Originally Posted By: Whimsey
Originally Posted By: james1950
i have always wondered if a non resistor spark plug would produce a hotter spark at the electrodes than a resistor plug.also why do they still manufacture resistor spark plugs today since everything has solid state circuitry.
All my gas OPE equipment in the last 10 years has spec'd resistor spark plugs in the owner's manual. Maybe it has something to do with them now using electronic ignitions rather than points and condenser as in the "old" days
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Whimsey
B&S engines have been on the contactless/breakerless Magnetron ignition module sometime during the 80s, and they finally rid of all their remaining tooling RE: point-based ignition on OPE engines well into the 90s (I have a 4.5hp quattro engine built in the early 90s with points, go figure).
Some good reading to share:
http://gardentractorpullingtips.com/ignition.htm
Oh and BTW: for B&S engines, used to be (sometime during the late 70s) there was the solid-state magneto retrofit kit available for point-type OPE engines in those days, and while during it's early days, s-s ignition module reliability was questionable at best, it wasn't until the quality stabilised and the wide adoption of Magnetron where they went completely contactless.
Honda OPE engines have been contactless since early 80s, similarly with Suzuki and Kawazaki engines (more or less within the same few years in the late 70s/early 80s)