Ignition analyzer tool
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 12,399
Likes: 247
From: San Jose CA
Ignition analyzer tool
Many years ago, a mech put some kind of scope on my distributor and it produced a graph which helped diagnose a dead/missing cylinder.
It had a chart for each of the cylinders and #6 was spiking or running low. Bam, burnt plug wire.
Does anyone know where I can find something like this?
It had a chart for each of the cylinders and #6 was spiking or running low. Bam, burnt plug wire.
Does anyone know where I can find something like this?
Race Director
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 14,112
Likes: 27
From: Florida
Commonly referred to as Sun machines or just scopes.
Doubt if there are any around any modern shops. No need for them these days with modern cars.
Maybe an old shop in a smaller town.
If you just want to check for dead cylinders, you can use an IR temp gun on each exhaust.
Doubt if there are any around any modern shops. No need for them these days with modern cars.
Maybe an old shop in a smaller town.
If you just want to check for dead cylinders, you can use an IR temp gun on each exhaust.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 9,272
Likes: 17
they are still available , used
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sun-Engine-A...515599&vxp=mtr
hope this helps
I'm remembering that they were good for cylinder balance and output of each individual cylinder, helped to identify alot of issues without taking things apart, except for the scope , the hand held testers of today do the same things, but the scope was an excellent tool that I miss.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sun-Engine-A...515599&vxp=mtr
hope this helps
I'm remembering that they were good for cylinder balance and output of each individual cylinder, helped to identify alot of issues without taking things apart, except for the scope , the hand held testers of today do the same things, but the scope was an excellent tool that I miss.
Last edited by oldalaskaman; Aug 26, 2012 at 08:26 AM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,231
Likes: 65
From: Seattle WA
St. Jude Donor '14
An oscilloscope is great, and tells a lot about the actual voltage reaching the plug.
For simple firing/not firing/intermittent you can always just hook the inductive pickup of a timing light to each wire.
That Vantage looks amazing!
http://buy1.snapon.com/products/diag...0f&dir=catalog
For simple firing/not firing/intermittent you can always just hook the inductive pickup of a timing light to each wire.
That Vantage looks amazing!
http://buy1.snapon.com/products/diag...0f&dir=catalog
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 2,655
Likes: 19
I picked up one of these for $40 from Actron. Works great, I get a lot of use out of it.
Oh yeah, and much easier to carry on a boat than a big scope.
http://www.actron.com/media/usermanu...er_MNL_Eng.pdf
Oh yeah, and much easier to carry on a boat than a big scope.
http://www.actron.com/media/usermanu...er_MNL_Eng.pdf
Last edited by Garys 68; Aug 26, 2012 at 11:28 AM.
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 12,399
Likes: 247
From: San Jose CA
Commonly referred to as Sun machines or just scopes.
Doubt if there are any around any modern shops. No need for them these days with modern cars.
Maybe an old shop in a smaller town.
If you just want to check for dead cylinders, you can use an IR temp gun on each exhaust.
Doubt if there are any around any modern shops. No need for them these days with modern cars.
Maybe an old shop in a smaller town.
If you just want to check for dead cylinders, you can use an IR temp gun on each exhaust.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 871
Likes: 73
From: Memphis Tennessee
And for the occasional miss, I would be thinking ignition. Just get a spark tester, or make your own by cutting the ground strap off of a spark plug. The larger gap will force the coil to produce a higher voltage to jump across. If you just pull out a plug and see if it spark you're not really testing the system as it takes much less voltage to fire a plug when it's out of the cylinder compared to when it's operating under combustion chamber pressures.
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Race Director
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 14,112
Likes: 27
From: Florida
they are still available , used
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sun-Engine-A...515599&vxp=mtr
hope this helps
I'm remembering that they were good for cylinder balance and output of each individual cylinder, helped to identify alot of issues without taking things apart, except for the scope , the hand held testers of today do the same things, but the scope was an excellent tool that I miss.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sun-Engine-A...515599&vxp=mtr
hope this helps
I'm remembering that they were good for cylinder balance and output of each individual cylinder, helped to identify alot of issues without taking things apart, except for the scope , the hand held testers of today do the same things, but the scope was an excellent tool that I miss.
Cost $49,000 new.
Had gas analyzer in it too.
Totally unnecessary these days.
Same with the dist machine, just do it with hand tools now.