has anyone ever heard of these? they are 25 bucks a pop, so that 150 for a set of plugs...

they claimed they got 10HP

http://www.pulstarplug.com/howtheywork.html

 

 

Huh. . .wonder if they really work. Interesting claim with the "1,000,000" watts. . .but if it does make a more complete, efficient burn, I don't see why it wouldn't work. I guess time and independent tests will tell.

 

yeah very interesting

 

Just tested a set of these in a '06 350Z roadster with just 1200 miles on the engine and the Pulstar plugs made 13whp over the stock plugs. I was personally pretty skeptical when this company asked for me to test and review their product for Modified Mag, but after putting them to the test on a Dyna Pack dyno and doing multiple runs to verify the results, I can confidently say these plugs make big power on the VQ. I'll definitely be putting a set in my G35, my EG road race/time attack car, and even my van tow vehicle. Cheapest and easiest horsepower I've ever found.

My test will be in the April issue of Modified Mag if you want more details, but I'll post the graph up here next week if you guys want to see it for yourselves.

 

I seen Ad's in Modified Mag, but how do we know that you are actually Dave Pratte???

 

But do those gains stay consistent after numerous pulls?

A previous test performed:

http://www.sparkplugs.com/glossaryImage.asp?imgID=499




http://www.my350z.com/forum/showthre...97#post5058897

 

Yup, gains seemed to stay consistent even after we heat soaked the engine pretty nicely. But this is just one test on one car under the conditions I've descibed above, so I'm not saying you'll see the same gains. It just surprised the hell out of us that plugs of any kind could make this kind of power. Clearly there's something different going on here, so we will investigate further by testing on more engines so that we can help our readers determine if these plugs are a good investment or not. So far, seems like they are more than worth the money, but will post more as we test them on a bunch of different platforms including my EG K24-powered Time Attack/Road Racing Honda Civic, a few of our other project cars, etc. We're basically going to have everyone on our staff at the mag on these plugs since the initial results were so promising.

citymunky, I can wee why you'd be skeptical about who I am, since I've never posted on this forum before. Truth is, I've mostly been a Honda guy but picked up a G35 coupe about 6 months ago, which we're building up in the mag now, so as I learn more about the VQ motor and the chassis, I will be posting on here more often. Anyway man, if you want to verify who I am, feel free to e-mail me at dpratte@modified.com and I'll send you a response that you can post up here. Not sure how else to verify for you who I am.

Sasha from SG Motorsport, whose shop and 350Z we used for the test, is on this forum too, so I'll see if I can get him to come on over here and verify our test for you.

 

Was going to start a new thread, but found this one. Here is my $.02:

Just read an article in Dsport magazine about Pulstar Pulse spark plugs (they have built in capacitors). According to the article the magazine tested the DG-1 Pulse plugs and they gave a 5.2 whp increase on a 6mt G35 (the G35 had NGK Laser Platinums to start). They also gave 2.4 to a Honda B18 and 5.7 to a Mitsubishi 4G63. Pretty good results just from changing spark plugs. They are about $25 each or three times the price of regular spark plugs, but to get more hp it might be worth it.

Here is what Pulstar says

Pulstar Plug

How They Work, For 100 years, ignition technology has been dominated by spark plugs (see history of spark plugs). Pulse plugs are a radical departure from spark plugs. Their physical dimensions are the same as spark plugs because they have to interface with the engine and ignition system just like spark plugs. But this is where the similarity ends.

Pulstar Puls Plug

Pulse plugs incorporate a pulse circuit, which stores incoming electrical energy from the ignition system and releases the stored energy in a powerful pulse of power. Instead of 50 watts of peak power typical of all spark plugs, pulse plugs deliver up to 1 million watts of peak power. So where does the pulse plug get its incredible power?

How They Work

For 100 years, ignition technology has been dominated by spark plugs (see history of spark plugs). Pulse plugs are a radical departure from spark plugs. Their physical dimensions are the same as spark plugs because they have to interface with the engine and ignition system just like spark plugs. But this is where the similarity ends.

See our Video/Testimonial...


Pulse plugs incorporate a pulse circuit, which stores incoming electrical energy from the ignition system and releases the stored energy in a powerful pulse of power. Instead of 50 watts of peak power typical of all spark plugs, pulse plugs deliver up to 1 million watts of peak power. So where does the pulse plug get its incredible power?

When the ignition signal is sent to a traditional spark plug, it begins to ionize the spark gap. This means that the voltage builds in the gap until a spark can be formed. During this ionization phase, which lasts about 5 millionths of a second, the incoming voltage (which has nowhere to go) heats up ignition components including the spark plug. This is wasted energy. When the ignition voltage overcomes the resistance in the spark gap, the spark is created with an initial discharge of approximately 50 watts. Once created, the spark resides between the electrodes at very low power for over a period of 30 millionths of a second.

What is different about a pulse plug is that instead of heating ignition parts during the ionization phase, this energy is stored in the integral circuit inside the pulse plug. When the ignition power overcomes the resistance in the spark gap, the pulse circuit discharges all of its accumulated power - 1 million watts - in 2 billionths of a second!

A simple way to think about pulse plugs is that they are similar to a camera flash, whereas spark plugs are more like a flashlight. A camera flash is exponentially brighter than a flashlight even though they both may use the same battery.

Tests at an independent laboratory demonstrate how Pulstar™ pulse plugs burn fuel more efficiently than spark plugs. In this high-speed video (shot at 68,000 frames per second), you can actually see the ignition plume of Pulstar™ growing at more than twice the speed of the spark plug. Pulstar™ generates a much larger spark than spark plugs, which reduces overall burn time and burns the fuel more completely. Once created, the spark dissipates over a period of 30 millionths of a second.

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.

Another way that Pulstar™ improves efficiency is by reducing cycle-to-cycle variation. Cycle-to-cycle variation occurs in every engine to some degree and is caused by the dynamics of combustion, load, fuel quality, mixture of air to fuel and many other combustion variables. These variables can cause the spark plug to generate a weak spark and in the worst case, a misfire. This variability in ignition timing robs all spark ignited, internal combustion engines of up to 10% of their efficiency.

The powerful spark of Pulstar™ ignites fuel more precisely, which can reduce cycle-to-cycle variation by up to 50%. This is an important contribution to improving fuel economy.

 

sounds good so far but like homeboy said, well put em' in a few other cars and spin em' and see what we get.

 

Here's the graph from our dyno test:



I 100% agree with the sentiment that we need to see more results before people rush out to buy these plugs. Some of you will be the types who want to try them right away, and if you are, please consider investing the time and $ necessary to dyno test them and post your results so we can build a database of results that'll help everyone make an informed purchasing decisions. The last thing I want to see if people rushing out to buy these plugs based on this one test, only to find they don't get the same results. That would be bad for you and it would be even worse for me.

Our initial test results are surprising and show a lot of promise, but like I said before I will be testing these plugs in a bunch of different platforms and a few other VQ-powered cars so I can help contribute to this database for this product. I'll let y'all know as soon as I have more results for you -- and in the meantime, Pulstar themselves acknowledge that results vary from engine to engine, with their own testing showing gains as high as 12% on a 2000 Volvo S80 2.8L Turbo and as little as 2% on a 2002 Saab 9.3 2L Turbo. But independent testing is what's really needed, and we'll keep contributing to that since these plugs do show some promise so far. FYI, D-Sport Mag has also done some testing and have shown some positive results, though nothing as dramatic as the gains we saw on Sasha's 350Z Roadster.

Oh, and just so you guys know I'm not some sort of Pulstar spokesperson, I'm going to post my Stillen intake and exhaust test along with my MotorDyne 5/16'' plenum spacer and MREV2 test from my G35 project car, which has already gone to print in Modified Mag in our Feb issue. Perhaps some of you have seen it, but I'll happy post it here and results from all future testing on my G35 so I can get to know this forum and the community that's active on it.

 

Two questions/comments:

I wonder how they perform if used in conjunction with another ignition enhancing device (HKS DLI II, for example)

For those of us F/I'ed, do they make a one step colder plug?

 

caelric, I'm guessing you're Dave 90TT over on my350z.com. Here's what I posted over there in response to your questions:

To be honest I think the Pulstar plugs are acting in a very similar way to the HKS DLI II, but rather than being wired in thru a single box they're built into each plug separately. This may give more consistent results since each plug is acting as its own spark "amplifier", whereas the HKS unit is doing so for all the plugs, so there could be some degradation of signal and resultant spark with this approach. This is purely a theory of mine though, so take it for what it's worth.

I also like Sasha's theory on ignition timing and how with the Pulstars perhaps a stronger spark is happening earlier in the combustion process, though there may be some relation to signal/spark strength from the coil-on-plug setup our VQ's have as well. I'm curious to see how these plugs work on a distributor setup like on the Honda B-series motors for example, and see if the gains are still there. I'll definitely be doing a lot more research on these things to try to make sense of the gains we saw, especially if we continue to see solid gains on other engines over time.

According to Pulstar the plugs we tested in Sasha's Roadster are a 7 on the temp scale, so should be good for stock to aggressive NA setups, but for a turbo setup going colder is obviously the way to go and from what I'm told they are being offered in at least 1 step colder than stock initially and as time passes perhaps they'll add more temp options, assuming results and sales justify expanding their product line. I think this is such a new product that a lot remains to be seen, both in terms of power gains on a larger sample size of motors and in terms of product durability in extreme conditions like those found in a big boost setup or a continuous high RPM setting like in Sasha's Grand Am KONI Challenge 350Z race car. I think Sasha is going to try these in his race car, so we'll see how they stand up to 3 hours of brutal punishment on the race track pretty soon.

 

Slightly OT, but do any of you remember the Firestorm Plugs? Nightly Automotive Report Segment

I was really looking forward to trying these, but looks like though his website, Firestorm got a start, nothing went forward. Too bad as it looked promising.

 

D-Sport has three dyno graphs in the magazine for the three vehicles they tested. The only thing i question about their result is the front advertisement is for the the spark plug company.