Engine Enerpulse 1000,000 watt pulse plugs

Enerpulse 1,000,000 watt pulse plugs review

What a difference! I acutally have to ease off the gas now. The car lurches when drive with my usual heavy foot at normal speeds. My off the line power seems to have dimmed a bit. Probably because I haven't gapped them yet. It's set at a stock .045 but I usually gap my plugs to .035. I'll have to wait a while to let the engine cool before I take them out and regap them. It makes it easier to ignite the gas with less effort. I took the car for a canyon run and the response is so much better. I actually have more power to climb hills now and I can actually go faster on my runs. It's insane. I have yet to take it on the highway or see how my mpg turns out. I'll inform everyone in week or two. But if you're asking if it's worth 25 a plug, I will say yes! Get a set. You won't be disappointed.
http://www.pulstarplug.com/

AHH so its basically 100 bucks... plus shipping... maybe i'll try it next year just replaced mine last semester and i kinda wanna see more testimonials from others as well

It seems that a lot of people criticize the pulse plugs based on theory and assumption. They just don't have the balls to buy a set and critique them in person. They can judge all they want, but they really do make a difference. I can attest to that.

well you got my attention with those plugs...

how many miles they last? 20K?

They last just as long as the OEM plugs if not longer.

Let me add my take on this (I worked on this research area in the 90's)

1,000,000 Watts?! For how long (dwell time) - they don't tell you that info (probably on the order of nanoseconds), OEM plugs are on the order of microseconds. This is actually important - as it will indicate the operation of this plug.

There was an article fairly recently (June? 2007) that tested several "pulse" plugs and air-gap variants 9called Okie plugs). They all work on the same princple of getting the ignition system to fire a stronger voltage through the plug - some used a mechanical design, some solid state electronics. In testing they all had more spark power than your plain plug and produced a shorter, more intense spark kernel - downside - OEM ignitions do not have the duty cycle to feed them this much current and will have their livespans quickly shortened. Also note - these are NON RESISTOR plugs - if it applies to your app. They will be "noiser" than standard resistor plugs, but if it affects you - depends on your application. Actually, just changing from resistor plugs to non-resistor ones will gain you about 10% more efficiency with NO change to your system.

As for pulse circuits nothing new - your ignition system already uses something similar in its operation - sometimes this is called a peaking capacitor, when inside a sparkplug. Sandia did much research in this aspect for the DoE - plasma tech, etc. (did research work there some time ago).

Should gap your plugs to 0.044" anyways - 0.035" is a little tight, unless you are running forced induction or nitrous. Probably exactly why you are seeing a difference in performance - at 0.035", you are not exposing enough of your spark kernel to the available air fuel mix. Try buying a fresh set of OEM plugs gapped correctly, same temperature range, and you probably see similar results to these plasma plugs.

Playing Devil's advocate (for and against this product) - took a good peek at the site and noted the usual signs of a possible BS component.

“… 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. …”
- if this was really the case, automotive OEM manufacturers would be all over this - why spend the money on R&D if there was a product that could actually do this.

“… The amount of performance will depend on the make, model and condition of your vehicle. …”
- sounds like “your mileage may vary” caveat/cop-out quote. Basically says that if you don't see any improvement - it’s not due to they product, it’s because you’re driving the wrong car.

But I will also add that this technology has been around for some time - peaking capacitors do bump up the spark efficiency - sometimes 50% greater, in some cases. In fact - this company has been around for some time as well - making retrofit kits of spark amplifiers. http://www.directhits.com/aboutus.html

They have several SAE whitepapers and dyno runs to show their stuff works. As much as 2-4HP gain and
But you also have to take a couple lumps along the way - efficiency is a double edged sword - you get that extra power by careful component selection and possibly straining the OEM system. Some cases, it actually will lessen the strain. Being a non-resistor plug, you'll tend to get a hotter spark anyway when compared to a running a resistor plug.

Be interesting to see how this plug stands up over time (does performance drop over time) and how sensitive it is to plug gap. Might give them a go - 30 day money back guarantee - $100 is cheap, if the claims are all true. $100 also buys a good amount of gas, maintenance items for the car, or a couple of steak dinners.

Definitely not BS tech - here is a link to the whitepaper for you technical people: http://www.directhits.com/tech/SAE_02ffl_204.pdf
But too much BS marketing and inconsistencies in other areas to make the cut for me (just take a peek at some of their other publications, references, and dyno runs). One dyno run on a H22A engine shows the dyno run sheet as baseline and cam change - where as they just edit in RUN1 = oem setup, and RUN 5 = setup with spark amplifier.

http://www.rexresearch.com/pulstar/pulstar.htm
Enerpulse says its Pulstar pulse plugs, launched in June, increase combustion efficiency by burning fuel more completely and at a faster rate. Ultimately, that means getting more energy out of the combustion process and higher performance on hills and such. Other startups, such as Venrock-backed Transonic Combustion and Italy’s Nevis Engine Company, are also working to improve the efficiency of conventional cars, mainly their engines.

Prior to Pulstar, Enerpulse, which was founded in 1996 with angel money, sold about 100,000 units of a kit that came with a spark plug and pulse circuit, mainly for the aftermarket. But the package was complicated to install and took up too much space, according to Mr. Parker, who sees it as part of Enerpulse’s development phase.

In 2004, Altira invested $2.6 million in the company to fund the development of the Pulstar pulse plug, which is pre-assembled and is the size of a state-of-the-art spark plug (about 3 inches long and a half-inch in diameter). Working out the bugs took more than three years, even with the help of testers at Sandia National Laboratories. “You have to put an awful lot of technology in a very small package,” said Mr. Parker, who added that a European and an American car company have agreed to test the product on their vehicles.

Though the SUV and light truck market is Enerpulse’s long-term target, the Pulstar won’t likely go into new cars through OEM agreements for at least another two years, Mr. Parker said. Early adopters are more likely to be drivers of sporty cars who want a little more zip.

I'm thinking of widening the gap to around .040. I had my old set of iridium plugs at .035 and that posed no problems. I have noticed a bit of occasional misfire at .035 with these pulse plugs. But I do feel a big difference with these plugs. I can definitely feel the power difference. The accelerator is a little touchy now if I'm not careful.

Any reason why you are closing up your plug gap? Should be 0.044" for plug gap on the 1ZZ-FE. Do more city or highway driving? Just curious - as I don't remember you mentioning running boost or nitrous.

Increased air flow or hp increases desire less gap for spark plugs. The optimum spark can only be obtained by adjusting it for the most efficiency. The factory set gap at .045 is geared toward a generic application since the plugs can be used in thousands of different vehicles. Each vehicle has optimum spark at different gaps. It's never a good idea to directly bolt in the spark plugs in without regapping them. In some cases, too wide of a gap will cause you to lose power. My last set of iridium plugs were also gapped to my preferred .035 instead of the stock .045. I know it works best with my car. I remember spending over 2 weeks trying to find the optimum spark gap. This new setting on these pulse plugs is giving me occasional misfires off the line. If the misfiring occurs again, I'll widen the gap by .002-3 to fix it.

i need to get new ones xD

Hmm - interesting. If anything, should be the other way around from the way you mentioned - opening the gap would lend itself to more power than closing it up (except in a forced induction, super high compression, or nitrous) as it would exposes more of the spark kernel to the combustion chamber - but also increases the chance of misfires, especially if the ignition is not strong enough. But you are correct, the gap out of the box is not always the right gap for the car.

Still - didn't think there was that much variance or sensitivity between the different ZZ engines for spark plug gaps.

Reason I'm asking is that I also did the same thing on my cars (habit from doing it so long) - sweet spot on the Corolla seem to be at 0.043" +/- 0.002". Same deal with the 2ZZ-GE on the Matrix - started at ~ 0.030", kept bumping it up until I got a decent fuel economy with drivability, its gap was a little smaller at 0.041".

Any smaller of a gap and both tended to pre-ignite the mix and cause detonation and overheat the plug. Too big of a gap and I'd get poor fuel economy, misfires, a more plug fouling.

I think you're right too. I'm going to try widening the gap a little to around .040 and see how it performs. All I know is that at the stock .044 setting I'm losing off-the-line power. It feels gutless below 3k RPMs. Once I set it at .035, my low end power came back. As of right now, I haven't experienced any more misfires. Who knows? Maybe the pulse plug settings could differ from traditional plugs since the spark is already so much more intensified that shortening the gap wouldn't effect ignition much.

Here's a follow up after I've driven it around in city and highway conditions for several days. There have been no more misfires and the car is running smoother than ever. I haven't noticed any mpg differences as of now(Haven't used the entire tank yet). Power gains are significant throughout the entirety of the powerband. The car feels like it's being driven with overdrive off. I'm afraid to see what driving on the actual overdrive off is like. With these plugs, acceleration is an ease at any point in the powerband and at any speed whether it be from a dead stop or 3k RPMs trying to pass on the highway. Speaking of which, I was on the highway on my way home today. I always pass over this hump in the highway. I've been over it so many times, it's a landmark to me. Well, I didn't pay any attention until I was just over it. I was accelerating a bit going through it and my tires lost traction for a split second rounding the top of it. The tires didn't squeal, but it obviously lost traction. I have never been able to get my car to lose traction at such high speeds in the dry. I was going 80 mph and my tires are V rated so I know they have plenty of grip at those speeds. These plugs have well overexceeded my expectations. My future cars from now will have these in them.

Nice. Keep us updated on how they perform. The older CDI systems did show more spark energy provided throughout the rev range - but some tended to cause problems for sensitive electronics, like some ECUs, CarPCs, car audio/video, etc. Interesting to see if the system built into a plug body vs the external units help shield EMI noise.

Plugs malfunctioned! Serious misfiring and near stalling.

They are dead.

1,000,000 Watt good while they lasted pulse plugs.

They failed me today on the way home. It started up fine this morning and had the usual pep on the freeway. No problem climbing hills and great throttle response. I got to school and parked the car and went to class for a couple hours. When I got to my car around 12:30, I started it up as usual and... it sputtered, and kicked, and spit, and... MISFIRED! I popped it in neutral and gave it some gas and it smoothed out. So I proceeded to drive home thinking it was just a hiccup. Then I noticed every single time I had to stop and idle, the RPMs were fluctuating and the car was on the verge of stalling. Acceleration was rough and exhaust tone was off a couple beats. It sounded exactly like a boxer engine such as the EJ20 down to the t, except it had no power. Well, I had to get home so I hopped... or rather limped on the freeway and tried to keep it at a constant 65. It would drive smoothly above 3000 RPMs so I kept my foot on the gas. Eventually, even above 3000 it started to sputter again. My CEL flashed a couple times before the motor stabilized again. There were no more problems after that until I was nearing the exit I had to take. The motor started misfiring like mad and I could see smoke from my tailpipe. I swear I could see the edges of the flames shooting out of the exhaust tip. There's a crispy burnt smell around the exhaust area and my painted black tip is chipping off. Well, now the CEL is no longer flashing. It's lit up now and staying that way. I coasted to a stop down the off ramp and turned the car off at the stop sign. Luckily, there was no one behind me. I start the car back up and it backfired as usual, but not as bad as before. I limped the car back to my house several blocks away going 35 all the way with the car shaking like mad.

SO... I took the plugs out and regapped them thinking that I must've gapped them too narrow for efficient burn. Nope. As soon as I started the car again, same backfiring. So I put them back in the box I got them in and put my old trusty NGK Iridium IX's back in. And guess what?! No problems! I had to disconnect the battery for 15 minutes to clear the CEL code. I gave Pulstar a call and left them a message about what I just went through. I want a refund. It was nice while they worked but for all the trouble I don't think it's worth it anymore. It could be due to a tank of bad gas and maybe with these plugs I should be running it on higher octane but they were advertised to increase power and mileage by simply replacing your old plugs. No mention of octane requirements. They need more research and development done before they start selling these to the public.

Sorry for the long rant. It's simply the truth.

sorry they sucked, but boy did they burned out fast

in a near stock NA car a properly gapped plug is as good as any other... id say the plugs are crap and stick to what you know runs right. the extra "pep" you felt was probably just in your mind, no set of plugs is going to give you noticeable gains in power in a lightly modified application. are you absolutely positive you gapped the plugs properly? they were obviously fouling... did you check them for any damage?

i had no idea what you were talking about until i finished reading your post and all i kept thinking was that your timing was way off for some reason...

Yes, I gapped them correctly and they still misfired. I'm guessing the capacitor inside the plug fried or malfunctioned not letting enough spark reach the tip. Don't get me wrong. There is a significant difference with these plugs. You can actually feel it. It's not placebo horsepower. I ended up having some traction issues. The problem here is just reliability.

How many miles did you put on the plugs before they crapped out on you?

Have a change to get any pics of the plugs, just so that we can see what they look like after being run in the engine for a while?

I'd send them back and see what they say.

I drove on them for about 2 months. I'd say about 3000 miles roughly.
They returned my call this morning saying that they would resolve the issue with me. I'm thinking they will send me another.

My plugs are covered under a 1 year warranty. Over the phone, we agreed that only one plug malfunctioned since 2 or more cylinders out would render the car undriveable. I did manage to limp it home afterall. I told him that I have no way of finding out which one is the bad plug. He did some quick explaining that the ceramic insulator on the defective one would be slightly darker than the rest, but he sent me an entire new set anyways. So... I have another set on the way and 3 extra functional pulse plugs + 1 defective. Maybe I can use one in my lawn mower. I have a 3/4 chance it's a good pick. hahaha

Saw first Pulstar commercial TV ad!

I was just minding my own business when this thing popped up on TV. It was pretty cool how I bought these before the plugs were actually advertised publicly in the first place.

I have had my replacement set running smoothly for a while now. I don't think the flaw was intentional. Millions of dollars went into research and development for this product. In theory, it works and only craftsmanship is to blame. The plugs are covered by a 1 year warrantee! They sent me a new set of four so now I have extra 3 mint ones just sitting here.

They finally hit Ebay. For those who need BE1's(1ZZFE)
22.95 each + 10 + 3 = 104.80. It's cheaper than 24.95 + shipping from Pulstar directly!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Puls...004QQitemZ140160632460QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
I'm still selling my extra 3 plugs as well at at an even lower price. 18 a plug.
http://trdforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=260166#post260166
They offer different application pulse plugs on ebay for other cars too.