The spark intensifier magic elixir is a simple "series gap", which has been
discussed here before, so you can find a lot more about it in the archives.
In the special case in which the spark plug is on the borderline of firing
or not, due to wear or deliberate misadjustment causing an excessive plug
gap, or some other introduced problem with the spark plug or wire, a series
gap will cause the voltage applied to the plug to have a sharper onset and a
higher voltage, at the expense of a very slight delay and some problems with
reliability due to electrical stress on the wire and surroundings.
Thus an engine can be fiddled with in such a way that installing the series
gap will actually make the engine run better, in this very limited case as
used in the demonstration.
The first time I saw this "scientific breakthrough" I was about 14 years
old, and it was being hawked at a county fair in North Jersey (that was in
1948, if anyone is keeping track). The "demonstrator" was a straight eight
Packard, which was transformed from a rough idling 3 cylinder or so,
quivering bowl of jelly which became a silky smooth running 8, plus it was
also demonstrated that now it would keep running with only one cylinder
plugged in. Amazed me, I'll tell you!
These have been around since the first car, probably, and many rubes have
had their wallets lightened by them.
If you want to try this device out, you can easily make one by rigging up a
situation with a 1/4" or so gap in a spark plug wire - you'll see the effect
if you put this in the coil wire, after you induce a miss by widening a plug
gap or putting in a bad plug wire. Don't leave it there, though, as you
will soon cause a carbon track on the distributor cap or coil tower, and
you'll get misfires up the yin-yang the next time the humidity gets over
80%.
Dick Benjamin
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Pittinaro <mechimike@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: IML: Snake Oil, Freon, and Lead...
> ...and other things I found at Spring Carlisle
> today...
> The first was a demonstration of the previously herein
> mentioned Spark Make Bigger (or some such nomer).
> Basically, the demonstrator, a slicked-up redneck with
> a pickup truck engine, ran the engine before and after
> installing the Spark Em-big-gener inline with the coil
> output to the distributor. He was able to get the
> engine to run on 2 cylinders using his little device.
> Also, he showed how the RPM of the motor increased
> significantly (using some sort of a tach), while
> maintaining a constant throttle position, after
> installing the device, which he was selling for 20
> bucks. Any thoughts on this theatrical majic?
> --Mike Pittinaro
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network