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How To: Dual Igniton plug mod for 2.3L and 2.5L


AllanD

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MY personal best in a Ranger is 26.2mpg, that was in a 2wd Supercab 2.9 5sp
with 4.10 gears running on 235/75-15 tires
Driving west across PA on I-80 in July with the AC on full blast

My personal best with a 4.0 5sp truck also 4.10 gears and 235/75-15 tires is 22.1
Driving across Eastern Iowa, Illinois and Indiana in early January...

But then again this truck wasn't built for mileage it was built to haul stuff.
I drove east from South Bend, Indiana towing a 3.0 long-bed truck on a tow dolly
and managed 15.9mpg on the trip. that is ONE 4.0 with 4.10 gears and TWO rangers getting just a tick under 16mpg.. I made that trip at a steady 70mph with the A/C on...

I only got knocked out of 5th gear twice on the entire trip.
 


RonD

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Running 8 spark plugs on 4 coils would have to be waste spark system.

old technology, lawnmowers spark each TDC, just easier to do and spark on exhaust TDC doesn't hurt anything.

And as said, outside of broken parts, switching spark plug wires around can't change performance, just not a possibility, spark is spark.

Waste spark in series does have one effect, one spark plug will get worn down tip, the other a worn down center, because spark direction is reversed.
So if you switch ALL the wires around every 6 months or so you will get more even wear, :), its true

Or just use double platinum
And ONLY use regular copper or double platinum, never single platinum, it is a waste of money on waste spark system because of the reverse spark on half the plugs
 

jonathan62019

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I put around 420-440 miles per tank. When i fill up its around 14 gallons. 16 .3 gallon tank. Only thing i have done to the truck is. Egr delete. No cat And a DIY short ram intake. Stock tire size. Speedo is dead on....

A guy i met a few years back. "said" he rigged up the primary coil pack to run all 8 plugs. Do not know if he was lying or not. *shrugs
 

black06xlt

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the 2.3l was a great little engine. i have built and ran several carburated 2.3's. i do not know hp numbers but i used a holley 2 barrel headmen header msd coil plugs and wires and advanced the timing backed with a borg-warner t-5 and 4.10 you have a fun little truck with plenty of power and still gets 20mpg as long as you keep foot out of it. never built a fuel injected 2.3 but i want to
 

HighMileage93

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I have given this some thought...

Everywhere I read about this 'mod', I run into the same thing. I think there is some confusion about the setup of these coils. People talk about the front coil handling the exhaust spark and the rear coil handling ignition spark. This is backwards.
I was running some resistance tests on my coils the other day and forgot to plug the rear coil (header side plugs) back in. The truck ran fine. The front coil is the ignition coil, hence the term primary.
So, if this adjustment to the plug wires were to work it would have to be done on the rear coil. I set down with my notebook and sketched out the coil arrangement and firing order, then drew a little chart showing what each cylinder is doing through each cycle.
I will attach my findings here, feel free to double check me and if anyone has any thoughts to add or point out anything I may have missed, please share.
Thanks.
 

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PetesPonies

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What I posted is correct. If your findings match what I have been trying to teach people, you have it right :)
 

HighMileage93

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What I was getting at was that the opening post here describes the "mod" being done to the front coil. That is the wrong coil to switch because it is NOT the afterburning coil.
 

PetesPonies

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No it's much worse than that. The entire thought process is insane because the original posters of these modifications don't truly understand how the dual plug system works, > They are ignorant of the operation. They thing because you hear wasted spark, that is because of the dual plugs. It is not. Any and every ignition system that uses coils sharing cylinders work under the wasted spark system. It's got nothing to do with a dual plug ignition in a 2.3 Ford engine.A 1960's 4 cylinder motorcycle engine uses a wasted spark ignition. It common and these people just don't understand, It is nothing like they try to say it is. So, waste no more time on this subject seriously.
 

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If one coil is dead can I use this the go on?
 

RT PERFORMANCE

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I been turning wrenches for at least a week now. And I am of the opinion as Pete stated in different words. Most of you folks dont read much. Therefore ignorant as to how the system works. FYI, I think the second plug fires 10degrees (cr) after the 1st one.

cr=crank rotation
 

8thTon

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This mod does nothing, just look at the wiring diagram:



The coil for the secondary plugs can be fired at different angles relative to the primary plugs, as determined by the ignition module. Each coil pack is a separate wasted spark system. Swapping plugs on a coil pack doesn't change which plug is primary or secondary, it only changes which is the forward and reverse plug. That has no effect on performance, only which plug gets its center electrode worn out faster.

Dual ignition is used on engines with less than optimal combustion chamber shapes where the flame propagation time is too long to allow complete combustion. The Mazda rotary had a combustion chamber shaped like a squashed banana, so it needed 2 plugs. They usually fire pretty close together because the idea is to get the fuel burned quickly, leaving less unburned fuel. That reduces HC and increases power because fuel that does not burn makes no power.

Even if you did swap primary and secondary plugs the chances that this would work better than what the engineers developed on dynos is rather small.

I don't even have one of these engines anymore, but it was a damned good engine on my 1990.
 

Dreece11

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There really is some stupidity and ignorance in a lot of these responses. I like the ones that try to call it a primary and secondary “coils” look there is primary and secondary voltage in a coil. Your primary voltage is the the battery (normally 12vdc) secondary voltage is the one that pops that ass. They need to hook the secondary voltage to the children responding to this thread. Look guys this mod works. If everyone wants to disprove that nothing is being changed then. Change the wires around on the other coil persay and see what happens. For real change your intake coil to the same orientation as the exhaust and all of you ignorant have a lot to learn children will be silent from now on. For clairity im saying do this to the intake to only prove that changes are being made. BECAUSE IT WONT RUN. The mod is to do the exhaust. I’m tired of all these people telling everyone that this doesn’t make a difference because it does. If your reading this it will give the 2.3 a little more power. All these people saying it don’t work don’t know shit about shit they are just spewing retardation. I mean 1 guy put a wiring diagram up as his proof. The guy who started the thread is right just try it if your stranger has a little miss or is not running right you have nothing to lose. Everyone trying to disprove is all stupid
 

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This nonsense again....
 

RonD

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There really is some stupidity and ignorance in a lot of these responses. I like the ones that try to call it a primary and secondary “coils” look there is primary and secondary voltage in a coil. Your primary voltage is the the battery (normally 12vdc) secondary voltage is the one that pops that ass. They need to hook the secondary voltage to the children responding to this thread. Look guys this mod works. If everyone wants to disprove that nothing is being changed then. Change the wires around on the other coil persay and see what happens. For real change your intake coil to the same orientation as the exhaust and all of you ignorant have a lot to learn children will be silent from now on. For clairity im saying do this to the intake to only prove that changes are being made. BECAUSE IT WONT RUN. The mod is to do the exhaust. I’m tired of all these people telling everyone that this doesn’t make a difference because it does. If your reading this it will give the 2.3 a little more power. All these people saying it don’t work don’t know shit about shit they are just spewing retardation. I mean 1 guy put a wiring diagram up as his proof. The guy who started the thread is right just try it if your stranger has a little miss or is not running right you have nothing to lose. Everyone trying to disprove is all stupid
Welcome to TRS :)

There was a Primary and Secondary coil on the 1989-1994 2.3l, the secondary was prevented from sparking while starter motor was active, well actually anytime RPMs were under 400,
In above diagram look at "DIS" module's 2nd wire from the left, pin 6/DPI, thats Dual Plug Inhibit (DPI) circuit, the Computer/ EEC, stops spark on Secondary coil for start up
1995 and up 2.3l/2.5l didn't use the DIS or the DPI function
Primary was on exhaust manifold side, so only those 4 spark plugs would be "on" when starter motor was active, at 400RPMs Computer would allow Secondary coil to start for dual spark

There is no "alternating" with dual spark plugs, or there would be no point in having dual spark plugs
Dual spark plugs give better performance, thats why they have been used throughout the years.
4 Valves are better, so dual plugs are old fashion now-a-days
Although the Dodge HEMI used dual plugs

Spark plug mod
Can't help performance, simply not possible in our reality, laws of physics apply, if you can change the laws then perhaps it would be better to change the laws of probability and buy a few lottery tickets instead :)

Any way the 2.3l has 2 coil packs with 2 coils each, so 4 coils total
Each coil fires 2 spark plugs at the same time, one coil pack coil does 1 and 4, the other coil in that pack does 2 and 3
Other coil pack does 4 and 1 and then 3 and 2

1 4
2 3

4 1
3 2

so changing it to
4 1
2 3

4 1
2 3

Does what?
yes nothing

Ford uses Waste Spark, very first spark system ever invented, 1890's I think, super reliable, spark is based on the CRANK SHAFT position, not cam position like a distributor did
So each spark plug fires at each TDC(top dead center) of its cylinder, no it doesn't spark on exhaust stoke for better emissions, it sparks on exhaust stroke because its a Waste Spark system timed by the crank shaft

As long as both spark plugs fire in each cylinder then that's the best performance you can get from this spark system
 

8thTon

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There really is some stupidity and ignorance in a lot of these responses. I like the ones that try to call it a primary and secondary “coils” look there is primary and secondary voltage in a coil. Your primary voltage is the the battery (normally 12vdc) secondary voltage is the one that pops that ass. They need to hook the secondary voltage to the children responding to this thread. Look guys this mod works. If everyone wants to disprove that nothing is being changed then. Change the wires around on the other coil persay and see what happens. For real change your intake coil to the same orientation as the exhaust and all of you ignorant have a lot to learn children will be silent from now on. For clairity im saying do this to the intake to only prove that changes are being made. BECAUSE IT WONT RUN. The mod is to do the exhaust. I’m tired of all these people telling everyone that this doesn’t make a difference because it does. If your reading this it will give the 2.3 a little more power. All these people saying it don’t work don’t know shit about shit they are just spewing retardation. I mean 1 guy put a wiring diagram up as his proof. The guy who started the thread is right just try it if your stranger has a little miss or is not running right you have nothing to lose. Everyone trying to disprove is all stupid
Yeah, those idiots at Ford who labeled the coils as "Primary" and "Secondary" on the diagram obviously didn't know what they were doing. If only you could have explained it to them using the clarity and logic of this post.......
 

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