tomfrazier

What are the advantages and disadvantages of magneto and solid state ignition type engines?

What about manual vs electronic spark advance?

Happy Holidays,
Tom

Antique

My Feedback: (4)

Mag is heavier but if the flywheel is turning you WILL have spark...Anything above about 4.2 cubic inches will need a BIG starter or a very BIG glove for your hand...
CD is lighter, no big starter needed on any size engine..Two finger starts..Another battery to charge....
Electronic spark advance is full at about 4000 rpm..
Manual spark advance is mostly linear from idle to wide open...
Electronic advance will bog the engine if the low speed needle is set too rich, because the engine spools up slower so the advance, which relies on rpm to work, is slower...
In practice there's very little difference except for $$$, the syncro module is not cheap...
MERRY CHRISTMAS [8D]
Ralph

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

While many people will disagree, other than being lighter, the CDI is easier to start.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

No disagreement there.

With the CDI the need for spring or electric starter dissapears. There's something about winding back a spring and prop combination with the spark active that has always bothered me. The number of kickbacks drops down to near zero, also.

Pelle Gris

There´s no need for springstarters or electric starters for mag engines... It´s just a matter of using the right technique to get them startet. I start both my stock G-62 and GT-80B by just flicking the prop.
In my opinion there are two advantages to electronic ignition. Lower idle with less vibration, and a little less weight.
The disadvantages are that you have one more battery to keep charged, and there are more components that can fail.
I´m not even sure that the weight is that much lower, when you have to include the weight of both ignition box and battery, instead of the mag/flywheel. But I could be wrong as I have no ignition engines myself. I like to kkep it simple...
If there was a way to make a mag engine with timing advance I would believe it to be THE perfect engine.. The best of both worlds.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Fuji Sells a line of PERFECT engines!
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXCXD3&P=ML

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

Perfect... except it still weighs more than 1 lb more than the EI version.

BTW, don't mean to be anal about it, but unless you have have your fingers permanently tied to the throttle coupled linkage, "manual spark advance" should really be "mechanical spark advance".

chuck l

My Feedback: (17)

How much total weight does you save converting say a G62 to electronic? A G62 without a muffler is advertised as weighing 73 oz., what would the engine weigh with a conversion and what would the battery weigh?

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

All the Zenoahs, except G38, use fairly small flywheel that doesn't weigh too much. The few Oz you save near the nose will essentially be shifted to behind the firewall where the ign battery would be. You could use a Li-Po pack and lose less of your wt savings.

Other magneto engines like the Fujis and most weedie and chainsaw conversion will realize quite a bit more weight savings because of their heavy flywheel and pick-up coil.

platero

E.I.S. less weight, no kik back, easy start, no fly whell giroscope effect, offcourse magneto is very good stuff but nobody put off the cdi from your car an go back to the point and coil ignition.
www.hpignitions.com.ar