Anybody installed wasted spark with efi?
Anybody installed wasted spark with efi?
Author
Discussion

MarkWebb

Original Poster:

983 posts

241 months

Wednesday 5th January 2011
quotequote all
I am interested in how/where you installed the coil packs. I am looking at back of engine but wonder if proximity to Lambda sensor will cause interference in the efi system.

Steve_D

13,801 posts

282 months

Wednesday 5th January 2011
quotequote all
I will be installing wasted spark.
The coils will mount on a bracket attached to the back face of the adaptor plate.
I have made a bracket which takes both coil packs.

Steve

MarkWebb

Original Poster:

983 posts

241 months

Wednesday 5th January 2011
quotequote all


Hi Steve you have probably seen this picture already. I made brackets to fit to the back of cylinder heads into existing holes. Probably similar in position to yours. My problem is that I forgot about the position of the Lambda sensor which is fouled by the coils on the coil pack that side. I would be interested to see your bracket.

Steve_D

13,801 posts

282 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
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spatz

1,783 posts

210 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
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out of curiosity what is wasted spark ?

MarkWebb

Original Poster:

983 posts

241 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
quotequote all
Steve
I guess that they mount to a plate which is fixed to the gearbox mount adapter? Do you have a picture of that?

harry b

329 posts

198 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
quotequote all
spatz said:
out of curiosity what is wasted spark ?
You only see this in V8 and higher.

It is a financial choice. You will see that most ECU's can cope with 6 injectors and 6 coils just fine. To handle more, the affordable ecu get's into trouble.
There for they use the wasted spark method. On a V8, V10 or V12 there are always two pistons in top position, one of them is in compression, the other in exhauststroke.
The coil fires those two cylinders, one effectively in the compression stroke and one wasted in the exhaust stroke.
Wasted spark method also doesn't require cam timing if you use batch injection.
Hence cheaper and easier.

UltimaCH

3,181 posts

213 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
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Well, guess I learned something new today. Thanks

Pb3

1,064 posts

270 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
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V8's and higher. What about all those Ford inline 4 pots (before the Zetec's).

Edited by Pb3 on Thursday 6th January 18:49

Steve_D

13,801 posts

282 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
quotequote all
MarkWebb said:
Steve
I guess that they mount to a plate which is fixed to the gearbox mount adapter? Do you have a picture of that?
If you look close at the pics you can see one mounting hole high in the centre. In another pic you can see two holes low on the bracket and wide apart.
These three positions match the top three bolts attaching the adaptor plate to the back of the engine block.

Pb3

1,064 posts

270 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
quotequote all
This is what I did:



This holds two coil packs and the regulator on the top, when in place:



Edited by Pb3 on Friday 7th January 13:39

MarkWebb

Original Poster:

983 posts

241 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
quotequote all
Ah Steve am I correct in saying that your system uses 2 coils with 4 plug leads attached to each? Mine has 4 coils with 2 plugs to each.

MarkWebb

Original Poster:

983 posts

241 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
quotequote all
Coil on plug or individual coil is obviously the best way to go for the most control and power of spark but this requires cam position sensing and 8 coils and is therefore expensive. A wasted spark system fires two plugs at the same time in cylinders that are 180 degrees different in position to each other. So one is on the firing stroke and one is on the exhaust stroke. The plug firing on the exhaust stroke is the wasted spark. The system therefore only requires a crank position sensor to operate and can generate a more powerful and longer duration spark at high revs when it is needed. The system also does not need a distributor so timing is far more accurate as lash in the distributor drive and errors in timing due to cam walk are done away with. Downside is plugs fire twice as often.

Steve_D

13,801 posts

282 months

Thursday 6th January 2011
quotequote all
The coil packs shown are Ford coil packs used in Fiestas and Escorts.
Each pack is in effect two coils with two connections to each.

They are connected to an EDIS8 controller.

If the EDIS is not connected to an ECU or has lost signal it reverts to a 'limp home mode' of 10 degrees advance. In normal use it sends a timing signal to the ECU and gets back a modified timing dependant on what the ECU mapping says the timing should be.

Steve

spatz

1,783 posts

210 months

Tuesday 11th January 2011
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so simply said if your ECU is supporting wasted spark you do not have to buy the 8 cylinder versions but can go with the 4 cylinder hardware setup and the right coils ?

harry b

329 posts

198 months

Tuesday 11th January 2011
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spatz said:
so simply said if your ECU is supporting wasted spark you do not have to buy the 8 cylinder versions but can go with the 4 cylinder hardware setup and the right coils ?
With the most simple injection constant injection it could work,
but with every other injectionmode you still need 8 injector output from the ecu.

spatz

1,783 posts

210 months

Tuesday 11th January 2011
quotequote all
ok forgot that there is no such thing as wasted injection.......silly me. Is there any ECU that allows for injection times per cylinder or at least per bank (aka lambda)

Pb3

1,064 posts

270 months

Tuesday 11th January 2011
quotequote all
I one have two injector driver outputs!

I run in batch fire mode with 8 injectors, which may sound bad, but does not make a great deal of difference. Full multipoint really only comes into play with emmissions at or around idle.

harry b

329 posts

198 months

Tuesday 11th January 2011
quotequote all
Pb3 said:
I one have two injector driver outputs!

I run in batch fire mode with 8 injectors, which may sound bad, but does not make a great deal of difference. Full multipoint really only comes into play with emmissions at or around idle.
Don't even think with our engines that sequential is even possible. You almost need fullcycle injector times to get the required amount of fuel in the cylinder when you floor it, and if you would have injectors large enough to support sequential, it wouldn't be able to supply acurate enough fuel in the low end.

MarkWebb

Original Poster:

983 posts

241 months

Tuesday 11th January 2011
quotequote all
Sequential works well for idle and emissions as the injectors only fire once per cycle and at the correct time. In batch or bank to bank they fire twice per cycle( because of no cam signal) this makes mixture and emission control not so good at idle and small throttle opening. At full throttle not so much of a problem. Sequential works fine on our engines but a correctly sized injector is open 80% of the time at full throttle.