A battery in a traditional car cannot directly create engine spark. It’s only rated at 12 volts, after all, so it needs a little help boosting the signal to the spark plugs. To make that happen, a car ...

In this video, I show you how to test spark plugs and coils on any car, even if the spark plugs are recessed or hard to reach. Whether you're troubleshooting engine misfires, poor performance, or bad ...

When most drivers turn the key or press a button to start their vehicle, they’re probably not mentally going through everything that needs to happen in order for their engine to start. And while the ...

Over the past few years, we have run across some teams who, for the goal of attaining maximum power, chose to run without an alternator. We started thinking about that and decided to see if there were ...

This article deals with flame rectification as it applies to direct spark ignition (DSI) modules. They are manufactured by a few different companies — Fenwal, Honeywell, Robertshaw, and White Rodgers, ...

The Ancel Spark Plug Tester is 35% off at Amazon, but the sale ends soon. Put your car’s spark plugs to the test by ordering ...

As long as there have been internal combustion engines, there has been a need for an ignition system to ignite the air and fuel mixture in the cylinders. From the earliest days of automotive ignitions ...

Editor's Note: Way back in March of 1998, GMHTP ran "Opti-Spark" by Ray Bohacz, an engineering-level dissection of GM's Opti-Spark distributor. This evolutionary ignition component was a bridge ...

Around 1975, General Motors made a significant advancement in stock passenger ignition technology: the High Energy Ignition (HEI). One of its major features was installation simplicity. The coil was ...