Do Pulstar Pulse plugs work?

[Tourigjm]

I've had pulstars installed in my corolla for about a month now.

I haven't done any A-B-A testing, however without drasticly changing my driving habits my mpg went from 33 to 35 over my normal commuting route.

both were repeatable and i dont think i drove much differently.

biggest gain i've gotten was from adjusting my driving habits. pulled out 42.07 mpg

[Z man]

Originally Posted by Tourigjm

I've had pulstars installed in my corolla for about a month now.

I haven't done any A-B-A testing, however without drasticly changing my driving habits my mpg went from 33 to 35 over my normal commuting route.

both were repeatable and i dont think i drove much differently.

biggest gain i've gotten was from adjusting my driving habits. pulled out 42.07 mpg

That sounds good. I should have made a poll to see if they work for most people or not.

[cfg83]

Z man -

Here is a thread on the subject :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...bonus-767.html

The bottom line is that they didn't work for me, .

CarloSW2

[dparker]

Hi guys. This is the CEO of Enerpulse, the maker of Pulstar pulse plugs. I see your interest in learning more about Pulstar. With all the hype out there, I can certainly understand your skepticism. Let me just say that Pulstar does not count on tip design (standard J gap) to ignited fuel. Generally, when you see a plug offering up a new tip design your should have a certain amount of skepticism.

We ignite fuel with power derived from a capacitor build into the plug. This boosts energy to the spark gap much like a camera flash boosts energy to light. This initiates ignition at a much larger aperture than a spark plug igniting more of the existing fuel in a a shorter period of time. Sort of like lighting a field of grass with a match or a bomb. Grass burns at a fixed rate, but if you initiate the burning with a larger area, the field will burn in a shorter period of time releasing all of it BTUs in that period of time. In a car BTU translates to cylinder pressure.

Sorry for the long winded discussion, but my challenge is to get consumers to understand our technology and why it is different from spark plugs. I will be happy to answer any questions you have and if one of you is willing to do a comprehensive test of the product and report your findings, I will make it available free. Email me at dparker@enerpulse.com.

[Tourigjm]

boo. coulda gotten mine for free for saying i was interested in testing!!?!

o well, amazon gave me a $10 discount. $90 for 4 pulse plugs wasnt too bad

[dparker]

Well, it would have taken a little more that just saying you would test. But, you are right we often just have to trust people.

CarloSW2, I would very much like to understand your vehicle and test protocol. If you feel they didn't work maybe there is something wrong. We will stand behind our product. Give me details.

[cfg83]

dparker -

Thank you for posting on Ecomodder!

Originally Posted by dparker

Well, it would have taken a little more that just saying you would test. But, you are right we often just have to trust people.

CarloSW2, I would very much like to understand your vehicle and test protocol. If you feel they didn't work maybe there is something wrong. We will stand behind our product. Give me details.

One of your representatives (Kyle) contacted me on another forum. In the other thread, you will see my testing and results :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...html#post47870

This is my specific posting on the subject :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/22699-post20.html - Post #20

In the above posting, I describe what happened but I *don't* come to the conclusion that the product won't work for all cars. During my interaction with Kyle, we came to the hypothesis that we didn't have the right gapping for my 1999 Saturn DOHC SW2. You state the same in the above thread. Most likely, Pulstar plugs had never been tested on my (out of production) engine.

I never paid for the Pulstar Plugs. But, I got cold feet when it didn't work twice, so I didn't want to do any more testing. It's my daily car, so I can't afford any down time.

CarloSW2

[dparker]

CarloSW2, you are probably right about our testing on your particular car. I certainly understand that you would not want to experiment any further. We do appreciate your honest try, though. We are constanly testing vehicles in our lab. and we occasionally find some that just don't like certain plugs by any maker. Just out of curiosity, were there other mods. to your engine that may have influenced your test? In any event, thanks.

[dcb]

That is all very polite sounding, but it seems the consensus here would indicate they don't work to help MPG. Do you recommend these $125 plugs for people hoping to improve mpg? Even on cleanmpg they did extensive testing and found no benefit, yet your site clearly implies these expensive plugs provide improved mpg ("tired of getting beat up at the pump")?

They don't seem to actually improve mpg from what I can tell, and they are exceptionally expensive for a spark plug. What are your lab testing methods and controls and how did you arrive at your mpg improvement claim before marketing this product?

[cfg83]

dparker -

Originally Posted by dparker

CarloSW2, you are probably right about our testing on your particular car. I certainly understand that you would not want to experiment any further. We do appreciate your honest try, though. We are constanly testing vehicles in our lab. and we occasionally find some that just don't like certain plugs by any maker. Just out of curiosity, were there other mods. to your engine that may have influenced your test? In any event, thanks.

I think the only mod that might effect the test is my Hot-Air-Intake. That is the only mod which effects combustion (I didn't try the EFIE or the hydrogen gizmo during the test). It would have been running at IAT temperatures of around 120-130 degrees F. My car was running Denso Iridiums before and after the test, which might have put the car in a "Denso Iridium" mode. I made a point to reset the ECU/PCM during the testing, but the outcome was the same.

I think my DOHC aluminum block engine design goes back to circa 1989. I like to think of it as a "proto-Ecotec", but that really isn't true. It is a waste-spark ignition design. There are a lot of cars with this, like Jeeps, and the current Ecotec uses waste-spark also.

Here's my car and it's mods :

1999 Saturn SW2
Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com

CarloSW2