MouseCamaro305

When you take an ignition coil, wire it up to the battery, put a spark plug to it, it produces one spark, just one. the connection between the plug and the coil need to be broken, so the coil doesn't act as a capacitor, just storing energy, correct?

I'm assuming a glow plug doesn't however work in the same manner. I'm assuming, you give the plug X amount of voltage, it simply stays glowing, hence the name glow plug.

My question in this: putting all practicalities aside, I would imagine shooting 10-12 volts into a glow plug, via a small guage wire would cause the plug to glow. Or is there a coil it needs to run though first to produce such a hot glow?

In any case there should be no reason to have to break the two points to produce a constant glow from a glow plug. I'm asking this question because my friend's exhaust ignition kit worked very well with spark plugs and a breaker box, however something went wrong with the box, and it no longer vibrates to break the circuit (the wiring is all complete) lm wondering if wiring a toggle switch to a pair of glow plugs coming off a 12V source would work well, or does there need to be an amplifier of some sort?

thanks in advance, sorry about the length
-Mike

dennis6

You need a 555 timer and a relay to make it switch again. Forget the glow plugs. Do a search on google for 555 timer circuits.

Vader

Huh? Exhaust ignition kit? No longer vibrating? Glow plugs? I can't imagine what might be happening here.

I have a feeling you might be describing an aftermarket CD ignition system that may have a failed oscillator and won't chanrge the main capacitor any more, but after reading that, I'm not even sure I know what my name is any more...

Wanna try describing the problem again, and maybe with a few more details?

MrDude_1

is this for a flamethrower kit?

ZZ28ZZ

ROTFLMAO:hail: :hail:

Kinda does sound like a flame thrower..

8Mike9

I take it as a flame thrower too, but a glow plug isn't the answer. A glow plug is more like a heater, not an ignitor...my uneducated guess would say a glow plug would burn out long before you got it hot enough to light a fuel mixture.

Then again, maybe it is the answer for flame throwers

ZZ28ZZ

Although I don't really know what you are up to, I'll try and explain the ign coil ops.
Inside the coil there are 2 sets of windings. The primary set of windings which has relatively few turns. The secondary winding which has thousands of turns.

When power is sent thru the primary windings, a magnetic field builds around the primary AND secondary windings. When power is removed from the primary winding, the magnetic field collapses and triggers current flow in the secondary windings.

The primary winding voltage and the ratio of windings in the primary windings compared to the secondary windings determines the voltage output of the secondary windings when the magnetic field collapses.

For example; if the primary had 10 windings and the secondary had 1,000 windings the ratio would be 1:100. If 10 volts was in the input, there would be 1000 volts on the secondary output when the magnetic field collapsed.

On the old points style ign system, the primary winding had power all the time (if ign switch was on). The breaker points allowed the primary winding to have a ground and complete the circuit. When the breaker points opened, the primary winding lost its gound, the magnetic field collapsed, and the coil would fire.

As you can see, the primary windings will need to be energized and then de-energized to fire the coil. Disconnecting the coil from the plug will do nothing.

8Mike9

And without an Internet search, please explain the operation of a Glow Plug

85TransAm406

iTrader: (1)

it heats the air in the intake manifold or in a pre-chamber on a diesel engine to assist in cold starting a compression-fired engine.

8Mike9

Okay, I'll give ya that...

Now why don't all diesel engines use Glow plugs?

85TransAm406

iTrader: (1)

Larger, heavier duty diesel engines are built heavier, so they can run higher compression, lessening the need for heated assists, but even 6.6L and larger Caterpillar engines have Ether starting assists, because they can handle the additional pressure, but using ether on a smaller (Medium duty)6.5L GM V8 diesel would blow off the ring lands after repeated usage.

8Mike9

Wll heck, I can't play "Stump the Panel" with you anymore.

SSC

I'd advise your friend to look into another 555 timer. The glow plug cannot stand constant use, infact they tend to burn out if they are left active for more then a minute or two. The function is controlled by a timer (GPCM) it cycles them for a set amount of time usually 10-20 seconds then shuts them down.

FBird84

Damn and i thought glow plugs were only use for remote control cars with nitro engines. I have like 300 little glow plugs lying around here somewhere.

MouseCamaro305

Vader, sorry for the delay, yeah, its a flamethrower kit. The box that he bought for the car (not sure what company) was a small black box, which when operated it would vibrate, (my guess is it was acting as a pair of ignition points, charging the coil, then breaking the circuit and allowing the power to travel to the plugs.
however, it no longer vibrates, all fuses are intact, there is continuity throughout the system, and the switch still works. l'm stumped and l'm not looking to fix the box, it never really worked well from the get-go. I'm looking for a simpler fix. Glow plugs were one of my thoughts, l've also been looking into the construction of propane kits, any help would be awesome.

thanks guys