A new ignition system concept was developed to improve ignition performance, accuracy of control and the reliability of the ignition system. The new ignition system has ho호 frequency discharge characteristics with 1.5-2.0 ms discharge duration, in place of the usual solitary longer duration event. We applied the system to a commercial engine to study its influence on the maximum combustion pressure attained during the cycle, when this peak pressure occurred, imep, variation rate of the engine speed and the flammability limit of a lean mixture. In this study, we clarified that the new ignition system had a beneficial effect of the lean mixture flammability limit. Also for a given mixture strength we found that the mew ignition system gave a higher peak cylinder pressure than in the case of the conventional ignition system.