Ever wonder why they call them double platinums? .....They were made with the Distributorless Ignition System in mind.

This is the most common ignition system used on over 80% or more of today's engines. This system causes half of the spark plugs in the engine to fire in an unconventional way.


From a spark plug point of view:

Conventional
The electricity leaves the center electrode and jumps to the side electrode. This causes most of the wear to occur on the center electrode.


Unconventional
The electricity leaves the side electrode and jumps to the center electrode. This causes most of the wear to occur on the side electrode.


Double Platinum spark plugs are designed to withstand firing in both directions because they have platinum on both the side and center electrodes.

The platinum on both of the electrodes gives maximum performance and longer life by preventing gap growth and erosion.

These plugs were designed for OE (Original Equipment) DIS usage. The spark plug fires on the compression stroke and on the exhaust stroke, so it fires twice as often as it did in the conventional Distributor Ignition System. In addition to the platinum electrodes, this spark plug is engineered to meet the demands of the OE design for heat range and gap setting. The Double Platinum spark plug design maintains optimal performance longer.

(From Autolite.com)

 

how in the world would you get a Unconventional spark?

 

Simple: By jumping backwards. As it says, the conventional way was from center electrode to side electrode. But an unconventional spark goes in reverse.

 

how would u make it jump backwards is what i think he's asking....

 

Since the polarity of the primary and the secondary windings are fixed, one plug always fires in a forward direction and the other in reverse. This is different than a conventional system firing all plugs the same direction each time. Because of the demand for additional energy; the coil design, saturation time and primary current flow are also different. This redesign of the system allows higher energy to be available from the distributorless coils, greater than 40 kilovolts at all rpm ranges.

The Direct Ignition System (DIS) uses either a magnetic crankshaft sensor, camshaft position sensor, or both, to determine crankshaft position and engine speed. This signal is sent to the ignition control module or engine control module which then energizes the appropriate coil.

The advantages of no distributor, in theory, is:

*No timing adjustments
*No distributor cap and rotor
*No moving parts to wear out
*No distributor to accumulate moisture and cause starting problems
*No distributor to drive thus providing less engine drag

The major components of a distributorless ignition are:
*ECU or Engine Control Unit
*ICU or Ignition Control Unit
*Magnetic Triggering Device such as the Crankshaft Position *Sensor and the Camshaft Position Sensor
*Coil Packs

Since Tritons do not share coil packs, they fire conventionally.

 

Well, regardless of what Autolite says, thats BS. It can't jump backwards, because then the block would be charged and the plug would be grounded, but it doesn't work that way, or you'd get a helluva shock.

 

Geez, man. It's a fact. It's not BS and Autolite didn't invent it! Do some research and you'll see.

I mean, I am not trying to insult anyone, or start an argument, but the facts are the facts. It's a law of electricity.

It wll not shock you unless you put yourself into the circuit the same as you would need to do in a forward (conventional) spark.

I would not spread any BS here. And Autolite did not write that last entry!!

Let's not jump (backwards) to conclusions!

 

Hrrmmm, I know a few things 'bout electricity. I know that what Autolite is saying isn't possible. I'm not arguing with you (if thats possible to understand), I'm not calling you a liar.

 

http://www.wrenchead.ca/HTML%20Prese...der/sld023.htm

Matt, Please take a look at this diagram. Maybe this will settle it. I hoped I haven't backed you into a corner, but I got a lot of years working on electricity.

No offense taken and none intended from this side of the issue.

 

Yes Matt, the Autolite article is correct!!! The coil secondary has 2 terminals, each terminal goes to a plug in each bank. When the coil fires, one plug gets the "negative" portion of the spark, the other plug gets the "positive portion of the spark. So the 2 plugs are firing in series. One other point about DIS and EDIS, the plugs fire every revolution of the crank, twice as often as with a conventional ignition....The OEM Motorcraft plugs are SINGLE platinum, the plugs in one bank has a platinum outer electrode, the plugs in the other bank have a platinum center electrode, so be careful that they go back into the same bank that they come out of.

If you e-mail me through my profile, I did a schematic of a coil pack that I can send you, so you can see how it works.

 

Good link and correct.