<VV> Dormant engine (spark)

[kevin nash]

> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 12:35:36 -0400
> From: "Smitty" <vairologist at cox.net>
> To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> Subject: <VV> Dormant engine (spark)
> Message-ID: <5FE77675D4804BA59E27D278CC2085FF at smittyPC>
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> 
> 
> Smitty- Not to make too big of a deal out of this, but it takes thousands of 
> VOLTS, not amps to properly
> and reliably light the highly compressed mixture in an engine, and a spindly 
> blue spark will run a
> engine and a fat yellow one wont!! It takes literally MILLIONS of volts and 
> only a couple of amps
> at most to make a spark jump a few feet in air and make some noise, and it 
> will be blue, and not orange
> or yellow. A properly functioning coil will make a BLUE spark, a bad one, if 
> it sparks at all, will be YELLOW.
> Sorry for trying to help.
> Kevin Nash
> ---------------------------------------------
> Smitty says;    Kevin any attempt to help is welcome.  It just might be the 
> magic number that makes the difference with my problem  I am not so sure of 
> myself that I would a point on a lot of things without checking the facts 
> again.  I read your post and got up and went to the garage.  I fired up 
> Spike the racer with an Accel coil on it.  Pulled the # 1 plug wire and got 
> knocked on my butt for my effort.   Regrouped and stayed away from the 3/4 
> inch spark it was making to get to any ground, anyplace.  Observed the spark 
> and conceded that there was a lot of blue in it.  But plenty of yellow too. 
> Maybe it is just the color definition of my eyes.  If you want I will post 
> privately o you a few of the idiotic things that were  sent to me in an 
> effort to help.  I did not respond to any of them in a negative manner.  My 
> response to you was not an effort to slam you but to tell you I was 
> disagreeing with you.
> As for my understanding of volts/ amps etc I will stand on my statement. 
> There is virtually no heat or usable energy in extremely high voltage when 
> amperage is not present.  It takes very little amperage to change that into 
> something that will kill you.  That is what I was feeling when I pulled the 
> plug wire off.     As a for instance, the static generator toys,  where you 
> can put your hands near and make your hair stand on end is pure voltage.  A 
> pretty blue color.  Millions of volts.  Better not add any amperage to it 
> though.  Amperage kicks voltage in the pants to keep it going.
>   Smitty- Absolutely!- we don't really disagree, both volts and a (small) amount of amps are important- I was talking about the importance of voltage only because it did sound to me like, based on your description of what the spark looked like, that there was a problem with voltage, and it may be that its just a difference in how you see the spark color! The important thing is that the spark on the non running/poorly running engine have the same or nearly so color to you as Spike does- if so, then there' s probably nothing wrong with the coil, but doesn't necessarily rule out a bad resistor wire.  One of my earliest memories of engine problems was 40 some odd years ago (I was probably 10 or 11 then) and was watching this guy working on his motorcycle, and he said something to me about it having spark, but it was yellow, and that was the only clue he needed to conclude that he had an ignition problem-whatever it was he did to fix it also corrected the spark color- ever since then I was always careful to remember that the color of the spark was just as important as whether or not there was any!Kevin Nash