Spark Plugs vs Pulse Plugs

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Spark Plugs vs Pulse Plugs(Chris Pirillo)

source: Spark Plugs vs Pulse Plugs, Chris Pirillo I tried several more searches on ‘magazine advertisement’ but after 10 minutes I got lazy, gave up and posted this entry to ‘Magazines and Newspapers’. Still, I think it was an interesting exercise.

Sounds like a lot of hype. I’m sure it’ll help, but any more than Bosch Platinum’s?

Provided they aren’t $50 a plug, may be worth a go.

Unlikely, but if you’re going to try them out, change out both the plugs and the plug wires for consistency. I suggest AutoLite’s to maximize the effectiveness of the plugs.

http://www.autolite.com/products/sparkPlugWireSets.php

“… You will notice improved throttle responsiveness, more torque and better fuel economy. … In general, you should expect torque to increase by 4 to 12% and realize a significant improvement in fuel economy. …”

Automotive manufacturers would be the first ones to jump on a product that could actually do all that.

“… The amount of performance will depend on the make, model and condition of your vehicle. …”

Ah, there’s that pesky “your mileage may vary” caveat. If you DON’T get better mileage, torque and responsiveness, it’s not due to our ineffective product, it’s because you’re driving the wrong car!

There’s always the placebo effect these types of products induce. So it comes down to: Is it worth the bother and expense to “feel” better about your car’s performance?

If you think about this, after reading their ‘explanation’ you realize how ridiculous this is. Where exactly would this 1,000,000 watts of power come from? The battery of a car can’t produce it. The most hardy alternators only produce about 150 amps, V*A=W so 13.8*150=2070 Watts of power, so where is the remaining 997,970 W coming from?

The concept sounds plausible. Bigger, faster flame front should cause more complete combustion, increasing efficiency.
Whether it works out that way in the real world, hmmm.
It would be nice to see somebody like Consumer Reports or even one of the big Motor Mags do a test.
The price seems to be $25 per plug which will likely come down if volume sales occur; however, they might pay for themselves over 50-60k miles if the mileage increase is even close to accurate. That would make the power and torque enhancements pure gravy. I was unable to find out where to buy them, which seems strange after a big double page ad like that. I’d love a couple of extra miles per gallon and a 5 to 10% horsepower bump in my Mazda6.

I doubt this will be much of an improvement, however there is a developement under way where there will be NO Plugs , whatsoever, the plan is to “fire” the charge via a special headgasket that is charged with RF (at the most effecient time) F1 will have it first, no doubt.

Increasing voltage and decreasing amperage gives the same wattage ,increased torque but worse fuel economy.
Increased amperage wuth reduced voltage retains wattage ,gives a hotter spark , increases fuel economy ,does nothing for performance , and has the same effect as changing the fuel/air ratio ; modern motor computers can sense (read sensors ) and adjust the mixture and increase performance slightly ;at a cost of shorter engine life.
Tried all that in the 60s with high performance motors and high volume , high oressure oil pumps.
Tried in the mid 70s with an old 383 in a Chrysler 300 (original ) where I got the extra power from increased voltage as if I were using nitro but the mpg’s sucked big time;[used a dashboard button to engage voltage booster ] .

I applied for a job with these guys during their testing stage last year. I checked them out pretty thoroughly, and they are definitely not a scam. The patents they based their design on come from the plasma research at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, and it is definitely rocket science. The company has been around for a number of years as ‘Direct Hits’ manufacturing an external pulse booster. The ‘Pulstar’ plugs are an integrated version of the plasma device built right into the plug. If you want to see some of the original test results, take a look at this link:

http://www.directhits.com/technical.html

Oh yeah, and they DIDN’T hire me, so I am not a shill. OTOH, I have not used their product, so I don’t have any first-hand experience.

Hide your wallet.. and run for you life. This is just another scam. Think of it this way: When the air fuel mixture is compressed in the cylinder of that engine… there is only so much explosive energy to be released. No matter how it is ignited. Or put in even simpler terms: Imagine a stick of dynamite. It only explodes with x amount of force. It doesn’t matter how it is ignited… still explodes the same. The claim they are making is that if you use a stick match VS lets say a bic lighter – it will result in a bigger explosion. Simply not true.

I find the million watt statement misleading and pointless. The million watt claim comes from the time period that the energy is released. Assuming the pulse plug and the regular plug release the same total amount of energy, the momentary energy rating for the pulse plug will be much higher since it is released in “2 billionths of a second” instead of “30 millionths of a second”.

The true test, of course, is real world performance. I would be quite surprised if the pulse plug performance is significantly different than a new set of regular spark plugs.

looks to me to be the same as what we used to call an okie gap.

it was a secondary gap created in the spark current path. it could be done at an individual spark plug or at the coil to affect all plugs.

there were commercial products to do this but us okies used to just space the wire away from the plug. it worked well with oil burners that tended to foul plugs.

the explanation of the phenomenon seems to be the same for both. it delayed the spark for a small amount of time allowing the voltage to build and then dumped it to the plug. the spark was shorter but but more intense.the instantaneous power was probably increased. (Power/time.)

I also saw this article and found this discussion in researching more. Very good comments so far, but let me play the advocate to see if it rings true.

The place looks like a small company getting started. Big auto companies are not going to buy a startup’s offerings until well proven. That will take some time, and they need to start with the enthusiast market. Great move to advertise in Pop Sci.

Does the technology hold together? Ignoring the obvious marketing claim of 1MW spark (we did this kind of stuff in marketing microprocessors also), the question is whether faster initial combustion in the cylinder will give rise to a higher initial cylinder pressure and perhaps a more complete burn. Most cars have hydrocarbons in the exhaust due to incomplete combustion, and there are a variety of different techniques to improve this, like scored piston heads to give more turbulence, multiple plugs per cylinder, etc.

If the plug really does give a higher initial combustion wavefront as they claim, I can see that combustion could be completed faster, thus releasing increasing the initial cylinder pressure. It may also allow a more complete combustion of all fuel. Note that this could help average cylinder pressure also, but by a substantially smaller margin. Regardless of the completeness of the combustion, higher initial cylinder pressure would indeed give higher torque for probably the first 25% of piston travel. Could you recognize this as better responsiveness in driving? Perhaps…

Clearly a more complete burn would give better mileage, given the same driving conditions.

Things to look out for would be lower exhaust hydrocarbons, effects of higher cylinder pressure on engine life (valve seating issues, ring damage, etc.), and reliability of the plugs themselves. The more complex the system, the more possibility of failure.

For a couple hundred bucks, I may well try these things if I can convince myself that it won’t damage the engine.

There is real merit in pulse plugs and they can quite possible hit the million watt mark. What people seem to forget (atleast on this site) is that the car ignition coil converts the 14.2V DC current into high voltage low amperage energy. Stock ignition coils can generate 25,000-50,000 volts and high output/performance coils can surpass the 100,000 volt mark. If you take in account that an average coil consumes 2-5 amps (more for a peformance coil), then you see where you can get close to 500,000 watts of energy. There are many kinds of products that try to release or augment the spark by either prolonging the spark, increasing the voltage/amp with capacitors (i.e. capacitive discharge), multi spark ignitions, Sparkplug wires with capacitors built in, and different spark plug minerals to increase spark intensity. All these measures work in some way and is well documented in increasing power. So placing a capacitor inside the sparkplug is not that far fetched.

Pulstar Plugs, Offer a 30 day money back garantee if your not satisfied. What other Spark Plug company does that? Plus they are backed by Sandia Labs, and Southwest research!!

Every time gas prices go up, stuff like this comes out on the market. Secondary gap spark plugs (of which this may be a sample), multi-electrode plugs (airplanes have them, but for a different reason), cow magnets on the gas line (how does the molecular alignment survive the splash and swirl through the float valve, or getting sloshed around in the injectors) or liquified mothball gasoline additive. And the people who buy it could double their savings by 1) not buying the device or solution, and 2) easing up their lead foot on the accelerator.

I’ve seen only one device that can increase fuel mileage. A vacuum gauge and the ability to read it and drive accordingly.

On all newer computer controlled cars, it should be mandatory to have an average fuel consumption guage with accumulated history that displays where the driver can monitor it. Using one of these can improve fuel mileage by 10mpg instantaneously for most people, and the darn things work far better than a vacuum gauge.

Another side effect of having average fuel mileage and accumulated history information available is the ability to determine most economical routes (they are not necessarily the shortest or quickest routes to destination but rather enable the most continuous motion or most level terrain which most of the time serves you by bypassing the most heavily travelled routes and avoiding gridlock).

The 1MW claim certainly comes from the fact that they’re using pulse compression techniques common in pulsed power PFN designs to compress the same amount of energy in a smaller time frame. In gas discharge lasers, a fast electrical discharge results in a stable plasma, and desirable laser performance. What really got my attention in the article were the picutures of the comustion wave front propagation from a traditional plug verses the pulse plug. The wave front propagation was shown nearly 2x faster w/ the pulse plug. Chemical reactions occur on the nanosecond scale, so if the pulse discharge is able to deliver ALL the spark energy to initiate combustion, rather than taking longer to spark, and burning the pulse energy in the plug resistor, this would establish a higher energy shock wave and potentially enhance the rate at which combustion occurs… I say it’s plausible to attain a more efficient (and more consistent) combustion cycle.

…next generation hybrid weapons technology also employ fast PFN-tailored electrical discharges to initiate, accelerate, and sustain the combustion of artillery propellents. The rate of change of pressure induced behind the projectile is as much a function of the propellent used as it is the shape of the plasma current pulse…

For starters, Watts are a unit of power. Power is an instantaneous measurment (Power = Volts * Amperes). Energy is measured in Joules (Jouiles = Power * Time).

Spark Plug
50Watts * 30*10^(-3)Seconds = 1.5 Joules

Pulse Plug
1000000Watts * 2*10^(-9)Seconds = 0.002 Joules

I hate it when marketing folk screw with scientific terminology

The EPA has tested these things. They got 2.7% increase in fuel efficiency in their test.

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/01/pulse_plug_demo.html

Chewey – maybe it is only 2 millijoules, but 2 millijoules in 2 nanoseconds accomplishes a lot more than 2 millijoules spread out over 30 microseconds. The higher peak power is able to more efficiently deliver more percussive energy to the load (the pressurized combustible mixure) than a slower pulse of the same total energy.

Chemical reactions can occur on the nanosecond scale. A single chemical reaction that requires x energy to be initiated must receive that energy within a short period of time. The same amount of energy delivered over a longer period of time will have no stimulation effect on the reaction. I can deliver one kilojoule of energy to small piece of paper over the course of minute (17 Watts), and it will get hot. Deliver that kilojoule in 1 second (1 kW), and it will catch fire. Deliver the same energy in 2 milliseconds (500 kW) and it will spectacularly scintillate into ashes.

Yes, it’s melodramatic to boast “1 Megawatt” in an advertisement, but in this case, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s all just marketing fluff. pulstarplug.com indicates a typical plug discharges in 5 us, with a peak power of 50 watts… which if that 50 watts were sustained DC for 5 us, that would be 250 microJoules. I’ll hedge my bets that 2 mJ makes a bigger bang than 250 uJ.

Mark Klink wrote: “The most hardy alternators only produce about 150 amps, V*A=W so 13.8*150=2070 Watts of power, so where is the remaining 997,970 W coming from”
As a Power production craftsmen for the us airforce i can say.. from the plug easily… capacitence was not included in your formula for wattage. “Stored” electrical power is the key. plus its not a maintained current.. at round 50,000 volts..the amps needed is nothing if, the surge is short say, 2 billionths of a second and it is stored over a few nano seconds and released in surge your altenator wont even notice it happened.

Alright, I actually tried these plugs. I have a smoother idle, and on the dyno I have 7 hp increase. My old plugs were the Bosch +4 in an H22A. 7 hp is only about 3-4% though on my engine. Fuel economy I saw nothing. Its hard to tell if the plugs actually did this though. New NGK R plugs might have done this as well. Or air temp could have done that change too. But 100$ for 4 plugs isnt worth it.

Jason – I applaud you for doing the best thing to solve this mystery. Actually having your car dyno’d!

However speaking from a purely performance stand point, ( I could care less about fuel economy) you paid approximately $14.30 per horse power if it indeed was the plugs. For gear heads (guilty as charged), some are paying on average between $30 and $50 dollars per HP for their turbo or supercharger kits. For example, I have BMW Z3 which I spent $3500 on for a Supercharger kit which put out another 75 HP over stock. If you work that out it cost me approximately $46.60 per HP. I would have killed for $14 per HP.

If these plugs work as advertised and are responsible for your 7 HP increase that New NGK R plugs are not capable of (I hope they are since they are way cheaper) or cooler air temps were not responsible for, then I must disagree with you on the plugs not being worth the hundred bucks. Especially if your trying to sqeeze out as much HP as possible with the least amount of money. Not to mention trying to lower those quarter mile times…..at the drag strip. :-)

The two concerns I do see with these plugs, if they actually work as advertised are:

1. The higher compression caused by the more complete combustion of fuel would raise the wear on the engine itself as mentioned above.

2. The possiblity that since the spark is that much quicker, if it would affect timing in any way (major concern for forced induction engines).

But like me, if you have an aftermarket blower on your car, higher compression is not too much of a worry for you as long as you know the limits of the engine, keep up with maintanence and realize the costs down the road for performance. Timing on the other hand would be my real concern.

On the subject of the plug putting out that kind of power, as a prior Electro-Optical Ordnance technician in the Marine Corps having worked with all kinds of capacitors way too often, and knowing that a capacitor is incorporated into the Pulstar plug, I would say it can put out that type of power. Not an incredible feat by any stretch of the imagination.

Put simply, the capacitor inside of a flash camera will bite the hell out of you and numb your finger for about 10 minutes. Ask me how I know :-). And we’re just talking 4 double “A” batteries (6 volts) being stored up for about 5 seconds.

The only way we’ll know for sure about these plugs is if more people slap them in and have their cars Dyno’d like Jason. I would love to see some long term use results and dyno results with some turbo and supercharged engines. It just won’t be me.
“Momma didn’t raise no guinea pig” ;-).

What I’d be most interested in is seeing these things popped into is a rotary engine. With the superior efficiency and durability of a single master cylinder and perhaps some minor tweaking of the timing, the pulse action could potentially prove to have its greatest payoff in both old Spyders and new RX-8’s. Time will tell, I guess. Any thoughts on whether these would be a good, bad, or no-difference mod to a Hemi?

IThe pulse plug seems to make sense. Almost all the high performance engines use a twin plug configuration to get better performance. With this you will only need one plug for performance

Heres the thing,
Supposedly they prevent loss of power through heat. Which, is a respectable claim as any energy savvy person knows that 2/3 of engine horsepower s lost as heat. If we could instead of using a regular spark plug use a pulse plug I guess it could help. And those of you dumbasses who say that a flame is a flame a spark is a spark you are WRONG. The hotter you can get that spark to fire, the faster and more complete the fuel will burn, so as to assume you aren’t running to lean then it just kinda burns hot and smokey.
I’m going to think about testing them. It also has 30 day return period.
As an engineer and experienced auto tech, I have no doubt these work as stated until I’m proved otherwise. think i might get em next pay period, who knows.

Have you looked into using E3 spark plugs? Much less expensive and the result is very similar – increased power, improved fuel economy and less emissions. Their site is http://www.e3sparkplugs.com. I think their automotive plugs retail for $6.00.

looks like Popular Science really gets around. if you know any high school science teachers, tell them about this discussion, it could fuel a month of classes. and maybe the kids could even blow an engine for the lab work.
also ask the geography teachers if they know where the Okie Gap is !!

Did anyone else notice that Chewey’s calculations were WRONG??? The site said that a traditional spark plug puts out 50 watts in 30 millionths of a second, which is 30 divided by one million, which is 3×10^5. He stated 3×10^3… what gives??

50 Watts*(3*10^5)=1.5*10^-3 Joules from a traditional plug
1000000*(2*10^9)=2 Joules

Pretty big gain… if I were you I’d check your facts before you talk.

If they can do what that vid of the flame prop these things are amazing. Any kind of boosted motor will see good gains if you can keep the gap wide and advance down. The motor is safer too because the farther you have to advanve timing to make power the more risk you have of detonation. These pulse plugs should be tried by someone thats boosted because you could see 10% easily and reduce det at the same time.

Hemi and standard two valve headed motors would see good gains too.

That honda engine has a penta roof head like most modern 4 valve heads. You wont see alot on them because they burn quickly as is.

If, combustion occurs @ .2 billionth’s of a .sec compared to .30 millionth’s of a .sec being the average time span until combustion occurs using the average everyday plug, then there is an advantage for *Pulstar’s Pulse plug. The shorter the delay of spark arrival, the sooner that combustion begins, right?

Despite the hype it appears that there is no significant departure from the “spark” concept. Both the pulse plug and the E3 wear out & including the Direct Hits are based upon the premise “spark” ignition. The true revolution is to use a non-degrading (will last the lifetime of the engine) plasma ignition system. The only product that I know which meets those criteria is the firestorm plug. There is an article on it here:
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/Firestorm.html
Also have a look at this:
http://pulsedpower.usc.edu/newpage/combustion/pulsedignition.shtml

I think the better deal is the FireStorm spark plug from Australia. Let’s form a group and start manufacturing the things under license from the patent holder (inventor). The FireStorm sounds like a major breakthrough, while the pulstar sounds like a slight improvement. These breakthroughs have to be followed up and the inventors need to be honored and supported, or we end up like GM after they stamped Edwin V. Gray’s “pulsed capacitor discharge electric engine” top secret in the late ’80s. Now GM is bragging about Volt which will have a 6-hour recharge time, whereas ZAP electric car will have 10 minute recharge on their 644 horsepower all electric car, speeds up to 155 mph, range 350 miles, 0 to 60 in 3.8 sec., using in-wheel pulsed capacitor discharge electric engines which were ignored by GM and everyone else. ZAP electric car called Zap-X will have body by Lotus Engineering, seating 5 or 7 adults, recharge in 10 minutes not 6 hours as GM is offering soon. In other words, ZAAP stock may be a good deal at under a $1 per share right now. (I am a stockholder.) But I dont see why GM is thought to be advanced when they ignored Edwin V. Gray, while ZAP electric cars is going ahead with in-wheel pulsed capacitor electric engines. Gray won Inventor of the Year Award in Los Angeles 1975 presented by then Gov. Ronald Reagan. But Gray died in his trailer home in California years later with a bullet in the back of his head and no murder investigation, apparently it was thought to be a suicide. Pulsed capacitor engines, or perhaps pulsed ultracapacitor engines (see Maxwell Technologies), have super hi torque with extremely low power drain. Therefore, although it is said that the electric motor is already something like 95% efficient, you will notice that standard electric motors drain batteries a lot faster than pulsed capacitor electric engines of the Gray type. Not only that, but the torque is fantastically powerful; the power is used in picosecond timed bursts similar to lightning or St. Elmo’s fire and the power to the rotor/stator is focused and timed just where it is needed in the rotor cycle at each point in the rotation. I discussed this with a math/physics Ph.D. and his response was, “Electric engines are already very high efficiency and you cannot improve them. So just ignore that inventor.” (That was his attitude.) Well, in fact nowadays GM is going back to all electric vehicle ideas, but still holds the Gray investigation top secret (GM investigated the Gray engine in the late 1970s). Also, new car companies are producing all electric vehicles but still require long charge times if their car is not of the “pulsed capacitor” engine variety. This is the way to go with electric engines. However, GM and certainly GE are not interested in out competing their own “off the shelf” electric engines. “Off the shelf” –interesting term.. that means, if you have stock on the shelf why not sell it? And certainly do not produce new breakthrough products and undercut your own present day electric engines! That might cut into the profit margin (this is why GM labeled their report on the Gray engine Top Secret in the late 70s). This is similar to the kidney dialysis folks who love keeping people on their machines, there is no profit in helping to provide proactive therapies that will allow people to stay off kidney dialysis machines (see GMED). I own stock in ZAAP and GMED.

Ask any expert–They will tell you there is no cure for kidney disease, and no more efficient electric engine than the ones GE already has millions of. End of story.

Short seller stock manipulators are in high demand these days and I can see why large corporations must pay handsomely for their evil practices.

I react more to what is NOT SIAD in an ad than what IS SAID.

Case in point. Conspicuous by its absence in the bang-for-you-buck, $ per horsepower chart, is the Y-pipe.

There is nothing more cost efficient on the planet for instantly getting higher horsepower. A Budget Y-pipe on a V-6 will run you around the same cost as six of these plugs, BUT you will get an average 15% gain in HP without shortening the life of your engine.

They knew it, and that’s why y-pipes were not put on their chart.

I’m always hesitant to deal with companies who manipulate data to make their product look good.

On the other hand, when you consider that only 8% of the energy produced by an internal combustion engine ever gets transferred as work output, any device designed to recapture some of the 92% of energy lost as heat might be worth evaluating.

Provided that it is cost efficient and does not shorten the life of any car component, of course.

The only type of test that matters in my book is real-world driving. Let’s put these in an SUV and run it for 12,000 miles. Then, crunch the mileage numbers and pull out the engine to check pistons and cylinder walls for unusual or excessive wear.

I have read all the response. It needs to be tested in the “real world” and not in therory, as much of these egg heads (no disrespect) therorize, real performance and testing (dyno’s) will tell the truth.

I say lets give it to MythBusters! : Adam : Jamie : Kari : Grant : Tory : at the Discovery Channel!

Ok. I know a little about the operation of the ignition system and the OBD II diagnostic platform mandated by our good old govt in 95. IF— these nwe plugs can produce soooooo much more power from existing fuel and air mix already being used in the existing engine combustion chaimbers today THEN— that would mean more of the air fuel mixture is being burned BUT— in order for the catallytic converter to do its job of storing and releasing oxygen on the rich lean cycles of engine combustion there needs to be a set amount of left over air fuel mix or O2 molequles and hydrocarbons to keep the cat hot and rearrange the HC CO and NOX molequles to create exceptable levels of emission gasses and produce tree hugger friendly O2 CO2 and H2O. Anyone who has driven with that lil check engine light on for a while and then finally got arround to gettin the car fixed only to find out that after the repair that because the problem was let go for so long CATASTROPHIC FAILURE OF THE CONVERTER occured (cat efficency below threshold) My point is these plugs may give you a lil more kick but in order to do that they screw with the engineering of the combustion system and may shorten cat life and void the federally mandated 80,000 mile converter warranty!!! talk to your techs and dealer before install!!

I finally put my money where my mouth is a couple of months ago. I installed Pulstars in my Mazda6s after having the dealer inspect everything and said it all tested right up to spec except for 50% wear on front disks at 50k miles. Earlier I had replaced oem tires (215/50R17) with Goodyear Response Edge 225/50, one size up. Tires are terrific, but gas mileage dropped and car lost some zip. With the Pulstars in, the car immediately seemed peppier, especially in the low end torque – a noticeable difference. Next on a trip to Colorado we averaged about 32mpg for the trip. This is 1 to 1.5 mpg BETTER, with oversized tires, than previous similar trips to Colorado and to Arizona on the old tires. Around town, we were getting 19.5 average and now is up to about 20.5mpg. This is NOT a scientific test, but I’m not at all unhappy with the results. Oh, yeah, the 60,000 mile check up still shows everything on spec for the car.
Your mileage may vary.

I ordered one of the DirectHits for small engines a few days ago. I saw an add in Scientific American and thought, “That would be sooo cool if it worked on my dirt bike!” My bike is about the simplest thing with a spark plug. 80cc Rotary valve 2-stroke with NO timing advance. If these add-on spark enhancers work at all they will do something here for sure. I rebuilt everthing right after I got it, tuned the carb, and adjusted the timing near perfect. It idles nicely but it stills sounds like : ring-a-ding-ding-ding-ring-a-ding-ding. Not totally smooth, also the muffler does this : put-put-put-___-put-put. I know the spark is kind of weak. But the plug looks a good color now and it doesn’t backfire and foul plugs like it used to when I got it.
I got my fingers crossed hoping DIrectsHits will improve this and maybe give the thing just enough extra power to climb up the canyon road in 3rd instead of 2nd. It is just barely not strong enough to hold steady up this one hill in 3rd.
When I get it in the mail I’ll write back here about the results. My dad says I got scammed. If I did I’m only out $45 plus I’m not waking up in Vegas broke. I thought this looked like a safe bet.

I talked to the head mechanic at our local GM dealership and asked him about these. He said that he has not played with them but that they will be standard in all GM products starting in 2010. They must be worth it if one of the big three adopts them.

M Henley,
Did you have the computer adjusted for the new tires? If not, then you are actually going a bit further per revolution and subsequently are getting even better than calculated efficiency.

Digging up an old thread, sorry, but I had to share my feelings. You are are talking about how pulse plugs release 1 million watts of energy in such a short amount of time. What you are forgetting is that 1 million watts of power at ~20,000 volts, would be 5000 amps of current. That much current going through a small piece of metal like that hundreds of times a second would vaporize it easily. No matter which way you spin it, the 1 million watt claim is a complete lie, it would be putting out more energy then what is going in, which is impossible

A fool and his bad math are soon parted…..or something..

I’m laughing at all these ‘experts’ explaining how this has to be BS. However, their logic is flawed and they clearly know nothing about cars.
A spark plug does not run on 12 volts. Modern high energy ignitions use coils and capacitors to build large charges of electricity to put through a plug when the time comes.
As an example, the old 80’s GM HEI ignition systems put 20-50,000 volts into the spark plugs.
Now do your math. At 50,000 volts, that’s only 20 amps to get a million Watts.
WELL within the capability of any alternator, battery, and electrical system of the average car. Newer coil on plug ignitions are even higher in energy.
I guess you geniuses never heard of a capacitor.

The simple fact is that car manufacturers ARE using this technology, but instead of requiring $25 spark plugs, they are moving the pulse circuit into the ignition system where it belongs in a new vehicle. Or hadn’t you noticed that a new Accord gets better mileage than a 1983 model? These plugs are clearly an attempt to adapt this common high output ignition technology to older vehicles.

The marketing gimmick here is that they’ve put this into a component that wears out and needs replaced more often. Good business, and cheaper and easier to install for the average consumer than the one time equivalent, like an MSD Blaster ignition system which puts out a tested 40,000 volts, in a 180mJ pulse.
http://www.msdignition.com/ignition_1_5900.htm

As for plug wires not handling the supposed power, again, use your head. Anyone that’s ever seen a house get lightning zapped will realize that the wires had to carry the current for some minuscule amount of time before they melted.
The time that plug wires, which are very high voltage capable and wrapped in Rubber or high temp Silicone BTW, have to carry their high voltages for a very short time frame, not constantly. The duty cycle of plug wires is actually pretty low if you think about it. Milliseconds or less per each firing, and then only for each cylinder’s time at TDC, which is every other rotation.

Get a clue and do your research before you start jabbering on about how this and that can’t work.

Tachyon

New Pulstars replacing fairly new Bosch 4-prong fusion plugs in 1995 Buick Ultra, 3.8 V6 supercharged. 225 HP, 275 Torgue.

Noticed smoother stronger acceleration with light throttle. Full throttle feels stronger with no computer-adjusted backing off. Holds 70 MPH speed in cruise mode in overdrive on certain hills where it used to decrease speed and come out of overdrive lock. Need to check mileage for 10K before coming to any conclusions. Currently, I get 17 city and 26 hwy. 6,600 summer trip averaged 26.3.

So far, this made a more noticeable difference than any single thing I have tried over the last 40 yrs. (some things have helped) Obviously, some new and effective technology here. Whereas, I did not notice or feel any difference with the Bosch over standard plugs.

As an aside, if the Firestorm plugs were real, or effective, where are the dyno charts published on the internet for all to see, and the ability to order them? (No excuses will do) From the description, they don’t seem as complicated.

I think it would be excellent if perhaps one could try these with a standalone engine management system ( http://www.megasquirt.info, look it up). I think that the benefits to be gained from these in stock systems are potentially miniscule in comparison with the improvements you could make with full A/F ratio and spark advance control. It’s already been stated that lean burn is improved by these plugs. I think with a combination of recently adapted and proven technologies, one could probably up the efficiency of an engine by quite alot. Consider that Australian fuelstar catalysts (http://www.fuelstar.com/) work exceptionally well to the point that the majority of the transportation industry in australia uses them, and the fact that they allow you to up compression ratio quite a few points without detonation. Bear in mind that E85, although it requires more actual fuel in general because it has a different stoichiometric ratio, is also highly detonation resistant. One could have a streetable E85 engine with a catalyst running near-diesel compression ratios, the only problem with this would be getting the mixture to ignite past a certain RPM. Enter pulsed plugs. The possibilities are just astounding.

Tried a set 4 months ago. Can feel slightly stronger acceleration and smoother rev. Its pure science for those who are not technical.
Its similar to a Taser. How can a 12V battery in a taser knock out a 250 lb guy? Its science again.
Read and open up your mind to accept new things.

I am just as puzzled about this device working or not. It seems to have some validity but, like the rest of you, I have questions. One thing I would like to address is the thought that “if this were true, the auto manufacturers would be all over it”. While this seems like a logical choice if the claims were true, it does not necessarily make it a fact, especially when adding such devices would increase cost. I work for a motorcycle manufacturer & I can tell you from experience, if it adds cost to the final product, it had better be the best thing since sliced bread, otherwise, it is a no-go. In the manufacturing industry, people look to remove nickels & dimes from each unit. Adding $100-$200 per unit (assuming each plug is $25) would be an outrageous sum & would not be allowed.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Do not we all know that voltage is responsible for electron acceleration, and amperage is responsible for the rate of electron flow? (related perhaps, but not the same). Also, do not we all know that prepetum mobile is impossible to realise within the realm of science the way we know?
Allright then, Mr. Marc Klink – June 11, 2007 @ 4:13 pm is IMHO absolutely right equation wise, with actual numbers substitution quite close.

Think now, 10^6W is in my dearest dreams for conventional car battery-alternator system I have in my car or I can build perpetum mobile (something-for-nothing in layman terms) to make remaining (appx) 99.8% power needed, and make myself the richest person on earth and say good-bye to science, both, instantly. However, it is not technically out-of-the-question to rise potential to the neighbourhood of 10^6V, thus increasing kinetic energy (fdt=mdv + en) of electrons across the gap to ionize gases faster (i.e. race against crank angle past TDC). This is the name of the game, and a lot of mfgs are doing it to various extends, subject only to their capabilities or market economics.

Okay, back to the issue. IMHO or PMW, unless. and I repeat, unless there is some depletion of stored energy going on in the proprietary element inside these pulstar plugs, I suggest to replace “W” with “V”, and close the case.

Andy – February 10, 2008 @ 11:30 pm,

I almost understood what you said. All the therorizing aside about jouls and watts and volts and powers that be, of the gutsy folks on here who actually put their money where this company’s mouth is: “what are you finding in the pudding?” Is it worth it? If you work for them, stay quiet. I want to hear from the average Jo (or gutsy Jane).

Peace,

To Puzzled:

See my Jan 21, 2008 post. I also put direct hits into 1964 Ford Falcon Van. So, I spent $330 in all.

Both vehicles run great, — better, smoother and stronger than before. My repair shop charges $70/hr plus parts, and they would have used standard plugs etc. I previously had replaced wires and my mechanic made sure there was nothing mechanically wrong otherwise. These plugs added something more.

My mechanic shop does racing work and has a dyno. But I just didn’t want to pay the extra for dyno work.

Verdict: YES, definitely worth it. Finally bought a product that to me, feels like it lives up to it’s advertisement. It really feels like a few more horses under the hood.

To all:
I had to reduce gap to 0.30 to get rid of engine miss and hesitation under load. Due to this problem, Enerplus has some more engineering to do.

Correction:

To all:
I had to reduce gap to 0.030 to get rid of engine miss and hesitation under load. Due to this problem, Enerplus has some more engineering and testing to do. Three plug R&Rs to re-gap on a V6 is no fun.

I drive a volvo 850 and would love to sqeeze a little more MPG’s out of it. I think that I am going to just go ahead and get the plugs and then I am going to test the size and levels of particulate matter in the exhaust. This should prove (or disprove) that the plugs induce a more complete burn and there for, better fuel economy.

To James:

I believe your car will run better and get 2% or more better mileage. I have played around with mileage and found if your car is in poor tune, with carbon deposits, you may see a significant difference once the carbon is blown out.

For me, I have used gas additives regularly like Techrolene to keep injectors and combustion chambers clean. I use 0W-30 Synthetic oil and put on racing ignition wires, and a new oxygen sensor. So, my car was running about as well as it could before I tried the Pulstars. Even so, I noticed even more smoothness and power, but unfortunately, I cannot yet determine whether mileage has improved very much. It is not worse though.

I think there is only so much that can be done with a modern engine that is already running lean and clean. So far, after 1,800 miles, it appears I may be getting 2-3% better mileage. I will be able to tell better after a couple trips, and 10K miles of keeping careful track of gas usage.

The Pulstars are worth it to me for the extra power and smoothness of the engine. I had to re-gap down to 0.030 because of the supercharger. The plugs were nice and clean with an even tan color, exactly the same on all cylinders. Complete combustion has to be good for the engine.

–Russ

Years ago I did dyno work on flame propagation in a Mechanical Engineering program. I had the run of the lab and a dyno all to myself for the school year. I took a very simple engine (out of a BMW R100S (1978) motorcycle) converted it to electonic ignition and ran it single vrs dual plugged. Bottom line was FLAME PROPAGATION DOES MATTER!!!! This talk of explosions in cylinders is BS. It is an flame kernel flowed by a wall of flame. There is no explosion. I could run 6 point lower octane fuel and get the same performance with the dual plugging then with the single. If you wanted better performance you could up the compression ratio with the dual plug and get HP and Torque with the same fuel.

So what has happened since then? Porche went to dual plugging. Am I wrong to think those engineers care about performance? Well now I am contemplating putting pluse plugs in a 525it BMW. Now I am skeptical about the longevity of these things but I can not see how the flame kernel generated by these things could not increase the combustion rate in the flame wall progression through the cylinder. When I was messing with my dyno I had to play with the timming of the engine quite a bit. With modern engines I expect the computers could do this for me… (Automobile engineers please answer that one). As far as the life of the engine? Doubt the cylinders would give damn. The temperature of these things are nothing compared to the fuel burn. Off the top of my head I would be more concerned about the radio and 4, 5, 6 or 8 capacitors discharging within a few feet of it. Don’t mess with my Sex Pistols.

Found this interesting post on another site.

Posted by: Gus Hernandez | Feb 17, 2008 10:13:36 AM

I am a SMOG check technician with my own dynamometer and Smog check engine emissions sampling computer. I received the pulse spark plugs not gapped properly. Two of them had a very wide gap and two had a very short gap. Be aware of u knowing basic mechanical knowledge. I ran a smog test with Brand new NGK Iridium spark plugs on a 2000 Toyota Corolla 1.8 I believe Iridium spark plugs last very long maybe 70000 miles. The test results with Iridium spark plugs came out good and a passing smog test. I replaced the new Iridium plugs with the newly arrived pulse spark plugs and corrected gap. I reset the car’s computer with a scanner and drove a couple of miles to allow the computer monitors to complete. The computer monitors completed and ran smog test. The smog test showed lower emission levels. Specially carbon monoxide. Example: Iridium spark at 15 mph .30 CO, pulse spark at 15 mph .02 CO.
I plugged in all the emission numbers into an equation that tells if your engine is or is not burning fuel at stoichiometric (1 X 14.71) Results were that my car with brand new iridium plugs did well at stoich, but with pulse plugs the result were almost perfect. .999 X 14.69.
The engine runs same at idle, but it runs smooth at low and high moving speeds. The pick up speed seems to be better. I do not notice any gas improvement.
I noticed one flaw. My car’s engine makes rattling noises with 87 gas, but noises went away with higher octane gas. My car did not care the type of gasoline I filled it up with when I had stock spark plugs.

Maybe if your car has mechanical problems and your car runs rich, this pulse spark plug would be a good band aid to correct and try to burn all the excess fuel.

Stills testing so far it seems to be a good product.

Hey everyone,

I work for the company that makes these Pulstar plugs. I’m not here to tell you it’s a magic plug or that you’ll get amazing mpg and power increases, I’m not even here to sell you the plugs, just give you information.

I work closely with the testing department here and I give you my word (I realize this is the net and that doesn’t go very far but it is what it is) that the tests we do are legitimate and the numbers are in no way fudged or messed with.

I personally publish our tests on the net under my name and that’s something I don’t want to sour. http://pulstarplug.blogspot.com has our testing data posted by me. If you have any questions whatsoever don’t hesitate to call and ask for me.

I just tried these plugs. I dynoed my car doing about 8 pulls with my Bosch plugs. I then disconnected the negitive cable (they recomended that) and installed the pulstar plugs. Made 8 more pulls and lost 2 hp and 2 lbs of torqueon every pull. Re-installed the Bosch plugs and gained back what I lost.
This is on a Miata. I wish they had worked but was very disapointed. I have dyno sheets if anyone wants to see them.

nohairracing-reverse@yahoo.com

Okay I paid the $125.00 dollars for 6 Pulstar plugs, they lasted approx. 3500 miles. I put my old Bosch plugs back in and I am working with out the any misses I was experiencing with the Pulstar Plugs. To be far the Pulse Plugs did run okay when I first put them in my Toyota Tacoma, they only started missing after three months of use, but what a waste of money!

I bought the plugs for my 60,000 mile tuneup. My Subaru Legacy GT has never had a bad day. Nothing in 60,000 miles.

Then I had the Subaru dealer install those plugs because the car has a COP system, and I didn’t want to take a chance on damaging these new plugs. $350

Two days after thay were installed, the car suddenly went into convulsions, and barely ran. Back to the dealer (by tow truck). One of the new plugs was open. Replaced it with another Pulstar plug. $180. Three weeks later, the car began to idle roughly, and the check engine light came on. Back to the dealer. Two more plugs are firing weakly. Told the dealer to get those plugs out, and use platinum factory recommended plugs. $400.

This experiment with an unproven technology has cost me almost $700 in extra charges, Needless to say, I won’t be making THAT mistake again. I will pick up my Subaru at the dealer tonight, a poorer, but wiser man.

I am still waiting for my car. I have been in touch with Pulstar. They think it may be due to the dealer mechanic not gapping the plugs correctly. I will be sending the suspect plugs back for evaluation. Pulstar has been very cooperative so far.

I will let you know what we find, either way.

I may be off here, but doesn’t a capacitor take time to charge up before discharging? Wouldn’t that actually cause a delay in the spark- like retarding the spark timing? I could see how this might possibly get you slightly better gas mileage in some RPM ranges, but overall wouldn’t this cause a drop in performance? (As a kid I turned my distrubuter to further advance the spark and get quicker acceleration and much worse gas milage.)

I have installed them in my 95 BMW 325i, and ran a full dynamometer before and after. Definitely measured improved torque, horsepower, and fuel economy. Have driven about 300 miles on the plugs, and there is absolutely no doubt: the car has more power, much better low end torque, and, after I finally calmed down and quit enjoying the extra juice so much, is getting about 7% better fuel economy in my routine daily commute. I then installed them in my 2005 Volvo S80 T-5. I initially had one plug to fail – the ceramic shell cracked, which is probably something I did during installation – it was cheerfully replaced. This car was already very quick with outstanding fuel economy, and now it is improved in both areas. Anxious to take a long trip and compare MPG to my last long run in this car, where it delivered 31 – 32 mpg at 75 – 80 mph.

We also put them in a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer with a CVT; not much change in torque and hp, but over 12% better MPG. In a 2008 Chevy Silverado with DOD 6.0L, same MPG, but significantly increased torque & hp.

Yes, results vary… but vary good!

thanx to everyone that posted.

to howard with the miata and dyno pulls.

after changing out the plugs did u drive around for a while to let the ECU calibrate to the new plugs? or did u you just replace the plugs with with the battery cable off and then run the dyno? if u did the latter then you would be getting incorrect numbers and i would not be suprised about the loss of power. if u ran the car right after resetting the ECU(removing the battery cable) then the car would be running in “default” mode.

what kind of man drives a miata definitaly not a straight one.

[...] as well. Or air temp could have done that change too. But 100$ for 4 plugs isnt worth it." http://chris.pirillo.com/2007/06/10/…s-pulse-plugs/ __________________ |’05 Coupe 5AT|Diamond Graphite|Clear Corners|OEM Front Lip|Gloss Black [...]

From reading all the posts, it seems to me that Pulstar works if and when it works in theory and in reality. But it seems to me that they do have a quality control/reliability problem. As for whether the price of admission is worth it, that is a matter of personal choice.

Have a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Anything to squeeze out a few more miles to the tank would be nice.
Had 90,000 miles on a set of Bosch+4s, so decided to replace them. I keep a milage log, and knew that my usually miserable mpg had decreased.
The Pulse plugs caught my eye, and I decided to try them.

I am old enough to have seen many, many claims over the years to increase your mpg. I have tried some, remember the voltage increaser you placed on the wire from the coil to the top of the distributor? It was suppose to increase the voltage to the spark plugs 200% and increase your milage. All bunk.

The Jeep was performing at 17.4mpg on the road prior to installing the pulse plugs. Afterward, I ran the Jeep on a 3000 mile trip. Average was 19.2mpg. Hummm,..

Going back to my milage records, the Jeep actually got 19.6mpg until 78,000 miles.

Then, the dung hit the fan. A week ago the Jeep started running poorly, and the check engine light came on. A trip to the Auto Parts store that will use a diagnostic meter for free, “engine coil or secondary ignition problem”.

Removed the Pulse plugs, and noticed they were in poor shape. The tips are pitted, the porcelain electrode protectors were slightly (?!!) melted at the tip.

Replaced with Autolite Platinum tipped. No change.

Replaced the coil. (It is directly attached to each spark plug in the Jeep, $225 part). No change.

Trip to the dealer. ECU blown. $600.

Had dealer put in a new set of Bosch +4’s.

Now have ran 1200 miles. Milage is 19.8mpg.

Overall, I think when your engine needs a fresh set of spark plugs, any brand will improve your engine’s performance.

I have a scientific mind, and reasoned that the pulse plugs, just perhaps, might be an improvement.

The science is complicated, and ad nauseatum debated above, but you can take your 12 volt system and electrically ramp it up to a much higher voltage. It depends.

The question is, do you need to utilize this technology?

My money went where my mouth now states, no. I do not blame the loss of my ECU on the Pulse plugs, but their cost, and lack of any enhanced results, show that regardless of the Pulse plug’s ability to deliver the claims that they make my engine does just fine on Bosch +4’s.

I tried them in my 1998 Chevy Malibu 2.4 liter 4 cylinder and Let me tell you what a waste of time and effort they made my car “pulse” down the road thank god they have a 30 day money back guaranty stick with good Platinum or Iridium Plugs whichever was recommended by your auto manufacturer.

I tried these plugs. They worked fine for about 2500 miles. Thats when the car started to miss. I pulled the plugs out and found one of the plugs center part was loose. Im just glad it did not break up and get into the cilinder and cause alot of damage. I called Enerpulse and they said it was past the 30 day guarantee and they would not refund my money..
I suggest you stay away from this product..
LJ

its just a plasma ignitor (hot) that uses a capacitor rather than several ignition sources much like what they already have on new diesel engines (hard for some to understand because they are preconsumed with pressure ignition and glow plugs) but can handle the temps of gasoline or petrol. i’ve read through patent apps on google and Bosch is working on their own system (version) it seems; Pulstar and Pulse-Tronic are just two of the first to market their versions. Not sure on product quality though i dont see any SAE (society of automotive engineer) symbols anywhere on their product. time will tell though.

im thinking about ordering along with 3 other friends. i guess the plugs do have quality problems. i did hear from my other friends that inserted the technology seem happy with the results they have got. one of the longest plug owner has been running for about 4months with no problem. the vehicle sounds a bit different… not in a bad way, performance wise.. i m guessing more aftermarket hp boosting gismo… better pulse plug performs given the vehicle has not incorporated msd or plasma ignition coils. from all of the above that i have looked carefully. the plugs do break like any other plugs would with improper gap adjustment. as far as the tip electrode or whatever broke that i can not remember due to this time past my bed time… $150 for addition of 2 to 3 hp? i would be glad to buy with questionable quality above mentioned. thanks for all the info. i will note after i get the plugs and test for improvement. lexus is300 2002 sedan mpg at highway going 110km or 68mph 32mpg. can not tell city mpg… i have a habit of drifting in dangerous occations..

I have installed a set of pulstar plug in my grand prixd GTP series II, with supercharged engine. So far so good. I have the on board computer that shows fuel usage, mpg, miles left to drive on the tank, etc etc ad nauseum.

So far, so good. Installed MSD coils and wires with them, and between all three, I am looking at 3.7 mpg better and the car feels a bit smoother on the acceleration.. Will post again with any changes.

if all the eingine needs is a bigger or hotter spark then why dont they make for bigger and better wires and plusgs and generatores, seems they would of came up with this long ago. something not quite right about this, saying has hotter spark dont mean nothing . were the test on small one cylinder engine. hard to believe tey dont sale this to auto makers shouldnt take long to prove and auto makers would grap these.

Skeptical?

When I first heard about pulse plugs it was from a banner ad on a performance website. I did a lot of reading around on various forums and the like. Everyone seemed very skeptical with ideas on why these won’t work, or horror stories of blown engines. I went down to Kragen (a large auto parts store) and they had never heard of them.

That was about a year ago. I dismissed the idea and eventually sold my car. Today I walked into Kragen and there was a huge booth set up with pamphlets and pictures, pushing Pulse Plugs.

If you are skeptical, check back here in about a week. I am driving a 2008 Impreza, which has an MPG dash read. I will be installing a set of these in the next few days, tuning for them and posting my results.

Please remember that as with any performance modifications, you will not feel the full benefit without a proper tune.

HEY BILL VLASAK I NEED NEW SPARK PLUGS!!!

‘07 Honda Civic Si with stock NGK plugs and 36000 mi – 33.5 MPG (I’ve kept track of MPG with both 91 octane and 89 octane and have seen no noticeable differenct in MPG). Put in the Pulse Plugs, and after 1000 mi. I’m averaging 35.5 MPG or a 6% gain in MPG. It does seem to have more torque. The engine was more prone to lug at lower RPM, so I’ve started using 91 and lugging is gone.

I’m now a little nervous about the quality control thing mentioned above, but from a performance standpoint I’d say they live up to their promise.

I was very interested in the post from Russel Kennel/ Gus Hernandez (March 1, 2008) about the emissions data. I was kicking myself for not having my emissions tested before and after, but I’m glad someone did it. This seems pretty conclusive evidence to me.

If you want more power to your spark plugs, then in my opinion there’s only one real way to do it.
GET AN MSD IGNITION SYSTEM.
Above a certain rpm…its just one big ass spark anyway.
MSD will pump more power to your plugs then any built in plug capacitor could ever hope to and the price of a lower end system is about the price of two of these pulse plug change outs.
I run MSD in my truck, car and boat and I can tell you that 10000 race car drivers cant be wrong.
I would also add that although many of the mechanics posting here are wise beyond there years, some dont know crap about how electricity (spark) works or acts under intense heat and pressure.Its a bit more than the way a spark works off a Bic lighter.
JMO thanks,
Sp0iler

Does the racing world ( drags, NASCAR, etc) use them? To me, those are the people that would seek out ANY device that would increase power.

Drag racing might be drawn to something like this, but other racing likely wouldn’t as they all have hp limits (per class) so why would they seek out something such as this?