New Spark plugs

[KilledKenny]

Pulstar http://www.pulstarplug.com
Interesting concept, pretty expensive though at $25.00 each.

[Local Boy]

WOW! Very interesting concept. 25 bucks a pop! Think I'll wait to see if they really work.

[larryo340]

sounds logical, but I'll wait till we hear from regular people about the pluses. Especially at $200 a set.

[Gre8one7]

hmmm, wonder if running nitrous with these would work...for some reason i am expecting a blown motor if i ran these

[larryo340]

well they should burn off all the fuel, so I could see a lean issue come up.

[Local Boy]

Interesting thought...Hmmmm

[kurly]

FYI, Pulstar had a 2 page advertisement in Popular Science this month.

[69mach1]

It appears these plugs use the same technology as "Nology" spark plug wires and should have the same results.

[Richy04]

The plugs on my Hybrid are 20 bucks a piece, they are iridium plugs..

[RCSignals]

These statements would seem to contradict




With increased cylinder pressure, the pistons are pushed down with more force, which, in turn, generates more torque in the crankshaft, more liveliness to the throttle and more power to the wheels.
Of course, if you don't use this torque to go faster, the engine does its work with less effort resulting in better fuel economy.

The above seems to say there is increased torque, then suggests this increased torque is insignificant.


and then there is this:


CAUTION: Pulstar model recommendations are for stock, unmodified engines. If you have added an aftermarket turbocharger, supercharger, nitrous or any other product that increases displacement or compression to your engine you will require a colder heat range pulse plug in order to avoid possible damage to your engine. For these applications please see our other great product at www.directhits.com (http://www.directhits.com/) or call us at 888-800-6700.

So only for unmodified engines.<script type="text/javascript"> var so = new SWFObject("/menu.swf", "menu", "300", "624", "7", "#336699"); so.write("flashcontent");</script>

[racorcey]

Pulstar http://www.pulstarplug.com
Interesting concept, pretty expensive though at $25.00 each.

So, was anyone fool enough to buy, install, and test these things yet?

[Sharky]

Could dramatically increased combustion chamber pressures cause blown head gaskets or burned valves?

I would be a little hinky about using these type of plugs until they have been around for a while. Interesting concept, though.

[racorcey]

So, was anyone fool enough to buy, install, and test these things yet?

I hate to admit it, I was baiting you guys. ;) PLEASE don't buy these things. What a crock! :mad2:

I've spent the last 40 years racing GM (yes, General Motors) cars, mostly Pontiac and Chevy, and spent too damn much time playing with ignition systems to go along with them. Being an EE gave me a good feel for the stuff.

Based on my experience (and several others as well), it boils down to the following:

(a) ignition systems make (or break!) the difference - not "special" spark plugs

(b) while the CORRECT spark plug for the application is extremely important, whether it's made of copper, platinum, iridium is of little consequence. I know there are others that will disagree with me over the copper version, but for the few hp difference, it's the same for all intents and purposes

(c) for the later model cars with PCM's, tuning will have way more impact than "special" spark plugs

(d) snakeoil will always sell

I went over the Pulstarplug website carefully, and luckily, they had all the info I was looking for - that is, they gave themselves a good rope to hang themselves from....

First, testamonials and the like...there was virtually no scientific testing done, that is, no control testing. I know they showed charts of before and after gas mileage. They were all over the place. The dyno pull was not characterized - and shown only for one vehicle.

Second, as noted above by RC Signals (more or less), the numbers thrown out by them contradict one another. For one thing, they pride themselves in how short (and powerful) their spark is over a stock setup. The car manufacturers go out of their way to provide as long a duration spark as can be made possible with the current means. The reason - to light off the very lean mixtures found in today's engines during normal operation. That very short duration of the pulstarplug flies in the face of current convention and leaves me very suspect of their engineering process.

Third, a megawatt of peak power! Yo dude, burn me down! Lets see, in their scheme their peak lasts all of about .000000002 of a second - totally useless for proper wavefront burning, and too short to be of ANY real use. By their own words, the whole spark lasts a total of .00003 seconds. By means of comparison, a normal modern day system peaks in .000015 seconds, and the whole spark lasts about .002 seconds. As you can see, there is quite a difference in the way the peak and overall average power is delivered. In the real world, analog things, like burning gasoline, don't respond to "mega peak power" items like this, only the average power. There is a time and place for high "peak power" numbers in the "mega" region, as in radar for instance.

And, BTW, they didn't list the MORE important figure of actual delivered power. In the modern day system, it averages about 30 mj (millijoules). In terms of watts that about .03 watt-seconds (the amount of power delivered in one second; the analogy is like watt-hours you burn at home). They don't show the figure. I believe they don't want to show that number since the internal capacitor in the plug actually uses up some of the spark energy in the process of storing it. Based on the numbers above, I believe it's less. The main secret in making good hp/tq figures lies in how much power is delivered in each spark for complete burning of the fuel mixture. This gets into coil theory, but I'm bypassing that item for the time being. In their own words, "Pulstar™ generates a much larger spark than spark plugs, which reduces overall burn time and burns the fuel more completely." Larger spark? Spare me! Worse yet, they proudly announce their REDUCED overall burn time. It's the exact opposite of what's required to burn the fuel completely.

Most snake oil salesfolk know that "bigger is better" sells. It's been around since the dawn of man, and has only proliferated with technology.

Fourth, also based on #3 above, is their inferred idea of getting more power out of their plug than what you put it. They attempt this with the idea of the peak power talked about above. Guess what? If you put in an average power of 30 watts to the plug, that's ALL the gasoline mixture is going to see, less normal losses. The bottom line is that you can't get out more than you put in. Period.

Basically, all they're doing is putting a capacitor across the spark plug tips to act as a temporary storage device. It works by acting as a "peaking" device, that is, forming a resonant circuit based on average coil drive specs. If this worked so well, it would have been used back in 1894. Actually, it was tried, and didn't produce the results they were looking for. Not to mention that the car manufacturers have played around with every conceivable combination. I should also mention to you that much work was done in Dupont's labs over the years as well for the car companies. This has been my primary source of information over the years.

Which leads me to my next snake oil item (not part of the spark plug discussion) - the infamous replacements for the COP coil spring. I can understand replacing the silicone boot - they do go bad over time and can leak high voltage to the block, but for the aftermarket guys to claim that their zero ohm replacement "wires" are superior and more powerful over a 5 ohm OEM spring is the biggest bunch of bologna I think I've ever seen. Not a single one of them can or will produce anything scientifically worthy to prove themselves. I know some of the vendors post dyno sheets. I don't believe a one of them. With an average 5k ohm resistor built into most spark plugs, the resistance of the feedwire from the coil to the plug is nearly inconsequential

And lastly, the spark plug folks treat us to a picture of a flame wave front done on a high speed camera between a stock plug and theirs. Notice that only a portion is shown. That is, that their wavefront starts out faster and spreads further. All I will say is that there are lies, damned lies, and statistics (Mark Twain). It's like the infamous accountant says, "do you want to show a loss or gain?" Same thing here. They haven't proven a thing in reality.

I just hope than no one wastes their $$ on another snake oil item that seems to be so commonplace in our automotive "high performance" world. My favorite is still the 100mpg carburetor. They sold rather well for a while too. :burnout:

[racorcey]

[quote=Sharky;524459]Could dramatically increased combustion chamber pressures cause blown head gaskets or burned valves? quote]

Per my post above.....you have to make real additional hp/tq figures before you have that kind of a problem. It ain't gonna happen with these spark plugs - or any other kind for that matter.

[racorcey]

Sharkey asks: Could dramatically increased combustion chamber pressures cause blown head gaskets or burned valves?

Per my post above.....you have to make real additional hp/tq figures before you have that kind of a problem. It ain't gonna happen with these spark plugs - or any other kind for that matter.

[rayjay]

I have to agree with racorcey on several points. I had Autolite Irdiums in my engine, XP103 to be exact. When I took it in to my dyno tuner to be tweeked I was down 30 HP. He did compression tests thinking I'd lost a cylinder. Nope. Stated the ignition was erratic. So he replaced the plugs with Autolite 103s, plain copper plugs, one heat range colder than OEM. My HP went back to where it was 2 years ago. I was disappointed that my DR Cobra Exhaust and Accufab TB did not gain one single horsepower, but atleast the power was back. Not too mention I had the larger wire COP connectors and he said the same thing as above, crap. It was a exspensive lesson on spark plugs. Don't ask the price :mad2: