Pulling Glow plug wire to advance ignition - does it work for a turbo plug?

[Andy Brown]

We normally pull two coils out, but one works and I'm not sure I've ever seen a difference from one out or two out.

Modern big port engines will benefit well.

Be careful with older engine designs with small ports, low timing, small carbs and spraybars.

The ignition will become way too advanced and the engine will not get rich enough no matter how far you open the needle valve. The OPS 80 could fit into that category unless it is a newer version and/or has been modified.

 

[John Seybold]

Have you had any luck doing this to smaller engines, ie 12s and 21s?

 

[John Knight]

Have you had any luck doing this to smaller engines, ie 12s and 21s?

I ran a few 21s and a 45 a few days ago and pulled out 1 coil. 2 OB''s and 2 IB's. When I finished the run, a 2nd coil was pulled out which shows that the pipe and engine was scavenging well. Used MC-9, OD blue and OD99 plugs. It does help with them all.

 

[John Seybold]

Thanks, I'm going to have to give it a try.

 

[Ben Ballard]

Thanks for the heads up Andy. Going to try and play with it a bit more next time out and see what happens.

 

[TimothyJones]

Have you had any luck doing this to smaller engines, ie 12s and 21s?

I ran a few 21s and a 45 a few days ago and pulled out 1 coil. 2 OB''s and 2 IB's. When I finished the run, a 2nd coil was pulled out which shows that the pipe and engine was scavenging well. Used MC-9, OD blue and OD99 plugs. It does help with them all.

There really is nothing better to see when a plug pulls after a hard run, especially if it does it on its own.

 

[DickJones]

I just started playing with this on a ops 80. It does seem to wake it up! Could anyone post a picture of a finished plug so I can see if I am doing it right? How much should you pull?

Ben, I pull all of my plugs no matter what heat range except for the Fox racing plug, I take a angled dental pick with a very sharp point, I insert the point into the center of the coil while the back of the

pick is over the ground weld and grab 2 coils and lay the back of the pick on the ground weld and pull the 2 coils straight up until they look like a light bulb coil. By pulling the coil toward the ground weld, u will lessen the chance of breaking the wire.

Included a pic.

JM2CW

 

[eekern]

Any evidence is shortened plug life doing this?

 

[DickJones]

Any evidence is shortened plug life doing this?

Eric, funny U should ask, you are the first person I can remember in many many years asking this question, The industry as a whole is dealing with alot of variables, size of engines, alcohol only, nitro content, air cooled, water cooled, I currently have a mac 45 that I converted to run alcohol only without any water or air cooling, and then when u figure in the different glow plug manufacturers and all the different glow plug "heat numbers" available, your question is a good one.

I have done years of extensive testing on hundreds of glow plugs from super hot to the absolute coldest and the only times i see a plug life shortened is when we try to over lean the engine such as when using a cold plug in a application where the air and water temps are in the colder range and u are trying to get the engine to rev and take away to much fuel in the combustion chamber that it gets super lean and breaks the glow wire, or with warmer air water temps, such as where I live here in Fl, and use a very hot glow plug and The engine is super leaned trying to get 1 or 2 MPH and the combustion chamber becomes so lean we start preignition

and break the wire. 2 things here. 1. We are breaking the wires in both cases because we are trying to get the glow plug temp up hot enough to do a good job of burning the fuel, and number 2, I believe most are using the wrong heat range and glow plug for there application.

JM2W

moby

 

[Kez]

I wonder why no plug manufacture offers this type of plug. It would be easy for them to wind the element in their manufacturing process

 

[shoboat]

Dick and Others,

The solution is really quite simple.

Try a on-board battery hooked up to your plug to help burn

the Nitro or alcohol. A 2/3rd AA high output battery will do

just what you are talking about. The real reason the pulled

element helps burn the fuel better is where the location of

the element is in the combustion chamber. Just another tip:

try and keep the one or two coils pulled down vertical it does

make a difference.

Enjoy Testing,

Mark Sholund

 

[Greg Bonahoom]

Any evidence is shortened plug life doing this?

Eric, funny U should ask, you are the first person I can remember in many many years asking this question, The industry as a whole is dealing with alot of variables, size of engines, alcohol only, nitro content, air cooled, water cooled, I currently have a mac 45 that I converted to run alcohol only without any water or air cooling, and then when u figure in the different glow plug manufacturers and all the different glow plug "heat numbers" available, your question is a good one.I have done years of extensive testing on hundreds of glow plugs from super hot to the absolute coldest and the only times i see a plug life shortened is when we try to over lean the engine such as when using a cold plug in a application where the air and water temps are in the colder range and u are trying to get the engine to rev and take away to much fuel in the combustion chamber that it gets super lean and breaks the glow wire, or with warmer air water temps, such as where I live here in Fl, and use a very hot glow plug and The engine is super leaned trying to get 1 or 2 MPH and the combustion chamber becomes so lean we start preignition

and break the wire. 2 things here. 1. We are breaking the wires in both cases because we are trying to get the glow plug temp up hot enough to do a good job of burning the fuel, and number 2, I believe most are using the wrong heat range and glow plug for there application.

JM2W

moby

Dick,

Do you have a general rule of thumb for which heat range to use, based on application?

Thanks

 

[DickJones]

I wonder why no plug manufacture offers this type of plug. It would be easy for them to wind the element in their manufacturing process

Kez, now that is the real question, the answer is, several plug manufacturers already do make glow plugs that are in the medium to medium cold designation and also have the proper wire metallurgy, "not coated", as some manufacturers plugs are.

Running out of oxygen, "air", will respond more later.

moby

 

[DickJones]

Dick and Others,

The solution is really quite simple.

Try a on-board battery hooked up to your plug to help burn

the Nitro or alcohol. A 2/3rd AA high output battery will do

just what you are talking about. The real reason the pulled

element helps burn the fuel better is where the location of

the element is in the combustion chamber. Just another tip:

try and keep the one or two coils pulled down vertical it does

make a difference.

Enjoy Testing,

Mark Sholund

Mark, not quite that simple, first if U looked at my pulled plug pic, U would see the 2 coils pulled down vertical to the ground wire, and second, they do not make a 2/3rd AA high output battery that will heat the glow wire to a temp of 1300 or any where close to this temp.

moby

 

[shoboat]

Dick,

Why do you need 1300 degrees?

These batteries will help burn the nitro in our combustion chambers.

We can run a few clicks richer this way and it really helps to burn the

nitro. I doubt a thin MC-59 wire can take 1300 degrees for very long anyways.

We use the batteries as an assist on colder plugs that can stand up to higher

temperatures in our combustion chambers. Are you going to market the Gizmo?

Just Curious,

Mark Sholund

 

[DickJones]

Dick,

Why do you need 1300 degrees?

These batteries will help burn the nitro in our combustion chambers.

We can run a few clicks richer this way and it really helps to burn the

nitro. I doubt a thin MC-59 wire can take 1300 degrees for very long anyways.

We use the batteries as an assist on colder plugs that can stand up to higher

temperatures in our combustion chambers. Are you going to market the Gizmo?

Just Curious,

Mark Sholund

Mark, take a medium cold plug, take your 2/3 amp high output battery, connect it to your plug, and drop it in a jar of water, and see the diff between the glow plug out of water and in the water. Looking for longer plug life which has always been a trade off between the hotter plugs and something in the colder ranges.

The Mc coy 59 plug can a lot more heat than 1300 degrees for hours, the problem with hot plugs is we always had to take the fuel away, lean, the mixture, too build enough heat, temp, in the combustion chamber, that the smaller diameter, hot, plugs are very easy to breaking. How would u like to save 20, 40, 60 percent on glow plug usage per year. I guess if u do not run a lot of fuel per year, it would not make a diff.

Mobydickk mobydickk

 

[Jeffmaturo]

I just started playing with this on a ops 80. It does seem to wake it up! Could anyone post a picture of a finished plug so I can see if I am doing it right? How much should you pull?

Ben, I pull all of my plugs no matter what heat range except for the Fox racing plug, I take a angled dental pick with a very sharp point, I insert the point into the center of the coil while the back of the

pick is over the ground weld and grab 2 coils and lay the back of the pick on the ground weld and pull the 2 coils straight up until they look like a light bulb coil. By pulling the coil toward the ground weld, u will lessen the chance of breaking the wire.

Included a pic.

JM2CW

DSC01622.JPG

Good to know.

 

[KenOlvis]

It dose work brings glow closer to fuel

Makes it go boom.