Thread: Pulstar Plugs

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Pulstar plugs have a capacitor built in I belive, that's the big diffrence, what it's purpose is.. I have no clue.. personally I run autolites on everything.

Originally Posted by Matt167

Pulstar plugs have a capacitor built in I belive, that's the big diffrence, what it's purpose is.. I have no clue.. personally I run autolites on everything.

Me too, Matt.... Sometimes we go the NGK hi dollar stuff on the drag cars, just cuz a sponsor buys them though..... Autolite has always been #1 in my book....

Thought maybe this Pulstar thing might be something.... plugs have remained basically unchanged over the years, one of the few things automotive that hasn't been totally redesigned.

I have been given a set of these plugs by the manufacture for my LS 7 in my Corvette. We are going to dyno it again shortly to see what happens with some other changes to, but I will make a separate pull just for the plugs. One thing they told me is the check engine light might come on. The only reason I can think of is there may be more initial resistance with these, anybody have a better explanation why it would come on?
Ken

I have never seen a lot of difference in spark plugs on the dyno.
We run the $1.99 NGK's in the 300 hp engines and wew also run the $1.99 plugs in the 700 hp engines.
I think it is more important that you look at reach along with the heat range.

Originally Posted by Ken Thurm

I have been given a set of these plugs by the manufacture for my LS 7 in my Corvette. We are going to dyno it again shortly to see what happens with some other changes to, but I will make a separate pull just for the plugs. One thing they told me is the check engine light might come on. The only reason I can think of is there may be more initial resistance with these, anybody have a better explanation why it would come on?
Ken

I think the Pulstar has a compensated inductive winding inside of it. If thats the case there will be a back emf associated with each discharge reflected back into the coil packs. This might be interpreted by the ECM as an ignition fault. I don't think the ECM will do anything about it though. Not completely sure though.

Kitz

A spark plug's purpose in life is for the electrical energy to jump the gap at the proper time. The voltage required to jump that gap is set by the properties of the medium (air plus fuel) in the gap. If the dilectric strength of the medium is 50,000 volts per mm, then the spark happens on the voltage rise when the 50,000 volt level is reached.....putting 80,000 volts thru the circuit will not make the spark happen sooner, later, hotter, colder, or whatever......the only way to make the spark hotter (higher voltage) is to either (A) change the dilectric strength of the medium in the gap or (B) make the gap wider. The GM HEI distributor accomplished this by raising the coil voltage and specifying a wider plug gap....remember that the pre-HEI gaps were down in the 0.035" range while the HEI plug gap is 0.060" or so. Their goal was to provide more energy in the spark...they couldnt change the medium (air/fuel in the chamber) but they could increase the plug gap so the voltage required was higher. Then, they beefed up the supply system so that the energy was available to jump the gap at the precise time.

I have never been a fan of "miracle" devices....if the idea is so great, the auto manufacturers would figure a way to incorporate it into their product....if an increase in fuel economy of 2mpg could be accomplished by a change in spark plugs, every car in the USA would come equipped from the factory with those plugs...there's that much at stake. It would be so easy for the auto makers to up their CAFE if they could only buy the "miracle".

There may....may be a benefit into a longer spark duration..
to light the mix more effectively but putting a capacitor into a plug, putting multiple electrodes on a plug, adding horse apples to the box, etc. defy the laws of physics. But,
as P.T. Barnum once said, "man is the only animal that you can skin more than once"

My first thoughts ....what is this going to do to the rest of the ignition system ....might draw way more ,meaning a failure sooner ,might just make the check engine light come on ,might fry the system too or atleast reduce its life greatly..........might burn the coil packs out after soo long ...??????

Originally Posted by shawnlee28

My first thoughts ....what is this going to do to the rest of the ignition system ....might draw way more ,meaning a failure sooner ,might just make the check engine light come on ,might fry the system too or atleast reduce its life greatly..........might burn the coil packs out after soo long ...??????

It shouldn't.. coils just operate off induction, the secondary windings have no power source other than induction caused from the pulsating magnatism in the primary windings.. Coils can generate 10-50k volts, most new cars can generate 50k, but only use 10-15k regularly. going to 25-45k or so would not hurt a thing on a newer car w/ coil packs.

Originally Posted by Matt167

It shouldn't.. coils just operate off induction, the secondary windings have no power source other than induction caused from the pulsating magnatism in the primary windings.. Coils can generate 10-50k volts, most new cars can generate 50k, but only use 10-15k regularly. going to 25-45k or so would not hurt a thing on a newer car w/ coil packs.

The difference is that if the pulstars have an additional winding there will be a reactive component reflected back to each coil pack during each discharge, whereas a regular plug represents a resitive load only and there is no reactive component from it. Will it mess something up? I don't know for sure without seeing all the details. And then again I don't care anyway. I would be willing to try 'em though for free.

Kitz