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Waterproof Ignition

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:33 pm
by RWorland
I've been having troubles with water getting into my distributer and causing trouble in deep bog holes.

I remember seeing an ad for a 'waterproof ignition system', but forget the brand, can anyone help me out??

Otherwise what's the best option for keeping your electrics dry??
Just go crazy with the silicon??

Cheers,

Rick

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2004 10:08 am
by +dj_hansen+
Richo.... rubber gloves and some silicon ;) :D


Also read a bloke plumbing an air line into his distributor so when he hit bog holes/water he flicks a switch and it provides positive pressure into the Dizzy stopping water getting in.

Its in 4WD monthly.. will bring along fri night.

Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:24 pm
by dumbdunce
you could just stay out of deep bogholes ;)

Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 7:18 pm
by Rainbow Warrior
Tupperware your coil & ignition pack :-)

Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 8:57 pm
by +dj_hansen+
dumbdunce wrote:you could just stay out of deep bogholes ;)


You havent seen his car dude.. rick and mud were born to be at peace with one another :P

Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 8:11 am
by dumbdunce
+dj_hansen+ wrote:
dumbdunce wrote:you could just stay out of deep bogholes ;)


You havent seen his car dude.. rick and mud were born to be at peace with one another :P


maybe he should have bought a diesel then? trying to waterproof petty ignition is always a losing battle - you can improve it by sealing eveything up but muddy water is always a far better conductor than air and just getting water on and around the leads and plugs will cause misfiring and crossfiring.
The best thing you can do is convert to a distributorless coil-pack stype ignition, obviously this requires some electronics and is pretty expensive.

or, seriosuly, just stay out of mud. it does so much damage, requires no skill to drive, and is only fun when it's someone else who is stuck in it.

Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:37 pm
by Rainbow Warrior
Muds no problem for a waterproofed petrol, a splash plate under the front of the motor helps a lot too, if you check the pics on my website you'll see any petrol, Landie, Rangie or Patrol can splash into over the bonnet water and out again with no problems, staying in it could be an issue sometimes if your plugs go under, but then again, in that situation you should be playing with boats. I could pressure clean any of my petrols while they were running without missing a beat.

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:19 pm
by Kev80
A mate used to spray his dizzy & plugs with bike chain lube to keep the water out, messy but used to work.

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:29 pm
by Big Red Toy
pressurising the dizzy is the way to go, but run the air via fuel filter to keep it clean, also you could plumb in a line for wd40 & inject both if it starts to cough

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 3:07 am
by Rainbow Warrior
Big Red Toy wrote:pressurising the dizzy is the way to go, but run the air via fuel filter to keep it clean, also you could plumb in a line for wd40 & inject both if it starts to cough


Don't overdo the WD40, I've blown a dizzy cap off before by not drying it out before starting, just popped the clips luckily.

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:33 pm
by Draven
Out if interest, what did you make the splash guard out of ? And how far back did you take it ? I was thinking pretty serously about making one up, but was worried about oil temp etc.

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 9:51 pm
by Rainbow Warrior
Draven wrote:Out if interest, what did you make the splash guard out of ? And how far back did you take it ? I was thinking pretty serously about making one up, but was worried about oil temp etc.


I used a bit of 1mm stainless lying around at work :D
I made a couple first out of cardboard then used one as a template, my splash plate covers back to the sump. Make sure you allow room for the steering damper. Won't make a difference to oil temp, engine temp seems better if anything.

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 4:39 pm
by Patroler
be wary making the distributor totally waterproof i.e. silicon, as they should be able to breath otherwise you will get a build up of ozone gas, i read it somewhere and am pretty sure it is slightly conductive or something?
I just run a bead of dielectric grease around the cap and all the plug lead boots - ive also got an air fitting set up on the dizzy - not too bad as its on a chev, so at the back.
Some of the mud racer guys have a thing which looks a lot like a rubber glove to cover the dizzy, some have a 'finger' for each lead and ive seen one on a v8 which just had 2 openings, one on each side for the leads to come out of.