It's just another ignition coil. If your seeing any gains, the coil needs to be upgraded, not the plug. Think how much you would eventually save at $100+ a set, if you went with a permanent solution.

I don't see how these do anything. I could be wrong, but physics has always told me that converting energy always results in a loss. Now it could be a higher temp spark which causes a more complete burn, but I'm skeptical.

 

time will tell, i dyno at the end of june

 

Over 20000 miles on mine so far and so far still pleased. No problems plug related whatsoever, and still getting better gas mileage and quicker response and more HP/torque "feel"

 

Update: Started getting cylinder misfires, pulled plugs and discovered that gap had increased on all 4 plugs to ~ .058-.060" , but this after about 35000 miles of exceptional service. I could probably just reset the gap to spec. and all would be fine. I don't want to take the chance of over stressing the electrode by regapping and having the electrode fall off in my engine.
Overall I was impressed with the Pulstars, but I went ahead a bought some new NGK's Iridiums to try next. Gapped the new ones to .044"

 

i lost 1hp/1tq across the board (dyno-proven) with these plugs in my tsx's k24!!!! what a waste of money, you'd figure they'd at least equal oem ngk iridiums which were def due for a change

however, they have proven to make power (in various mags on a 350z, is350, and civic si)

 

Plutonium expands and requires adjustment periodically.


Seriously, what makes these plugs special?

 

The Pulstar plug uses a capacitor to condense the current of the spark by preventing it from passing until it reaches a certain level. It compresses the time of the current discharge as well - no added energy or energy conversion, but definitely a higher current at discharge.

Here's an excerpt from one of the Enerpulse (Pulstar) patent applications:

"There is abundant prior experimentation with related results, see Society of Automotive Engineers Paper 02FFFL-204 titled "Automotive Ignition Transfer Efficiency", concerning the utilization of a current peaking capacitor, such as the capacitor 28 wired in parallel to the high voltage circuit such as the circuits 30 and 37 of the ignition system to increase the electrical transfer efficiency of the ignition and thereby couple more electrical energy to the fuel charge. By coupling more electrical energy to the fuel charge, consistent ignition relative to crank angle is accomplished reducing cycle-to-cycle variations in peak combustion pressure, which increases engine efficiency. An additional benefit of coupling the current peaking capacitor 28 in parallel is the resultant large robust flame kernel created at the discharge of the capacitor 28. The robust kernel causes more consistent ignition and more complete combustion, again resulting in greater engine performance."

I have no idea whether the Pulstar works or is a good or bad product, but generally an S.A.E. report is totally trustworthy.

 

I can say that the Pulstar plugs are good (even great) but you have to adjust the gap on them more often than I would have preferred, and as I found out, the gap of the Pulstar plugs will increase over time and eventually cause misfires due to the increased gap....AFAIK all plugs will increase gap over time, but these increased gap more than any I have owned, and sooner. If you properly install the Pulstar plugs with the proper gap to start with (.040"), in my experience, you will have a superior performing spark plug, but only until the gap increases to the point of misfire, which in my case occured at ~ 35000 miles. I have since installed the NGK iridiums and have had to get used to the initial lag in acceleration that was not present in the Pulstars. The power was there instantaneously with the Pulstar plugs, but with the NGK iridiums there is about a half second delay between the time I hammer down and the engine responds (from dead idle).
I may try to just regap the Pulstars and see if the misfires go away, and maybe the acceleration lag too. I hate to buy a new set of Pulstars so soon after dropping ~$50 on the NGK's...but I may.

 

stick to OEM for these things. Dunno why ppl get hope on these things. Might as well get a turbonator.

 

A buddy of mine goes to UTI and his teacher showed them dyno sheets of these plugs on multiple cars all of which made more power than stock. The car that made the most power was a honda S2000 (+7hp +7tq) kinda funny IMO. I doubt that a well known tech automotive techschool would teach this if its bullshit. The only downside is their cost and evidently this gapping problem.