On plasma ignition: I am not sold on the idea. The engine specs would need to be radically different from conventional. Throughout the decades we have fought to prevent detonation, an uncontrolled explosion of the mixture. We wanted to achieve a controlled BURN and expansion of gases. With what plasma claims to achieve, is instant ignition of all mixture at once. From this follows: you cannot have ANY ignition advance before TDC. So any conventional ignition control knowledge is out the window.
This also causes a major change in cam requirements. You have to have a custom cam made to match the plasma timing. By someone who truly understands the plasma theory (if it works, mind you).
And lastly, the "burn rate" is not a burn anymore, but an explosion. You are talking about flame front/ignition traveling at the speed of light, which is much faster than the burn rate of military explosives. Light = 186,000 miles per second, while one of the fastest military high explosives (Pentrite) is a measly 4 miles per second. (I happen to know about this topic, but that's another story). You would see extremely high peak pressures, "intentional detonation" if you will, and you would blow the head off and put holes in the pistons, if you had any kind of conventional compression ratio in the engine. To make it hold together, you would have to reduce the compression ratio very dramatically, if it's even possible, and then you would extract MUCH less energy from the amount of fuel burned.
There is a reason the mixture needs to burn slowly.
For the reasons explained above, I call plasma ignition bullshit until proven otherwise. It either does not work at all as promised, or it would blow your conventional engine into millions of little pieces at the speed of light.
Jan
