In a 4-cycle 4-cylinder motor, the two (parallel) center cranks are 180 degrees to the two (parallel) end cranks.
That means that for every 180 degree of crankshaft turn two pistons are near the top center, and one of them is near ending its compression stroke.
The other one is finishing its exhaust stroke.
During the 180 degree compression stroke on the crankshaft, the camshaft and consequently the distributor has turned 90 degrees.
That is just the 90 degrees from one peg to the next peg on the distributor cap!
Kristijan; I finally figured out what kind of a car you are working with. I love it and think it would be a good woodgas / charcoal gas vehicle.
Back to the distributor. We DID have vacuum advances on older cars— when you opened the throttle the vacuum in the intake manifold dropped and that vacuum drop changed the timing.
We DID have centrifugal force advance where as the speed of the distributor shaft sped up, the weights would swing out and change the timing.
NOW you have a computer that READS vacuum, and ENGINE RPM and it slows down or increases the spark. There is NO actual moving advance mechanisms in the distributor, The computer fires the spark at just the right time based on temperature, vacuum RPM and others… Having said that, I would just go ahead and build your charcoal gasifier and wait and see what the computer does to correct for charcoal gas. You might have to do something with the MASS AIR FLOW sensor if it has one. ( not on all cars )TomC
PS Looking back at your distributor, I don’t see any slotted holes that could be used to adjust the timing. I’m sort of thinking you drop that distributor in at the proper point and the computer takes it from there. Haven’t ever had on like that, but that is what I think I see in the picture.
I would go ahead hook up a cable. You’ve already notice a difference when turning the dist, so I think you’re good to go. The degrees of advance your are aiming for are 20* on the dist though (40* on the crank). With a cable you can adjust it on the fly to where ever you get the most power.
But since you already reached speeds near 100 km/h you can probably only expect just a tiny bit extra from that little 1 L, 37 kW (50 hp) engine.
Watch out for red hot exhaust pipes without timing advance. You might risk damaging your exhaust valves.
Thank you Wayne, for clarefying. One never stops learning.
And thank you, we’re all warm and well. It’s snowing outside, but the coals are glowing inside
When ever I get depressed of dark and cold weather I watch some sunny Alabama wood pile pictures. They cheer me up
Thanks Max. I just got confused wether those marks where to represent cam or crank degrees. I’ve always just read them and never thought about what they actually mean.
Kristijan,
This so much fun watching your progress. I wish we were neighbors. Please explain your generator ignition system. Do you plan to squirt gasoline into your air inlet and ignite with the spark plug?
What particle size does your sack filter catch? Is this your only filter? I know you are using charcoal, but I recommend filling the pipe with stainless steel scouring pads to serve as coalescers of any tars that may be suspended in the gas stream. You may also want to add a safety filter of about 200 or 250 mesh that will clog and stop the engine instead of gumming up internal parts requiring a tear down.
If you give the production year and model of your Seat, I can check through the sparepart list for ignition parts at the MOTONET and BILTEMA sparepart store chains in Finland…
The question at hand: Is the timing “switch” in the distributor, or is it connected to the camshaft?
If it is in the distributor, then the turning of the distributor “body” gives change in fundamental timing setting.
If it is attatched to the camshaft (end) the “switch” has to be turned relative to the camshaft…
GREAT!!! Kristijan I can’t really say how impressed I am with your build. First off I like the little car as I have said before. Very impressed that you did this and did not give up any seating. Man!!! Then the charcoal gasifier it’s self It is SO full of basic new engineering, that had you told us all of your plans at the beginning, I for on and I am sure others, would have said you are taking on too many unproven methods. The danger being if any one idea doesn’t work the entire thing can be a failure. Any way, you have had limited tests and most everything is good so all I can do now is go back and observe and digest. First look at the pictures brought up many questions that required me to go all the way back to your first post and scroll back and forth. ( I think I wore out the middle wheel on my mouse). Absolutely a wonderful job and I am waiting for a video of a walk around and a go down the roadTomC
The gas first goes through the cyclone filter, wich eliminates 96% of the dust. It then passes through the radiator and in to the sack filter, made out of towel fabric (called frutir here). It has a lot of litle “knots” that realy clean the gas well. It also has a big surface area so eaven with 2mm of very fine dust on the surface the engine runs well. The gas is now super clean (the gas hose doesent show a sign of dust) BUT in case of sack failioure or what ever the gas, mixed with air now goes through the original engine air filter, made of paper. I think nothing can escape that.
Seat Arosa 1.0 1998 any help is realy wellcome sir!
do you mean the “hand” that rotates and distributes the spark? it is conected to camshaft.
There is a ball velve on the bottom of the dust colector. Open and poak with a wire and she dust siffs out.
No, that “hand” or “finger” is called rotor, just inside the distributor’s insulated (plastic) cap with the pegs for the sparkplug wires. It is distributing the HIGH-tension from the ignition coil to the appropriate sparkplug.
With “switch” I mean the low-tension 12V switching organ, like traditional braker-points!
It is now a’days usually an optically or magnetically switching device, giving the timing for the spark to be generated by the ignition coil, either directly or via the computer.
If this “switch” is in the distributor, you will see one, two, three or four thin wires comming out of its side and going to a transistorized power switch “activating” the ignition coil.
They may go to a computer also, if this model is computerized for handling fuel dispensing…
Does that one need a puffback lid or is this a test run,looks nice,you can allways tin a plexy window in behind drive seats if it suits you fancy later,looks close too driveing.
Hi, Kristijan!
13.2.2016
There are “immensly” many types and different manufacturers to choose from; Bosch and Marelli, Hall-triggering devises, etc…
But no complete distributors, just components.
As your photoes do not picture whole the distributor, it is hard to determine the type.
Hopefully you can make better pictures, where the signal wires from the distributor are followed up where they are going.
Is the motor an injection motor or carburettor type?
The distribution spare parts have type markings ending with an “i” indicating injection…
My guess is it is a TBI = throttle body injection, or one-point injected fueled type.
If you have a workshop service book, all details would be identified easily.
One way to identify if the distributor has a centrifugal advance mechanism, is to check if you can rotate the distribution rotor some 10-15 degrees forward in the rotation direction.
Easy handling!
Only a two-finger grip and slowly feeling if you can overcome the small centifugal return-spring force, normally countering the weights when RPM is retarding.
I never realy experianced a puff in any of my charcoal generators so l didnt bother to put a puff lid on it. In case of a big puff the lid helt down with a spring steel rod can still lift a few mm to relive the presure.
Max there are some thin wires goeing to the distributor cap. In side it looks like this
the rotor
the distributor with connections. You can see the sloted screw holes. The black box is where the thin wires come in.
Each cylinder has its own fuel injector.
There is alsow a thin pipe that conects from the original air filter houseing to the stering wheel mechanism and i do not have any idea of what those are. Maybe the engine read vacuum from them?
Just how does the computer correct the timeing? I mean when the piston comes close to the top the rotor in the distributor comes close to the pin and it sets a spark to the spark plug but it is all fixed in there. The computer shuld fisicaly move the part holding the pins right? Since it can not move the rotor wich is fiked to the camshaft…
all from the drivers seat.
