http://www.federalmogul.com/NR/rdonl..._Spotlight.pdf

I must admit, this is my first rotary experience though I've known enough people through the years that are rotards. If I wasn't full-(extended)warrantied with a maintenance plan, I'd have been more tentative about purchasing something I'm not too familiar with.

With that being said, the new plug tech linked to above is actually being investigated by manufacturers for OEM use. I'm just wondering if these would create an even bigger advantage over conventional plug tech in rotaries than in piston engines considering rotaries generate more power strokes per revolution than a piston engine.

To note: I did an extensive search for "Federal Mogul," "ACIS, and "Corona Ignition" in these forums and didn't get one sniff, so I am going to assume this specific topic has never been discussed.

 

The description is very vague. From the picture it looks like it is grounding the spark on that little square thing...? How is that square thing grounded?

At first glance it looks like my old Force outboard motor. In that application there is no ground prong like a typical spark plug. In stead, the spark will jump across the combustion chamber and ground on the top of the piston at TDC. I'm intrigued.

 

you need a much higher voltage to create corona like that and I dont think rotary engines are suffering unclean burn.

 

My understanding is that we do indeed have issues with unclean burns which is why the 16X wasn't just dropped into the RX-8 (not even the 16X meets the new European emission laws). Worst case, it would seem useful for cleaning up emissions during a cold start.

 

you clearly have no idea what youre talking about then. at all.

 

lol oh boy....

 

Subbed for entertaiment. Lol

 

I have no....
lets see some F/A ratio charts to prove your point shall we?

 

It's well known that the wankel, even the Renesis, has a long combustion chamber and a reactant mix that is in much greater motion than a comparable piston engine. Our combustion is known to be cooler and less complete than piston engines which is why, prior to the invention of the 3-way catalyst so many car companies were investigating the wankel. Combined with more surface area for unit displacement, leading to greater losses and you have a recipe for an unclean burn, regardless of AF ratios.

 

if its the shape of the combustion chamber, then sparkplug would not be the problem then.

 

Someone might want to get a rotor housing and install one of these magic spark plugs in it before further speculating......

 

You do realize that each rotor has TWO spark plugs and the second plug per rotor is to clean up reactants that only partially burned, right? Are you under the impression that the two spark plugs, leading and trailing, are 100% effective? If so, show me even one tailpipe sniff test on a rotary without either a thermal reactor or catalytic convertor and explain what you see there in those test results. Have you ever seen a car with a rotary engine where the catalytic convertor was removed?

I personally witnessed a two foot diameter fireball emerging from the tail of an FB where the catalytic convertor was removed (it was in the modified class and had been brought to the autocross I was at on a trailer, so no laws were broken as this was not being used on a public street). I felt the heat of said fireball on my face from 25 yards away. If two spark plugs gets it done with no room for improvement, then what was that fireball made of, pixie dust?

 

I don't know that these are the answer; but I do recall reading that Mazda was supposedly looking into laser ignition for the 16X, from which I take it that there is some room for improvement still to be had by some means, if the rumor is true at least.

 

Not pixie dust... but magic beans exploding

 

We've seen alternate concept spark plugs before. But this is the first time I've seen something like this from a company I've heard of.

Does their advertising material give any specifics on the "up to 10%" improvement in fuel economy? That's usually the entertaining part about this kind of thing.

Ken

 

There's a link to the press release in the PDF I linked to.

There's this also: http://www.freep.com/article/2011120...helan-s-corner

I wonder if one of those "Asian automakers" is Mazda?

Here's an article from the SAE's site: http://www.sae.org/mags/AEI/10216

I think the "in production in 2014-15" in that one article is in regards to auto manufacturers actually designing an engine around this thing, since they're freely talking about how this can facilitate further engine improvements.

 

It will be interesting to see if this works out any better than the "run your car on water" scheme that earned several articles in SAE's magazine a while back.

Ken