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

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

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.

damn... that sucks! maybe they're only good for track day?

oh well... yeah get a refund or you will mail every car magazine and review companies your experience. haha

Hell yeah. haha

haha thanks.

damn that sucks dude , how much did you pay again?

It was 100 for four plugs plus shipping. I'm going to get them to replace them or refund me. I really would like to keep a set if they wouldn't break on me.

btw , loving the new sig

Oh no, that sux.
I was gonna buy a set too but now I'll just wait and see if the same thing happen when you get a replacement set.

i said the same thing too!! lol. we're just gonna keep waiting and waiting... and we'll never buy them. we're just going to see what happens to your (rollatuner110) car next. trust me, we've got a journal on this!! lol

I regapped them to 0.044 already, but I still don't know which one is bad. I'm currently using my NGK Iridiums @ 0.035. A 0.003 wouldn't show any difference at all since we're not using forced induction.

New set of pulse plugs on the way.

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. He told me that he's never seen a malfunction before so this is an isolated incident. He's also running them in his personal car. I guess I believe him. But hey, I'm getting another free set! 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

EDIT: I think I'm going to set the new gap at .040 instead of .035. This would be more realistic.

so did you find the defective one?

are you still going to regap the plugs?

The manual says that the gap should be 0.043. How much difference would 0.003 make?

I still swear by them. Only one plug is bad. It's not like all of them fried.

guaranty it was the plug? it actually sounds like a vacuum leak or dirty idle air control valve...

yah i had that problem with a set of obx iridiums i had one plug go bad and i said scew it and just got some denso's i wont mess with plugs again

I hope it doesn't happen again with my new set.

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.

The new replacement set just came today! I can't wait to get my power back! Now I have 7 functional pulse plugs. Anyone want to buy 3? haha Or in the future, I can use them in a V6.

maybe i'll buy a set and if it goes bad, i'll borrow one until they send me a new set and we will have 4 extra to sell and share the profit. lol. and then jcrwzr and DOT can do the same .. lol

I'll buy those 3 if you let it go for $40 shipped to Canada, lol.

Soo... shall we try our run again this Friday? Haha.

hahaha I forgot that the BE1's I have don't work with Subaru or Nissan. They work for all other Japanese motors. I wonder if my lawn mower can handle it? haha

I would sell them, but 40 is way too little. A full set was 116! Whoever does buy them though only needs to purchase one more plug. You can buy them individually for 24.99 + shipping. Any takers? I'll let the three go for 20 x 3 = 60. You save 15 bucks + shipping if you live around me.

Pulstar Pulse Plugs have hit Ebay!

I knew it would be there sooner or later. 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...sspagenameZWDVW
I'm still selling my extra 3 plugs as well at at an even lower price. 18 a plug.
http://vvti.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13696
They offer different application pulse plugs on ebay for other cars too.