Spark Ignition Nitro Engine

[Sean Wills]

Looks like I stand corrected. Those planes were running on methanol and use glow plugs.

 

[BobBonahoom]

I am still learning about these technologies.

There are two types of electronic (non-magneto) systems. Capacitive discharge and inductive. The pdf paper I tried to attach explains the differences and is well worth reading.

Although the paper seems to suggests that inductive systems have a problem reaching high RPM, the German Power-Spark is an inductive system and they claim constant spark energy all the way to 30,000 RPM. I have a system on order. What I like about this is that it is waterproof, has a display and you program several functions with a magnet. The most interesting thing for me is that you can program custom timing advance curves. They sell flywheels ready to go and a range of sensor pickups for 27cc engines. The engineering looks top notch. Here is their site: http://www.power-spark.de/index_en.html Make sure you click on the English flag to read it in English.

Another Capacitive unit besides the Rexel is this one: http://www.ch-ignitions.com/ With this system, the engine starts at a few degrees of advance (for easy starting) and as soon as it is running over 5,000 RPM it goes to 30 degrees and stays there. This one is simple and cheap. The owner does not know if it will handle 20,000 - 30,000 RPM, but "he thinks so" According to the paper, it should.

How Ignition Systems Work.pdf

 

[dwilfong]

Bob great stuff here.

Will do some reading up on this for sure.

The sensor mount is no problem as I used this kind of setup for the Eagle tree speed sensor.

Looks like you can get plug boots for the small plug also to hook up to the coils.

Now what coil will give the most pop?

looks like this all can be put in a boat real easy.

 

[BobBonahoom]

The German system's engineers want you to use a Zenoah or RCMK coil. You have to take the spark wire out and put in one that has the small plug connector on it. I made mine from these 2 kits. The kit comes with a 1,000 ohm resistor, but here again the Germans told me to use 10,000 ohms. (This is to minimize interfeerence). The bigger spark plugs we use have the 10K resistor built in already. I also used the braided metal shielding shown in these links. soldered it to the 90 degree fitting that goes on the plug to ground it at the engine. The other end is not connected to anything.

http://www.prcmodel.com/modeng/name/onlinestore/func/viewprod/product/322

http://www.prcmodel.com/modeng/name/onlinestore/func/viewprod/product/585

The plugs are NGK ME 8 http://www.prcmodel.com/modeng/name/onlinestore/func/viewprod/product/140

I have no idea how well this will work with nitro, but I am going to try it just for fun. It's going into my 101 Roadrunner.

 

[dwilfong]

you have to ground the eng to the coil.

 

[BobBonahoom]

Normally you do, but this particular system does not work that way. You ground the engine back to the controller on a seperate wire. They caution that you do not ground the engine to the coil like you do with a magneto. Here is the manual for it:

Bedienungsanleitung_PowerSpark_engl_2011_1.pdf

 

[dwilfong]

so thy ground the coil to the ECU.

That makes for a nice setup.

Can put the coil any where.

Wonder if the RF will mess with a 2.4 radio?

If not leave the resistor out.

With the RF shield over the coil wire it may not need the resistor.

When you going to try this in the 1.01?

Let us know how it goes.

I will definitely try this if it work out.

 

[Mark Stein]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16x5hW0_crM

 

[Chris Thomas]

Every time I spend some quality time reading this site I am amazed at the amount of knowledge that is here and put into these "toy boats!"

Nitromethane and methanol are not considered carcinogens.

Gasoline contains several known or suspected carcinogens. The most notorious carcinogen in gasoline is benzene. I am familiar with this because my first job at Dow Chemical company was measuring water in the benzene they were making. About that time (early 70s) the industry was just starting to learn about the carcinogenicity of these kinds of aromatic chemicals. Long story short, our data back then showed long term exposure to vapor concentrations, above 1 part per million, caused leukemia type cancers.

If you search the web you will see that gasoline usually has between 0.1 and 5 % benzene in it. Typical would probably be about 2 percent. I did the math and on a 75 degree day, if you open a can of fresh gasoline, the vapor coming off the top would contain anywhere from 120 to 6,000 parts per million benzene.

Here is a cut from an MSDS for Gasoline regarding their caution specifically because of the benzene in it:

CHRONIC EFFECTS and CARCINOGENICITY

Contains benzene, a regulated human carcinogen. Benzene has the potential to cause anemia and other blood diseases, including leukemia, after repeated and prolonged exposure.

Here is a link to the complete MSDS: http://www.evnut.com/docs/gasoline_msds.pdf

Here is some other warning info: http://www.who.int/ipcs/features/benzene.pdf

The health dangers associated with gasoline are significant. It is one thing to fill your gas tank with it once a week for 5 minutes, but quite another to breath it and spill it all over your hands all day at the boat pond. For me the danger is just too great. I use camp fuel in my gas boats for this reason.

Hope this helps.

 

[jeff walker]

New subject mater for this thread, Dynamite models has a new engine fro monster trucks etc. it is a .31 that is the size of a .21 runs on gasoline and comes with a real CDI ignition, look it up on ebay and Dynamites site. More to play with................jeff

 

[johnsteltzer]

What about alot bigger glow plug and a onboard igniter that stayed plug

Up while it is running

 

[johnsteltzer]

1

 

[johnsteltzer]

1

 

[johnsteltzer]

1

 

[johnsteltzer]

1

 

[Ron Olson]

OK, where are you going to get that glow plug?

We got it. You just asked 3 times.

 

[johnsteltzer]

Sorry I messed up

 

[Bob Kensill]

Check out MSD