Pulstar Plugs, Do you believe?

[500dolla]

I knew it was B/S. But i was reading in a car magazine. 0-60. then run down on pretty much all spark plugs. It said Pulstar actually did give 10 times higher peak voltage than average(around 50 watts peak). It has an "internal capacitor" to deliver a higher voltage.

Lets hear it

[gotak]

When the product advertisement starts talking about voltage and watts in the same literature. It's usually a good indication it's BS.

What they are doing is throwing up all these terms most people don't really understand and making you think these plug does magic. Here's the thing new cars use coil on plug to generate the approximately 20,000 volts needed to cause ionic break down of the fuel air mixture. If you go and read this:

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/cannon/sparky.html

You can see they have a diagram of the typical arrangement in a modern ignition coil. Notice that there's no direct current path between the power source (battery) and the plug (because the coil between the + and - acts basically as a short circuit and current will always flow that path, unless you invented something for the spark plug that's a negative resistance which does not exist). The entire amount of energy delivered to the spark plug is actually held in the magnetic field generated in the primary (smaller) coil when the battery is connected and causing current to flow in the primary coils. As such you can see that there's no way more power or energy can be magically generated by a special spark plug with some sort of a capacitor. That would be a violation of the laws of thermodynamics and if it was possible the guys who invented such a thing just solved our energy crisis and would have better things to do then selling spark plugs.

So some people will now say "but the plug has a capacitor that will generates a higher voltage and thus a brighter spark". Actually first of all a capacitor doesn't boost voltage. It's call a passive component for a reason. You can use some sort of coil arrangement inside the plug to boost voltage again just like the ignition coils. However, the problem with that is you don't get any more "power". Due to inefficiencies in any transformer systems none will deliver 100% of the power at it's input to it's output.

So basically A) your ignition system provides a set amount of power and B) there's no way to make more power magically. And so all this marking BS is just that BS trying to sell you some snake oil you don't need.

Seriously if it sounds too good to be true but no car companies actually use it. It's most likely fake.

[500dolla]

Thanks, but it was in a actual magazine, not an advertisement but an actual writeup. weird. So that just moved down on my list of car mags...

[djtorello]

Pulsar plugs and Nology Hot wires are worthless. Carmags give good reviews to any company thats sponsors them for printing. Example, the Fuel saving Tornado.

[nametakennow]

I'm inclined to agree. I've seen Pulstars dynoed on Mazda 3's and Neon SRT-4's and in both cases the numbers were too close to draw any conclusions. Simple environmental and run-to-run differences could easily have accounted for the minuscule differences in power in both directions.

[500dolla]

Yea, I would never spend money on those plugs. Just wondering. Does anyone ever read 0-60? I somehow got a subscription to that and it seems to be decent but its more for upper class vehicles.

[vegas2.0S]

So if I'm understanding what Gotak is talking about, it doesn't matter what plugs you use? What about the other types of plugs out there that have some special coding or 2,3 or 4 tips? I all ready have my opinon on this topic I just want to know what others think.

[djtorello]

So if I'm understanding what Gotak is talking about, it doesn't matter what plugs you use? What about the other types of plugs out there that have some special coding or 2,3 or 4 tips? I all ready have my opinon on this topic I just want to know what others think.

2,3,4 tips plugs are horrible. Electricity will always take the path of least resistence, so those other extra tips are just preventing a/f mixture from getting to the plug as easily as it should.

Now there are plugs that serve specific jobs. Many COLDER plugs are for turbo, SC, and nitro uses. Glow plugs are for diesel uses.

[JeremyNissan]

nothing beats a solid reliable plug in the correct heat range. Pulse plugs would come factory if they provided the same or better performance as the OE stuff these days. If you wanna upgrade the power to the coil then double the voltage going in. There are some companies that do just this to achieve good results on boosted engines.

If you have a coil on plug you shouldn't have to worry about anything. Most factory nissans use 40,000V coils from the factory.

[500dolla]

So now I am going to go buy a tornado, pulstar plugs, an electric supercharger and a spoiler. How much wheel horsepower is that??? I was think 250whp with .1 bar of boost!!!!! Yay

JK