ZERO OHM plug wires for more mpg?

[Cycle]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I've got some PulseStars but they've made no difference in running or economy.

I've got an extra Pulstar plug, and I ordered a couple E3 3.36 plugs. I plan on hacking one of the ground straps off the E3 and shot welding it to the Pulstar.

That'd give a hot spark and a turbulent flame front that expands faster. The problem with the traditional J-curve ground strap is that it creates a donut-shaped laminar flame front that expands slower, and in high-speed engines, that kills power. Your piston can actually travel faster than the flame front in some cases. A faster flame front lets you retard spark timing, which lowers the risk of knock, reduces heat loss to the cylinder wall, and gives a higher proportion of power pushing on the piston at the right time for maximum mechanical advantage.

Think of it this way... for every degree of spark advance you have, that fuel:air mix is burning, expanding and building pressure in the cylinder, which the piston has to push against BTDC. That's a power loss, and it's a power loss you'll never recover ATDC. So the more you can shift the burn to ATDC, the more usable power you can extract from the engine that would otherwise be wasted. Ideally, the burn would happen nearly instantaneously from about 20 to 45 degrees ATDC for maximum mechanical leverage on the crankshaft, but you're getting into detonation for that to happen.

Now I dare someone to claim the E3 plug is "unicorn", as well. LOL

[Cycle]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Pardon my skepticism, but the ECU delay getting back down to 'normal' 750 rpm idle just MIGHT be the ECU "re-learning" it's parameters after having been "reset" by a battery disconnection.

You misunderstand, perhaps it was my phraseology. The idle normally sits at 1700 RPM. For the first 5 minutes after installing the Pulstar plug (the only change made to the bike for that entire tankful of gas), the bike idled at about 2450 RPM, until the ECU dialed back on the Idle Air Bypass Valve to slow the engine down.

And it wasn't "cold engine fast-idle", either... on this bike, cold idle goes to 2000 RPM, and given that it's fuel-injected, it only stays there for about 5 to 10 seconds before it settles down to normal idle speed.

[2000mc]

Did your pulsars replace oem brand plugs, or something else? When were they previously replaced?

[Arragonis]

I have a bad feeling about this.

[Cycle]

When I got the bike new, it had the OEM NGK DPR6EA-9 spark plug. By 797.4 miles, the bike had developed a rough idle... it originally happened only when cold, but eventually would "hiccup" at idle even when at operating temperature.

So, I bought an NGK DPR7Eix-9 Iridium to try out... it didn't help the lumpy idle at all, the fuel efficiency actually went down, and the bike didn't have the grunt like it usually had. Apparently single-iridium plugs don't work well with waste-spark ignition systems, for some reason. I've read something about it on the web, but can't recall the details, has something to do with the polarity of the spark.

I tried a platinum core plug... no joy. I tried a copper core plug... no joy. I tore the bike apart trying to figure out what was causing it... the ignition coil checked good, the spark plug wire checked good. Valve lash was spot-on. Compression was higher than usual, but the top of the piston was pristine, so it wasn't due to carbon buildup. Spark plug gap was set right. The plug showed no indications of rich or lean air:fuel mixture. So, I resigned myself to the fact that the idle sounded like it had radical cams in it.

It got really bad at 8512.5 miles, so I tore the bike down... come to find out, Costco had given me a bad batch of gas, it had tiny particles in it, smaller than the 12 micron fuel filter, which had partially plugged my fuel injector. I cleaned the tank, put new fuel line, a new fuel filter and a new injector (I disassembled and cleaned the old one and stored it as a backup). While I was at it, I had a suspicion that the lumpy idle was caused by a lazy O2 sensor, so I replaced that, as well.

The idle returned to its usual lumpy state, that is to say, it was no longer as bad as it'd been due to the Costco gas, but it wasn't smooth. The old O2 sensor checked out fine, so I cleaned and stored it. I'm still searching for a 5 micron fuel filter that can fit this scooter and withstand the fuel pressure. I don't want to use a plastic-body filter. The one I'm using now is a Wix 33031 / Napa 3031 filter, metal canister body and paper filter, rated to 60 psi and 12 micron.

On 31 Jan 2015 (at 9407.3 miles), the bike was taken out of service for several changes:

1) dremel-tooled the clutch to make the clutch arms fully retract

2) 1000 RPM clutch springs

3) removed ~0.5 mm off the clutch and variator inner faces to get a slightly wider gear ratio.

4) clutch got a hybrid ceramic bearing and a needle bearing that fits an Aprilia motorcycle... the old needle bearing was rated to 11,000 RPM, but the clutch can go to 13,000 RPM... so it's little wonder that needle bearing was torn up. The new needle bearing is rated to 20,000 RPM with a much higher load capacity.

5) balanced the variator and clutch to within 1/10th of a gram.

6) new Gates Boost+ kevlar belt

7) 20 gram Dr. Pulley sliders... the 16.5 gram OEM rollers and 18 gram sliders I'd used previously proved to be too light. Even these 20 gram sliders are a touch too light. When they wear out, I'll go to 21 grams. This engine's got more grunt than usual because I did a hard break-in of it (changing the oil frequently as it broke in), and used LiquiMoly Ceratec for 1800 miles (3 oil changes) after the engine was broken-in (at ~1000 miles into the Ceratec treatment, I noticed the engine would hit the rev limiter far too easily, which is why I geared up). It's got phenomenal ring seal and thus great compression.

8) micro-polished and tungsten disulfide (WS2) coated hybrid ceramic bearings in the wheels and rear gears

9) new rear gears (spur gears, 15% taller than OEM), micro-polished and WS2 coated

10) new tires (Avon Viper Stryke).

It took much longer than anticipated, because I had to wait for the Aprilia needle bearing to be delivered all the way from Italy. I couldn't find any US sellers. Odd that no one seems to want to sell higher-quality needle bearings in such a common size... the old OEM one (a cheapie Chinese off-brand) had a plastic needle cage. That's what got chewed up.

On 25 May 2015, I put the Pulstar plug in. Results as described above.

On 01 Jun 2015, I changed the engine oil and included 8.5 grams of 0.6 micron tungsten disulfide in the Royal Purple 10W-40 Synthetic with Synerlec. The engine is quieter now, and I just hit my all-time highest MPG on 13 Jun 2015, although I don't attribute this to any one thing... it's a combination of taller rear gears, lower-friction bearings, better combustion due to the Pulstar plug, and friction reduction in the engine.

I'm waiting for the new rear gears to be fully worn-in before I add tungsten disulfide to the gear oil.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

I have a bad feeling about this.

What an incredible smell you've discovered!

[Cycle]

Well, I can definitely state that tungsten disulfide (WS2) has a beneficial effect. I added 8.5 grams of 0.6 micron WS2 at 9776.0 miles during the 9800 mile oil change.

The next fill-up gave me 75.654 MPG, despite my having made several WOT runs of 30 to 40 miles each to wear-in the new rear gears. The only other time I'd achieved similar MPG (which was very rare) is when it was abnormally hot out, and definitely not when riding WOT all the time.

The next fill-up gave me 80.116 MPG, again despite having made several WOT runs.

The latest fill-up, riding more sanely at normal highway speeds, gave 85.624 MPG, an all-time high.

[H-Man]

Originally Posted by some_other_dave

Do you mean like this?

-soD

It was a chevy caprice with the 9C1 package. It's got a cop motor, a 350-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before OBDII so it didn't require a scantool to troubleshoot.
Engine bearings gave out and transmission went out on the way to an airshow, not when outrunning the gang members that tried to hijack the car (it did >125 MPH) nor when towing a trailer way too heavy for it.