Question on the 16 Volt systems. Do you run a battery? If so what voltage. A 12 V battery will take 14 volts for ever but 16 volts will short out the cells on a 12 volt eventually. I would think a good quality 12 volt system with a high capacity battery would do the trick just as well no? Heat kills electrical systems and robs performance more then anything else. Cool the coil, altenator and battery and you increase performance. This holds true for AC power systems as well as DC automotive systems.
you need a 16 volt battery...around 250......16 volt alternator...around 200.....16 volt recharger...from 200 to 350...16 volt load checker ...around 100.
around $600 for no improvement if everyone uses 16 volts.....
you need a 16 volt battery...around 250......16 volt alternator...around 200.....16 volt recharger...from 200 to 350...16 volt load checker ...around 100.
around $600 for no improvement if everyone uses 16 volts.....
16 volt is okay, minimal advantage if any. What is important is pulley ratio, wire size, and wrapping distributer and starter solinoid for heat soak protection. Wire size is important because of the long run of wire as well as matching amperage out put to system draw. 12 Volt systems are more than adequate for every day racing and allow more time for other things. You will also find replacement parts for 12 volt much easier and cheaper.
Two school of thoughts on the 16 volt system, one is increased primary voltage directly relates to increased secondary volts(hotter spark) Secondly the higher ingition voltage means less chance of misfire due to the extended period of time the spark is realised. The more voltage in equals more voltage out and the longer you get it.
The battery when fully charged puts out 12.6 volts on it's own, add an alternator and you get 13.8 volts (nominally). With a 16 volt system you get 16 volts to power your ignition system if don't run an alternator the voltage will drop to 14, this is where the hotter spark comes into play and along with that the lesser chance of misfire. Imagine if you were accelerating down the straight away and the engine misfires say 25 times, now reduce that number too say three times. See the adavantage? its there and it works 16 volts is better than 12. So if everybody bought it you would loose the advantage. We've all seen a cup car running on 7 cylinders...That a miss every cycle! they can even be competitive but do they ever win?
As far as axles Matt Lake helped us out and got us a set of Baers last year so were running that. And it cost considerablty more than a couple of hundred bucks
JWO I'll agree with your explanation to a point as far as higher voltage is concerned. Remember everything to do with electricity whether AC/DC or voltage level boils down to this.......E = I X R. Where E is voltage I is amperage and R is resistance. The big factor in any ignition system or electrical system is R. As R increases with heat, dirt, wear etc I will decrease. You can design any circuit to deliver any output at any voltage. What matters most for effectiveness is to keep R at design. Applying 16 VDC to a system designed for 12 VDC will help over come losses to increased resistance. Duration of voltage won't change because of the voltage level. Only the timing or spark management system will do that regardless of voltage .Unless you are using coil over plugs and each coil can be managed separately for strength and duration the voltage should not matter as long as the system is designed to deliver XYZ. Coil over plugs are another way to reduce or keep stable resistance. To that end having a high or increasing resistance between the spark plug and the block will do more to rob the energy delivery of an ignition system than anything else if all else remains the same. That is where platinum or gold electrodes and high resistance electrode coverings come into play by reducing the resistance of delivery and stray voltage. Optimizing the gap and getting the resistance between the spark plug body and the block or ultimately the return path to NEG will do more to maintain your ignition system and energy delivery than anything else IMHO.
Bottom line it seems to me that using 16VDC systems is simply to over come inefficiencies. Might as well use 24VDC systems. Same logic.