i thought i'd open this up for discussion here because many folk i have mentioned it too seem to have that look on their face that tells me its the very first time they've heard of it, OR theyve heard of it but the technology scares them off, because it is a bit more advanced than a clothes peg for half choke! ha ha!
I'm not claiming to be an authority on it myself either, BUT, i have been doing my homework on the subject more recently, and i think its worthy of a good chat about it, because i think many of us Classic Alfa lads n lasses may just be missing a trick otherwise.
This isn't just for the petrolheads and modifiers like me, it will fit, suit, and benefit any standard distibutor era car too, but it has to be said, on carbs or efi, this sort of system is a very cost effective way of bringing it all together with maximum benefit.
So whats wrong with our distibutor system? Well some folk will already know the limitations of a distributor type ignition. Whilst it does do the job, it can certainly only do one job. The iginition curve, i.e. the pattern of the amount of advance of the ignition spark compared to piston position on the firing stroke, is fixed, there is nothing you can do to adjust it, with the exception of changing its base start point compared to the tdc marks, but the pattern of the curve will always be the same, so therefore you just moved the whole pattern one way or the other, and not changed the pattern.
Whilst this works to give a very very simple advance mechanism, it can definitely work a lot better, plus whilst the rest of the world moves on, in areas such as fuel variations and changes, spark plug technology, there may well come a time when this inflexibility starts to become even more of a limiting factor in what and how we drive.
Other engine mod's that may allow quicker and higher rev ceilngs would also soon find the limitations of the distributor, which is commonly the device use to perform a hard cut rev limit, but put all this together with the fact that other than a new cap and rotor arm, most of our distributors and some coils, will be around 30 years old already, and you could probably expect the spark itself and its reliability to suffer and weaken too over that sort of time as a result.
For many years there have been some great replacement systems for the distributor ignition, most well known being the Megajolt, sister product to the full engine management version, the megasquirt.
This type of system replaces the vacuum or mechanically advanced distributor and amplifier coil, with an electronic box, and typically a wasted spark coil pack and Edis unit from a donor car, commonly a ford fiesta type thing (Urghh!) Once all loomed up and plugged in, you can adjust the pattern of ignition advance via connection to a computer/laptop, preferably on a rolling road, and therefore maximise your spark timing for your given engine spec, fuel, and driving load and engine conditions etc.
It does this so much better because instead of a 2 dimensional fixed graph line,
The ignition pattern is almost indefinitely variable, by altering values of exact degrees of advance, by entering the figure itself into a 10 x 10 table (maybe a 12 x 12 now). Experienced rolling road operators and live mappers will be able to maximise your ignition curve for snap response, driveability, flat out wide open throttle acceleration, even economy and best of all reliability too.
On top of all the above, this is worth HP and Torque, clearly where my main interest came in then! ha ha!
So, hopefully now you're all excited about fine tuning your ignition curve options, for a big bright spark, better running, and more reliability, and trust me, until recently looking into it, i thought it mostly gobbeldy gook myself, and probably not applicable to me, so i hope i've explained my learnings well!
BUT, as the title suggests, there is a new kid on the block to consider
NoDiz, at its name hints, is another method of eliminating the distributor ignition, and achieves this is very much the same way as Megajolt does, in fact the NoDiz developer once built and developed Megajolt units, but has gone his own way with all new hardware, software and computer coding to do it.
This is where i came into the fray if you like, and i started to realise much more about the benefits of ecu control, or at the very least, ignition control, and it was stumbling across NoDiz that made me sit up and take notice for real this time.
The NoDiz is simpler to install as it doesn't use an Edis coil, it will use any wasted spark coil pack, so no need for Ford parts! yippee! It is also even more variable by having 16 x 16 cell table for the ignition values, and its computing power is bigger faster better etc.
Its also got some great gadget value too (gotta Love a gadget!) in that it also comes with a bluetooth interface, allowing you to not only set up, program and map the thing without having to connect to it with a cable, meaning a more discreet install for the concours lads possibly too, but it will also allow you to display a dashboard of vital info, calculated from a mixture of the engine sensor info that supplies the NoDiz brain with its signals and gps i should think from your phone/device,
such as this
- $(KGrHqN,!hEFDCTYB0K-BQ5Cs5smgg~~60_35.jpg (11.82 KiB) Viewed 19377 times
Looks pretty bloomin awesome to me!
Now i have no axe to grind, Megajolt is and has been doing a great job for lots and lots of happy customers, and i also have no gain to be had from all this, i probably won't even be buying one myself, but thats only because i own other similar equipment already, but i thought i'd share the info i'd learnt as i think this could be a really excellent addition to many of our cars,
AND,
as i understand it, the official retailer and developer of NoDiz, Matt, is a good egg, and is known to do excellent small number group buy deals.
So the floor is open, the topic "Distributorless Ignition"
please discuss!
