in that case i want dibs on the 2nd book
As above. another very good book i own is a book about ignition, by Dr Jacobs... I have a Jacobs Pro street ignition system on my capri, its similar to an MSD multi sparking capacitor discharge system... you can run massive plug gaps with it.
I have the same book (amongst every book on tuning that was ever printed) and I used the same ignition on my 2.6 Rover race car and still have it somewhere.
Although the spark is stronger than the average stock ignition, after extensive testing I didn't find any worthwhile improvement in any way, over the stock electronic ignition. I've also found that having an excessively strong spark can cause as many problems as one that is too weak, as an excessively strong spark can cause misfires by leaking out of the system, whereas a weak spark fails by not getting across the plug gap. It really does improve throttle response and mpg (gas mileage) on my modified Ford ohc engine.
People often come to this conclusion because they are replacing an OLD TIRED stock ignition system with a NEW aftermarket unit, which isn't a fair comparison. My tests were carried out between all new components. According to the book Jacobs actually make the circuitry etc inside a lot of the MSD and Allison ignition systems...
That may well be the case but it wouldn't be something I'd want people to know, as the failure rate is terrible. The only problem i encountered with the Jacobs ignition, is rotor arms dont last too long, the little resistor burns out quite quickly... I had a go at modifying
rotor arms by putting a strip of brass where the resistor is.
The first thing I advise customers to do (as you'll see in my book), is replace the carbon resistor with a brass rod (even on stock ignition systems), as they soak up power and weaken the spark, so you did right to ditch that.
That's also a good example of another negative of such a high voltage system, it shortens the life of ALL the parts it passes through.
For your further information, I was the first to conceive of pulsed nitrous technology but Jacob's was the first company to actually market one. I bought, tested and still have one of their first units somewhere. It was/is a nice looking unit and performed well but it's a RPM based system, which I've since found not to be as suitable as time based delivery.I used to manufacture my own ignition systems which were INDUCTIVE discharge systems rather than CAPACITIVE discharge. Most OEM ignitions are the INDUCTIVE type but they are only strong enough to fire a modest amount of nitrous. Capacitive units are TOO STRONG, so I went for the INDUCTIVE type and came up with a UNIQUE method of increasing the spark ONLY when nitrous was activated and it was only increased to the level that was needed, rather than an excessive amount.
These worked very well but when car manufacturers made the switch to fuel injection, there was nowhere to fit our trigger components to, so we stopped manufacturing them.