white fire at plugs

[atunnell]

what do I look to change when I get white looking fire at the plugs and starts getting lighter as the engine turns over. Place new distributor cap,rotor,c-module,ISC,plugs. Only thing left is wires and coil. 1988 ranger 2.0

 

[tmcalavy]

Your coil makes the fire...they can die completely and suddenly, or just fade away over time. Kinda like us.

 

[Mark_88]

White fire? How are you seeing this white fire?

Did you take out a plug and ground it to the valve cover while cranking? Your spark should be blue, typically, but it's actually hard to see in daylight...

Does the truck start and run or just crank and not fire?

While I agree it could be the coil, you can test that with a voltmeter...should be something like 12,000 volts, but if you search Google you can find several videos on how to test the ignition system...including testing the resistance in the wires...and whether you are getting voltage at the distributor and plug (insert the probe into the end of one of the plug wires...crank if no voltage there).

Maybe add a bit more information as to what it is doing or not doing and we can assist a bit more...

 

[LearjetMinako]

White fire? How are you seeing this white fire?

He might be using one of those clear glass spark plugs to see the firing flame color.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

If you dont know how old the plug wires are just replace them. The best way to check spark is with a spark gap tester just looking at the plugs tells you not much!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ignition-Sp..._Automotive_Tools&hash=item1c349c976d&vxp=mtr
See how far you can spread the gap before you lose spark. That has the duraspark ignition does it have the square type coil. It should jump a gap of at least 5/8 inch brite blue snap.
One quick check on the coil is just put a spark plug in the coil wire and set it on a good ground and see if the spark has a brite blue crisp snap. Buy good plug wires not the cheap ones and then forget about them of a while. Split fire makes some high quality low resistance wires the spark produced should almost knock you on your butt be careful.

 

[feellnfroggy]

White fire? How are you seeing this white fire?

Did you take out a plug and ground it to the valve cover while cranking? Your spark should be blue, typically, but it's actually hard to see in daylight...

Does the truck start and run or just crank and not fire?

While I agree it could be the coil, you can test that with a voltmeter...should be something like 12,000 volts, but if you search Google you can find several videos on how to test the ignition system...including testing the resistance in the wires...and whether you are getting voltage at the distributor and plug (insert the probe into the end of one of the plug wires...crank if no voltage there).

Maybe add a bit more information as to what it is doing or not doing and we can assist a bit more...

mostly right, except should be more like 30-40k volts?it takes at least 30k for spark to jump. least thats what college instructor said, he could have been wrong though. principle is still tha same, check ignition system, also while testing the coil, remove it and sand the bottom where the bolts go. make sure the frame of the coil of grounding proper, seems alot of electric probs this last week. its the weather change, just pray for summer again and youll be fine.