exhaust flame thrower kit

[Oborny71]

ok, I want to clear up some questions about flame thrower exhaust kits. I know there are several places on the internet that you can buy them from, but is it worth buying the kit, or can you make one yourself. if you buy the kit you pay $80- 100 bucks for it and you still have to buy the coil and spark plug and wires. Now i've been doing research and some people say all you need is a coil, spark plug and swich. while others say there has to be a pulsating spark to light it, so you need some kind of control box. Also, some say you have to run the carb rich, choke it or cut out ignition from one or two cylinders while others say you don't have to do anything b/c it will burn the natural leftover fuel in the exhaust. anybody ever built there own flame thrower kit? confused, any help is much appreciated.

[RON WOODGEARD]

It's been many years since I built any of them, But I have done a few. We never had the fancy electronic box that's available today.
We did it the old time way with a toggle switch, Extra coil, Spark plug, wire, and hand choke. We would, depending on how much "flames" we wanted to throw, Choke the engine and hit the switch. I have heard that this could cause damage. I'm not going to say this isn't possible, But I never knew anyone to hurt anything, Other than Blow their exhaust off, if it was in poor condition.
If I wanted to do it yet today, I wouldn't hesitate to do it the OLD TIME WAY...

RON

[Blackhawkdc]

I remember seeing a system a few years ago that seemed to use a magnetic pickup from a distributor, mounted on the alternator, hooked to an old Chrysler ignition control box. I've been working the idea over myself when I get free time. I've got some experience with auto ignition systems and wanna build my own system for several reasons, least of which is the personal challenge.

Oh, you could also install a dual point distributor and use the 2nd set of points to control the coils for the exhaust spark plugs..

[Oborny71]

yeah i like the idea of a dual point distributor. i bet that would work. I think i am going too try it though with just a coil and sparkplug with a solid spark. i got plenty of old coils and spark plugs laying around anyway, so i have nothing to lose if i don't like the results, then i might try the dual point idea.

[Blackhawkdc]

that's the whole idea, its just trial and error. If you do find a system that works good, please let me know.

Thanks and Good luck.

[mikep]

If you dont have a method of saturating the coil between sparks you'll get exactly one short duration spark each time you turn the coil on. DC voltage doesnt transform up . The distributor acts as a high speed switch and the constant loading and unloading of the coil essentially creates a half sine AC wave so you can transform up in voltage to create your spark. Meaning only that you have to have a means of turning it on and off quickly. Personally I think the best way would not be to tie into a dual point distributor but instead to chop the base off an old junkyard HEI distributor and couple the shaft to a junkyard wiper motor . That way when its powered up the wiper motor turns the distributor shaft and you hook a spark plug wire to your firing plug in your exhaust pipe. multiple sparks with no loss in engine efficiency due to running a crappy ignition system. You could mount the thing to a board and bolt it under your bed. No one would even notice it there.

[stelth2002]

Using only a coil and spark plug will NOT work. I have tried and me and my friend got the **** shocked out of us. Like mike said, you have to have a pulseating source to make the coil reporduce a spark and then you have to have a little rich conbination. I'm not saying the simple way like ron said wont work cause I know people that have did it, I'm just trying to save you some time.

[Oborny71]

how bout some type of relay before the coil? would that work? the only problem i see is that it would not turn on and off fast enough. any ideas on this one?

[mikep]

I work on industrial controls and equipment . Theres a lot of timed relays I can think of but all of them are more expensive than a used HEI distributor and wiper motor and they might not work. Most indutrial control stuff is 24VDC or 24VAC anyway. Coils need saturation and then discharge . Simply turning off and on the circit MIGHT not work as you'll lose the saturation without a proper dwell circuit. If you want to try it wire up a flasher relay on the ground path from the coil. It might just work.

[Blackhawkdc]

Flasher would be a good idea, I've tried to find a circuit breaker also, something around 5 amps should work, but I can't find anything that low.

[Fred T]

If you have a points distributor you can ground your second coil through your points, just put a double pole switch on the ground wire and the power wire to the coil. We had a guy in high school who rigged up a hand pump that sprayed kerosene into the carb.