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Common causes of backfire are running rich (too much fuel going into cylinders) or faulty ignition, possibly a fouled (dirty) spark plug, coil, or plug wire. Pop-backs are usually caused by problems with timing. If the timing is too early, the spark plug fires before the intake valves close, causing the combustion to propagate into the intake ...
Spark plug with single side electrode An electric spark on the spark plug. A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, [1] and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air mixture by an electric spark, while containing combustion pressure within ...
A fourth problem can arise when one or more of an engine's spark plugs becomes "fouled." Fouling, caused by combustion-byproducts that form deposits on a spark plug's internal insulator, creates an electrically conductive path that dissipates the coil's energy before its secondary voltage can rise high enough to produce a spark.
Fouling is the accumulation of unwanted material on solid surfaces. The fouling materials can consist of either living organisms (biofouling, organic) or a non-living substance (inorganic). Fouling is usually distinguished from other surface-growth phenomena in that it occurs on a surface of a component, system, or plant performing a defined ...
Pre-ignition (or preignition) in a spark-ignition engine is a technically different phenomenon from engine knocking, and describes the event wherein the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder ignites before the spark plug fires.
This is most likely to occur on a carbureted engine in cold weather, after a running engine has been shut off briefly before being restarted. Doing so can cause the choke valve to configure the mixture for a cold engine start, despite higher actual temperatures, resulting in an overly rich mixture and flooded engine.
A wasted spark system is a type of ignition system used in some four-stroke cycle internal combustion engines. In a wasted spark system, the spark plugs fire in pairs, with one plug in a cylinder on its compression stroke and the other plug in a cylinder on its exhaust stroke. The extra spark during the exhaust stroke has no effect and is thus ...
For the same reasons, those lighter fuels which are better solvents are much less likely to cause any "varnish" or other fouling on the "backup" spark plugs. [citation needed] In almost all general aviation piston engines, the fuel mixture is directly controlled by the pilot, via a knob and cable or lever similar to (and next to) the throttle ...