what would you recommend for a Vitara?

Awaiting your valuable (matinik) advice.

**wildthing** · September 9th, 2003 06:05 AM

Honestly unless you are really into all-time racing...you won't need any upgrades on your vitara....keeping the stock equipment on the right and proper specs all the time will do enough good to get you through your routine...even on off-roading and short races.

....it does wear-off din so changing may be necessary after a few years of use (say 3 or 5 years depending on how often it is used). But to change it to an after market equipment which may be twice or trice the price is something I would not find practical....UNLESS I'M INTO RACING BIG TIME.

IMHO, work within in the capability of your ride would be the best. Pag na out-grow muna then upgrade (sell your ride and get a 2.0L engine off-roader or better still get those powered by a 6-cylinder ones) your off-roader and feel the difference.

just my 2 cents. peace

**Bubbles** · September 10th, 2003 07:01 AM

Tama wildthing. UNless you gonna rev really high up in the rev range, no need to change. with my set up, i only feel the improvement 3000 rpms & above. off road, you don't have to rev that high.