Water Sparkplug

[Gibs]

Inspiring vids

Is there a way to tell the polarity of one of those old, metal, oil filled MW caps? I have 4 of them and can't find a single mark on them about polarity. Or are they non-polarized if they don't have markings?

Hi Jstadwater,

MW oil filled capacitors doesn't have polarity, and because the capacitance is often under a tenth of a micro Farad, that makes them a lot suitable for our needs. They can be charge/discharge quickly.

Here is a video of Greg's VexUs circuit firing plasma via my V-8 HEI distributor. The max speed on the drill I used spun the distributor at 2,300 rpm. No misfires, even if you see that the camera may not have captured them all. A VERY crisp sound from the plasma at 2,300 rpm, I was completely ASTOUNDED!! Here you go, more to come.....................

HEI V-8 VexUs plasma---2,300 rpm

Enjoy, I sure did while I was filming it!

Hi all,

video at:

YouTube - VexUs Hybrid CDI high speed bench test

Congratulations! Great work guys.
See it it's believe it.

Keep up guys, you're beautiful!

[K1w1]

Getting the word out

Just a quick heads up that I just posted a review on several international car forums where they are actively working on modding cars and increasing performance. Might see a few of those people over the next couple of weeks tuning in to get up to date with the latest happenings and developments.

Seems like this smily is appropriate for this post if any of them come across it.

[gmeast]

VexUs

Hi Greg,

I was able to get into the barn today and build the VexUs circuit.
Everything ran great ! 6 plugs, distributor, points, all firing consistantly at an engine equivelant of 5000 rpm. I haven't gotten any feedback to my call for alternate spark plug geometrys, so I assume noone is working in this area. I thinking I'll throw this in my vehicle and see how it performs.
From your experiences with the bug, can you offer a starting point as to spark gaps ?. Did you go large, stock, middle ?

Regards,

Timm

Hi Timm,

Thanks for sharing. It's one of the most inspired and satisfying things I've ever done ... inspired by this forum of course.

I'm anxious to learn of its performance in your 6.

Peace,

Greg

[Jetijs]

Hi all
I just tried the Vexus circuit on my car. I used the standard vexus circuit, but I did not use an inverter and isolation transformer. I used a variac instead. I mean this way:



Also I did not use a resistor, but a 40w light bulb to limit the current.
At first I checked the ignition coil HV polarity using a diode string. It turned out that the high voltage polarity is negative. Then I attached the diode string across each spark plug wire just like in the circuit. But I could not start the engine until I disconnected all the diode wires so that they are not connecting together on the capacitor negative terminal. If I boost just one spark plug, then everything works fine and the light bulb lights up at every pulse of that spark plug. But as soon I connect all the diode cathodes together and to the negative capacitor terminal, the engine does not start. What could be wrong?

Thanks,
Jetijs

[gmeast]

what's wrong

Hi all
I just tried the Vexus circuit on my car. I used the standard vexus circuit, but I did not use an inverter and isolation transformer. I used a variac instead. I mean this way:


Also I did not use a resistor, but a 40w light bulb to limit the current.
At first I checked the ignition coil HV polarity using a diode string. It turned out that the high voltage polarity is negative. Then I attached the diode string across each spark plug wire just like in the circuit. But I could not start the engine until I disconnected all the diode wires so that they are not connecting together on the capacitor negative terminal. If I boost just one spark plug, then everything works fine and the light bulb lights up at every pulse of that spark plug. But as soon I connect all the diode cathodes together and to the negative capacitor terminal, the engine does not start. What could be wrong?

Thanks,
Jetijs

Hi,

Sorry there seems to be a problem. I'm going to hook up the VexUs to the Bug Monday or Tuesday and I'll report back.

Thanks,

Greg

[xpskid]

Hi,

Sorry there seems to be a problem. I'm going to hook up the VexUs to the Bug Monday or Tuesday and I'll report back.

Thanks,

Greg

Had a full day, but managed to get out and move the VexUs circuit from the bench to my 88 GMC, 2.8L, V6 with Kettering ignition. Everything went great and it fired right up !
No real problems. I was able to verify everything with an external plug.
I have my the diode string (3 parallel 15Kv) mounted on the underside of the hood with connections to the plug wire caps on the top of the distributor. My firing caps are two 47 pF caps in series, yielding the 22 pF suggested. My resistor is 50 ohm, 330W wire wound.
I did fry my digital timing light, but I can't tell if that is related to this circuit.
~10 deg BTDC still seems to be a sweet spot. I did play with idle jets but couldn't find a definitive spot where there was a noticable difference with the circuit on or off.
I don't have insurance on the vehicle at the moment so I couldn't run it down the road.
Probably time to mound some sort of volumetric tank to monitor consumption and possibly different mixtures.

Robust circuit Greg !! Kudos to you

This is too much fun !

Regards,

Timm

[Jetijs]

Timm,
can you post the exact circuit you used? Because I also tried the vexus circuit on my car today, but I could not get the engine to start when all the cathodes of the diode strings were tied together. If I use the vexus circuit on just one spark plug, then everything works fine, but nothing works of the diode cathodes are tied together. Also, when I boosted just one spark plug with the vexus circuit, I also did not hear or feel any difference in engine idling. I suppose you have to drive a little to feel the difference
Thanks,
Jetijs

[xpskid]

Jetijs,

What is your diode string comprised of ? parallel HV , or string of LV ?
You can hook up one plug and it works ? If so, can you test each string individually ? Wondering if one of your diode strings could be backwards or bad ?

Timm

[Jetijs]

I used two parallel strings of eight 1n5408 diodes for each spark plug. That makes one big 8kV 6A diode for each plug. They are pointing in the correct way, I checked it twice. And they are not dead. Maybe using a variac is causing such a problem
Anyway, tomorrow I will try the following circuit:



This way I hope to boost two of four spark plugs with two parallel vexus circuits. Will see what this does.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated
Thanks,
Jetijs.

[xpskid]

Timm,
can you post the exact circuit you used? Because I also tried the vexus circuit on my car today, but I could not get the engine to start when all the cathodes of the diode strings were tied together. If I use the vexus circuit on just one spark plug, then everything works fine, but nothing works of the diode cathodes are tied together. Also, when I boosted just one spark plug with the vexus circuit, I also did not hear or feel any difference in engine idling. I suppose you have to drive a little to feel the difference
Thanks,
Jetijs

Jetijs,

I followed the VexUs circuit above pretty closely, along with the alternate schematic provided by Insane4evr. No real deviations:
350W inverter
Isolation transformer
(3) 15kv NTE diodes, in parrallel per plug, connected to the plug wire cap at the distributor. All the diodes connect to a common bus, with a single wire going to the cap
50 ohm wire wound resistor, 330W
(2) 47 uF firing caps in series
(1) 470 uF cap for charging

Timm

[xpskid]

I used two parallel strings of eight 1n5408 diodes for each spark plug. That makes one big 8kV 6A diode for each plug. They are pointing in the correct way, I checked it twice. And they are not dead. Maybe using a variac is causing such a problem
Anyway, tomorrow I will try the following circuit:



This way I hope to boost two of four spark plugs with two parallel vexus circuits. Will see what this does.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated
Thanks,
Jetijs.

Can you isolate diode strings ? I have plugs on both ends of my strings in case I need to replace any. Just curious if you could isolate one string at a time to see if that would shed any light on it.

Timm

[xpskid]

Jetijs,

What type of vehicle ignition ? Computer CDI ? HEI ? Kettering ?
I tore the computer and emission stuff off this old vehicle and have gone back to carb, std coil and points.

Timm

[Jetijs]

Thank you for the quick reply
The car is an old Russian Lada. I don't really know what type of ignition it has, but it is certainly not a CDI system. I don't know what HEI or Kettering is, but the ignition system should be the simplest there is.

[xpskid]

[QUOTE=Gibs;31821]Hi Jstadwater,

Oil filled capacitors doesn't have polarity, and because the capacitance is often under a tenth of a micro Farad, that makes them a lot suitable for our needs. They can be charge/discharge quickly.



Gibs,

Tenth of a uF ? I've got a few oil filled 32uF, 2500V cans.
Dang, I wish I could find a reason to use them, They're monsters ! (physical dimensions)

Timm

[xpskid]

Thank you for the quick reply
The car is an old Russian Lada. I don't really know what type of ignition it has, but it is certainly not a CDI system. I don't know what HEI or Kettering is, but the ignition system should be the simplest there is.

The Kettering ignition is the original coil, points, condenser system. What every American car had pre-~1975 ? Sounds like that is what you have. I was just curious if you had any electronics in your set-up.

Timm