Hyfire® Selection Choices
When choosing an ignition amplifier for your vehicle you need to think about the intended use, RPM operating range, type of racing, and any added functionality you may need. Mallory offers Hyfire® units that are simple inductive or CD (capacitive discharge) designs, up through feature packed CD boxes with multiple RPM limiters, retard features for nitrous, window switches, and more.
An inductive amplifier is best for towing and RV's, street vehicles, and are also great for fast revving small engines. The inductive amplifiers are extremely powerful at low RPM which make them perfect for towing and street use. As the RPM increases the output is not as powerful, but still better than not having the unit at all.
A capacitive discharge ignition is the best choice for performance and racing applications in that it will crank out the power all the way through the box's useable RPM range ... at least the Mallory units do! Plus these units offer a wide selection of additional features. Individuals looking for maximum spark output for their street/strip, drag racing, off road, road racing ,and circle track applications will choose a CD ignition unit.
When looking at the various choices, read what the box offers you for features (rev limiters are always a recommendation for engine protection). You don't need a 4-stage limiting ignition unit on a 200 horsepower Pinto motor. You do need that box on a high horsepower nitrous application.
Coils and Spark Plug Wires
You also need to carefully choose what ignition coil you are going to use. The Hyfire® unit is telling the coil what to do, and if you don't have a coil that can handle the abuse you will lose power or damage the coil. NEVER use an internally resisted ignition coil with any ignition amplifier. we do not suggest the small OEM-style round coils with the Mallory Hyfire® units. Other manufacturers tell you to use a small coil because they have to, just to force the box to actually do something. The Mallory Hyfire® units do work the coil, and that is not a bad thing.
It is best for the survival of your ignition amplifier, and its ability to do its job that you use suppression core spark plug cables. Using solid core (stainless or copper) can cause a back-feed into your ignition unit, killing it. Spiral-core plug wires are the best choice, but there is some advertising exploitation going around you need to be aware of. We have all been taught over the years that you want to reduce the resistance in the plug wires and also increase the size of the wire to prevent cross firing. Well, as with anything there are limits to this information, and over time some manufacturers have distorted the the facts.
If you have too low of a resistance in your secondary ignition components, plug wires in particular, you can actually cause spark energy leakage from the coil. Of course too much resistance is bad too, so you need to find a happy medium. Most ignition manufacturers advertise their plug wire resistance ratings in Ohms per foot. Be wary of companies bragging about super low values, and notice that these values will vary as to the brand. This is due to the engineers trying to match the needs of their ignition units and coils so as to get the most energy from their ignition amplifiers. While I'm trying not to bad-mouth another brand, if you have a cheap coil and low resistance wires too, you have to wonder why they must use so many crutches to get decent spark energy from their ignition amplifiers. Then make a comparison to high end amplifiers that need a good coil and require average plug wire resistance, and yet still distribute more spark energy.
Regarding plug wire size, bigger is not always better. We were taught that we needed 8mm, 9mm, 10mm, and then 10.5mm plug wires to be able to be able to restrain the spark within the plug wire as if it were going to magically just slip away when we were not looking, causing massive misfires and lost power. This was all due to early learning curves with performance ignition systems, and again there are a few manufacturers that exploit the uneducated consumer. To be honest, an 8mm wire is perfect for 99% of all applications, and 9mm would be a maximum. Even 6,000+ horsepower Top Fuel engines are not using massive plug wires. The difference between an 8mm shielding thickness and 10mm is negligible. The hot setup right now is actually the Accel 5mm 300+ Ferro-Spiral Race Wire. That is not a typo, yes I said 5mm! Small, lightweight, and extremely efficient. Televisions may be getting bigger, but handheld computers, cell phones, MP3 players, and spark plug wires are all getting smaller.
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The Mallory Hyfire® units are not just for racing. Improvements can be seen in street vehicles, trucks, SUV's, and RV's. The areas of improvement include:
