{"id":8722,"date":"2014-10-30T15:45:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T22:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=8722"},"modified":"2015-11-11T09:49:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T17:49:24","slug":"reliable-high-power-race-ignition-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/reliable-high-power-race-ignition-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Reliable High Power Race Ignition – Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fire<\/a><\/p>\n

Go ahead, light my fire!\u00a0Today, you have all sorts of options when it comes to an ignition system for your racecar.\u00a0 Systems are diverse:\u00a0 Analog, digital, magnetic pickups, optical pickups and so on.\u00a0 Claims for ignition output range from the sublime to the absurd.\u00a0 There are some big name systems out there, along with plenty of newcomers.\u00a0 The trouble is, some of the advertising claims are just that:\u00a0 Claims.\u00a0 No secret.\u00a0 And something else that\u2019s no big shock \u00a0to most seasoned racers is the fact some of the more publicized, high profile systems might not be as good as you once thought. The reality is, there are some ignition systems out there that are fraught with technical grief.\u00a0 One setup we have confidence in is Crane\u2019s lineup. Not only is it well proven, Crane has also been a real innovator with technology.<\/p>\n

Case-in-point are their race distributors. Engineered expressly for drag racing and oval track applications, these analog distributors are extremely simple.\u00a0 There is no advance mechanism, which means timing is locked out.\u00a0 The housing for each distributor is a CNC-machined billet aluminum piece with bearings top and bottom (the top bearing is actually a high end zero end play roller bearing).\u00a0 Internally, the shaft is 100% machined from stainless steel.\u00a0 On Chevy versions, a slip collar mount is included (to allow for deck height changes).\u00a0 The trigger is a very simple (and equally robust) optical device.\u00a0 This provides for extremely accurate ignition timing (more below).\u00a0 For all applications, you can specify a large or a small cap. Obviously, a small cap is only advantageous when clearance is an issue (for example, a tunnel ram or a large case blower on a small block Chevy).\u00a0 Downstairs the distributor gear is a melonized job. We\u2019ll get into the advantages, from a camshaft perspective later.<\/p>\n

Well-respected engine builder, Keith Dorton (Automotive Specialists, Concord, NC) tested Crane\u2019s distributors against some other well known brands.\u00a0 The idea in the series of tests was to validate which distributors maintained timing over an RPM range of 4,000 to 8,000 RPM (which would be pretty much be the norm for either a sportsman drag racer or oval track racer).\u00a0 The Crane optical pickup distributors showed a timing variance of 2-1\/2 degrees throughout the range.\u00a0 Meanwhile, a competing brand\u2019s magnetic pickup distributor timing variance was almost double.\u00a0 Bottom line here is, the optical pickup distributor is a stable timing platform.\u00a0 And that should be good news for any racer.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the deal with the melonized gear? The process is proprietary and is actually called \u201cMelonite\u2122 and Melonite QPQ\u2122.\u00a0 It incorporates a salt bath Ferritic Nitrocarburize procedure that uses a cyanide base. The process is accomplished at temperature of approximately 1,050-degrees F. During these processes, nitrogen, carbon, and small amounts of oxygen are diffused into the surface of the steel, which in turn creates an epsilon iron nitride layer. This property provides for a tough outer surface, but at the same time, it alloys the material to retain ductility, so strength isn\u2019t diminished.\u00a0 What you get is increased surface hardness, lower coefficient of friction, enhanced surface lubricity, improved running wear performance, increased sliding wear resistance, and enhanced corrosion resistance (although corrosion isn\u2019t usually a factor in a distributor gear).\u00a0\u00a0 Bottom line?\u00a0 The melonized gear allows you to run the distributor on any sort of camshaft (material).\u00a0 And by the way, durability is exceptional.<\/p>\n

Next issue, we\u2019ll dig deeper into Crane\u2019s ignition systems. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

This slideshow requires JavaScript.<\/p>

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Go ahead, light my fire! Today, you have all sorts of options when it comes to an ignition system for your racecar. So which one is the best? The first in a four part series on ignition options.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":8728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3448,3465,3712,9],"tags":[1453,256,961,14,4800,1451,1452,321],"class_list":["post-8722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-race-101","category-drag-racing","category-hot-rods","category-tech-tips","tag-crane-ignition","tag-distributor","tag-drag-race-101","tag-hot-rods","tag-how-tos","tag-ignition-firing","tag-ignitions","tag-wayne-scraba"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Fire-Lead-Feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-2gG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8722"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20812,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722\/revisions\/20812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}