Wasted Spark

M

Mr. Mark VIII

Registered
I understand the Lincoln 4.6 and perhaps other ford engines have wasted spark. What exactly does this mean? Why does ford allow this and is there any advantage to turning this off..I have the SCT pro racer package. Thanks
 
No advantage at all in turning it off. In fact, you cant. All this means is that two spark plugs fire at the same time. However one happens on the down stroke to burn up any excess fuel. Thats all, very simple. Really a 4.6L V8 only has four triggers to fire spark. The coil packs are split down the middle. Each side fires at the same time so its easy to find the pairs. If you wanted, you could easily drop in a 4 cylinder and use the same ignition system! (but who would)
 
Technically its not "wasted", it has its purpose, and you may not pass emission if you didn't run it.
 
I understand the operation of the ignition on the Gen1s, since they have one coil for two plugs but does the Gen2 COP and other COP ignitions have the wasted spark ignition?
 
Yup, there is still only 4 triggers. Two COPS are wired in series. I had to do this also when converting to COP. Pretty easy really.
 
That is not correct. There are 8 triggers in the true COP system and it operates nothing like the "wasted spark" system.
 
Unity...the wiring setup for the COP's and Coil packs are different due to the difference in ECU's.

A coil is eccentially a positive and negative...the reason you wired yours in series is because thats how your coil packs worked so in order to make the COP's work with your ECU you had to wire them the same as the coil packs.

You could have wired them up like a Gen 2, but your car wouldn't have ran. :D
 
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