i sold a buddy of mine one of my extra Crane Hi6 box's and he installed it today everything seemed to be fine and it ran better but when he took it out to test run ( at only 10 psi) he said he heard some high pitch whine around 6k ( he says that it sounded like a ESC on a R/C car) and the engine blew!!!!! ( i have not verified that it has blown other than listening to it over the phone...it sounds blown). he immediately check the box for overheating and he said it was cold. he then check spark and said that it still had spark but it was not the normal white/blue but bright orange(old plugs more than likely). anyone out there heard of this? it was hooked up so that the rev control would not work ( by not using the blue wire or green wire)


MWW

 

He probably hooked it up wrong!

crispeed

 

It's been over 6 months since I instaled mine but I think you need to hook the blue to a switched +12V (ignition ON) this sets the unit into 4cyl mode which set the duration for the multi spark (cannot remeber the exact spec) but I think this is quite important, also to switch of the multi striking above 3k rpm's but I do not know if you can F*@# this up by not hooking the blue wire.

The green I have not connected either on my twin Hi6 set up.

 

The rev control can be bypassed through the set up wheels on the side of the unit (0-0) I think ?

But you need the blue wire hooked up from memory.

 

do you think not having the blue wire hooked up would blow the engine? i though that the blue wire was for the rev limit/cyl? not all setups need it, i dont recall using the blue wire.


MWW

 

The blue wire when hooked to 12V sets the CDI multi spark duration, It allso tells the CDI unit how many revs or ignition pulses there are.

When the blue is hooked up to the trailing signal module it sees 4 strikes per two shaft revolutions, which means the unit knows when 3000rpm is actually happening (cause this is the same strike rate as a 4cy 4 stroke"4 ignition pulses per 2 engine RPM's") and so it can turn off the "multi spark" which can trail for up to 30 deg of crank rev after the ignition point, if it is firing near TDC or say 10deg before usually in wasted mode this spark would happen in the exhaust cycle, but because it can go for up to 30 deg after the ignition point you could see how it could infact fire well before it is meant to in the compression stroke of the wasted chamber. Hence this could be a problem if it is not turning off this feature at higher rpm. I am guessing but this could be a problem if it is possible, I will check on the weekend and see if it is infact possible on a part assembled motor.

 

Marcus,

I cannot find the custom wiring diagrams I used to install my old Crane box but I recall that the blue wire must be connected to fire the box correctly. I passed on my diagrams when I sold the Hi-6. Faint memory of connecting the blue and red together? too faint.

Kyle

 

i think you guys found the problem..........

 

the guy took the motor apart and one of the seals on the back rotor was split longways, under the groove!! one thing i noticed is that where the seal broke it did not look like a fresh break ie the crack was black and oily. there was also a split shortways in the seal that was also black and oily. when i broke the seal all the way it was silver!!! so i think that he had problems anyway and the ignition box finished him off! this was also his first motor. another issue... all of his corner seals were stuck and now he has to use different rotors!

and get this, there was no damage to the rotor housings, i really small indention that is about .75" long but that is it.

 

Just for fun, when my motor finally went a rear apex seal also split lengthwise with the sides "bloomed" open like a flower. All the bits appeared to still be there, but since I didn't tear the motor down (installed reman) I can't say what the housings looked like.

 

Marcus,

According to my HI-6 manual:

Cylinder Select:
8 cyl: blue not connected to anything
6 cyl: blue to ground
4 cyl: blue to switched 12v.

Thus if not connected, the leading plugs would fire twice as often than normal.

 

Am I missing something that has to do with the Blue wire? I hooked up my Crane Cams HI-6 Ignition Box to my Leading Coil on my 88. I followed the Instructions from http://www.fc3s.org/how_tos/electrical/hi_6.html

Dave goes on to state that the Green wire should be tucked away If not using an aftermarket Tach.

As for the Blue wire, he goes on to say the same b'c we should have figured out that we don't have any Cylinders. (a little humor added In his write up).

Is this to say my Crane Cams hasen't been fully operational b'c I never hooked the Blue Cylinder Wire?

 

so you are not using the blue wire either??


MWW

 

Nope. I will baffled and amazed, If not kick myself In the ****, If you do In fact have to hook up the Blue Cylinder Wire.

I've had this setup for the last 2 yrs. Although, I do notice a crisper throttle response and better gas mileage, who knows what the effect of the Blue Wire Is, hooked up that Is.

 

You gotta remember we do not have cylinders But we do have a certain amount of ignition pulses in two engine rpm (defines one complete cycle in a 4 stroke piston motor) and this is what the crane needs to measure.

If it does not know how many ignition pulses happen i.e no blue wire hook up it will assume it is a 8 cylinder engine, this will mean that it will multi stike the ignition up to 6000rpm in stead of 3000rpm, THIS IS BAD also it means that the duration of the muti striking will be double the length of what it should be, as this value tapers of as you reach 3000rpm to a point where the unit can only provide one spark in the given time.

It will mean that the unit is working twice as hard, as is normaly required and depending on ignition timing (retard with boost at 5 to 6k prm) could be firing a spark (as it will still be in multi strike mode till 6k if no blue hook up) once the chamber has swept past the leading spark plug hole, remember wasted spark method used on late model engines is the problem.

I will try to find out exactly how long the unit fires for in term s of crank degrees at near the switch of point (3000rpm) from Crane and see if this is infact a possability, I think it is for sure, as when I have pulled apart old engines running waste spark I have seen the effect of the waste park burning against the endge of the rotors near the tip to the proceeding chamber, there seems to be not much room for error here ?

I could be wrong but I will look into it further.

 

Great!!! Lets find out the relevance of this Blue Wire. Shall we???

 

Dave replied back. Though, I asked him to reply back to this thread, he simply emailed me with It.

He says- The blue wire on the Crane HI-6 is for the cylinder selection. It basically controls the spark for different engines depending on the engine, like a V6,
V8 etc. I was told by a technician from Crane on the phone when I first bought it that on a rotary engine application, the blue wire was to be left off of anything, as if it were a V8. I have been using that HI-6 in my car
for over 3 years with no ill effects.

I also got the information on how to install the box from several sources, such as Ted Koseki and Dale Clark.

 

so has this been resolved?

I am interested in going with the hi-6 but there seems to be a bit of confusion. Blue wire yes or no?

 

Well the box is designed to turn of multi spark at 3000rpm, if you do not hook up the wire the unit will turn off @ 6000rpm......from what I can figure out, at minimum it will accelerate wear on the plugs, at worst It may pop the motor if you run a wasted spark set up that runs close to TDC timing at these higher boost/higher rpm regions. Crane have not got back to me yet to clarify how many degrees of sparking the unit goes for after the initial spark, this is the critical issue, once I know this then I have an engine part assemebled to verify if the leading plug hole will be exposed on the "wasted rotor" side causing a spark well before TDC.

Which ever way if you turn the unit off (multi spark) at 3000 rpm "as crane recommends" then you will have no problem, to do this on a two rotor with waste spark leading ignition you need to hook the blue wire to switched 12V positive.

 

That would mean the box is looking for 8 ignition pulses for every 2 rpm, since a 2 rotor with wasted spark leading generates 4 ignition pulses per 2 engine rpm this means the engine will be doing double the rpm than what the box thinks.

Email Poweraxel, he has 4 of these boxes and I am sure he has the blue wire hooked the same as me.

Please tell me if I thinking about this the wrong way ? I think I am right, wether it can cause damadge or not is the issue.

 

I had mine set to 8 for the first 2 weeks following Daves writeup. then I saw a post by Ted to use 4. I changed it and noticed no diff..

and his site says to use 4 cyl

http://fc3s-pro.com/TECH/HOWTO/CDI/cdi.html

 

hmmm interesting!!!


MWW

 

Rice,
Yes, i have the blue wire connected on all of my boxes

 

hmm you would think you'd want the trailings set diff since there is only one spark??...

 

A point on my Crane Cams Ignition Box-

A year and a half ago my car wouldn't start. Through troubleshooting, It was traced back to the box malfunctioning.

Crane Cams promptly sent me a new one and It has been fine ever since (a year later).

From when I Installed my box, the first time, till when It died on me, a full year had passed. Although It can't be answered for sure, do you think the box was a dud or the lack of the Blue Wire hooked up took It's toll on the box?


I maybe way off center here but due to the wasted spark the leading coil Pack lets off, wouldn't that translate to 8 cylinder mode thus not having the Blue Wire hooked up?

Also when dynoing my FC, he hooked It up to the Leading and Inputted 8 cylinder mode on the dyno. Does the above have any relevance to the Blue Wire not having to be hooked up?