As promised here are some pictures. Now it is time to pickup my tools, put the old wires in a bag, take a shower, and go for a cruise.
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Posts: 3,047
My VIN: 16510 and carbureted
Club(s): (GCD) (SEDOC) (DCUK)
As promised here are some pictures. Now it is time to pickup my tools, put the old wires in a bag, take a shower, and go for a cruise.
Posts: 1,068
Make sure you are running a performance coil. Not all coils are rated to handle 12.5 volts on the primary side.
What happened to your fancy fuel filter bracket?
Bill Robertson
#5939
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Posts: 3,047
My VIN: 16510 and carbureted
Club(s): (GCD) (SEDOC) (DCUK)
I believe I am running a Flamethrower coil from Hervey. If memory serves me right it is 40,000 volts.
Anyway, I replaced my fuel filter a few months back and couldn't get the new one in there without it leaking. I gave up and decided to just let the new one hang in the engine bay. I'm thinking maybe one day I will make a new fancy smancy fuel filter bracket with a hinge on it. That would make replacing the thing much much easier.
Edit: I forgot to mention but I just got back home from a 15 minute drive and had a blast. I took it on the interstate for a few minutes, had plenty of power, and nothing fell apart or exploded.
Yeah, it's dirty. I drive it.
Posts: 1,068
Resistors are there for the coil's benefit.
A Bosch coil can not handle full charging voltage. The stock resistor grid knocks primary voltage down to 6-8 volts. A Bosch coil itself adds another 1K ohms resistance. By the time you get to the negative terminal, voltage is only 3-4 volts.
Because they have more windings, performance coils actually have higher internal resistance than a Bosch coil. Pertronix is 1.5K ohms IIRC.
Coils are rated for maximum potential voltage, not nominal voltage. If you leave the stock resistor grid intact, there is no way a performance coil will produce anything close to 40,000 volts because there simply is not enough voltage going into the thing.
Even though I am running a 45,000 volt Pertronix coil at full charging voltage on my Ignitor equipped Lincoln no problem, I decided to leave at least some resistance on my DeLorean (note that Ford reduced primary voltage to 10.5 volts on its Duraspark systems). By wiring the resistors in parallel, which drops primary resistance to .25K ohms, I get 12.5-13 volts on the primary side. That means my 40,000 volt coil is probably producing closer to 38,000 volts maximum -- still more than enough to reliably jump a .05" plug gap.
In my case, simply sticking a high winding coil on an otherwise stock DeLorean igntion system (both primary resistors in place) would not produce anything close to 40,000 secondary volts -- more like 20,000 volts maximum. I do not know if that is enough to jump a wide plug gap reliably.
Before Martin starts waving his arms about "current" versus "voltage", remember that there are only two ways to increase current: increase voltage and/or decrease resistance. I do both: not only do I increase secondary voltage, but I run low ohm plug wires as well.
Don't forget there is a 5K ohm resistor built into the rotor button. One of these days I am going to Dremel mine out and straight wire it. I think that stupid resistor is what caused Farrar's distributor cap to melt. Andrea in Italy is running a resistorless rotor button IIRC. American manufacturers of course never added any resistance inside the distributor. Doing so only makes sense if you're listening to AM radio.
Bill Robertson
#5939
Last edited by content22207; 07-11-2011 at 07:53 AM.
Depends on your new coil resistance. The original setup draws about 6 amps when the engine is off. If your resistors and coil have lower resistance you will draw more current. I don't know the specifications of the output transistor in the ECU but you should not exceed that specification.
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Posts: 3,047
My VIN: 16510 and carbureted
Club(s): (GCD) (SEDOC) (DCUK)
Posts: 1,068
Carburetors don't care a lick about combustion -- they respond to intake alone. A carburetor will meter fuel normally even if ignition is missing altogether.
You weren't flooding anything -- by killing your spark (too wide plug of a gap for the voltage) you simply failed to ignite fuel that was being drawn in same as before.
A 2100 will flood the intake if a piece of trash prevents the needle valve from shutting off fuel inlet into the bowl. You will also flood the intake if you engage the accelerator pump multiple times before starting the engine.
And remember: the only way to change fuel/air mixture on a 2100 is to physically unscrew the jets and exchange them for a different size.
Bill Robertson
#5939
Last edited by content22207; 07-11-2011 at 12:55 PM.
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Posts: 3,047
My VIN: 16510 and carbureted
Club(s): (GCD) (SEDOC) (DCUK)
Posts: 1,068
Totally different problem than flooding.
Your's was an electrical problem, wholly independent from gasoline.
Bill Robertson
#5939