The Distributor and Ignition System

The Distributor and Ignition System: Bringing the Power to Top Fuel Dragsters

You can pour all the fuel you want to in a Top Fuel dragster, but if you do not have the proper ignition source, you are making nothing but a mess for yourself.

While nitromethane (“nitro”) is the preferred fuel for the NHRA, you have to ignite it in order to make it work and the spark you need is not like your regular, everyday automobile engine spark. No, the spark needed for an NHRA racing is almost 12 times more intense, and packs more energy than the spark plug in your street vehicle could ever deliver and remain in one piece.

The most common distributor used in the NHRA is the MSD pro racing distributor. More specifically, teams use the MSD blaster ignition coil and distributor assembly to deliver up to 44amps of electricity or more to the already ultra-heavy duty Autolite AR5383 racing spark plugs used in Top Fuel engines. These plugs are also specially designed for supercharged, nitro-burning engines. 

To give you an idea of how powerful 44amps of electricity is, think about this: it takes 15amps to power all of your home appliances (your television, microwave, etc.), and only 17amps to turn your car engine one complete turn. In fact, 220VDC at 44amps is what is required to weld high rise skyscrapers together!

While the NHRA distributor and ignition system uses only 12 volts of power just like a regular car, it increases the power of those 12 volts from 17amps to 44amps. Add a fuel mixture of 10% methenol and 90% nitromethane, and you get an explosion force that will send you a thousand feet down the track in the blink of an eye!

There are a lot of technical expertise necessary to understand how to set up the perfect distributor coil and ignition system, so NHRA teams have people on their crew that specialize in these areas of the racing engine.  One of these is the ignition and timing specialist. His job is to make sure that each time the engine fires, it is getting the maximum allowed spark sent into the cylinders at the exact time the distributor is set and designed for. Any miscalculation in the electrical formulas will cause the engine to “misfire” or fire late, meaning the engine will not deliver the correct amount of propulsion at the proper time in order to win a race.

When you look at a Top Fuel dragster racing engine, you can’t miss it – bright red in color and with red heavy gauge red colored wire plugged into it. That’s the distributor and ignition system. That’s what helps bring the power and force to the driver when he hits the gas at the flash of the green light.

Next time you are at the track, have a look at one, but make it quick, because that’s how they do everything in NHRA – fast!

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