pulse plugs

[SBR Racing]

sorry if this has been talked about before. I tried searching but no luck. ok has anyone ever tried running Pulse Plugs ? Here’s how they work: Electrical energy from the engine’s power coil is stored in the built-in capacitor. At the exact moment needed, that energy is released in an amazingly powerful and quick (two nanosecond) high-energy pulse.

Pulse plugs are meant to create horsepower and torque by generating more peak power than spark plugs.so meant to improve your engine's performance. I knew if they where so great they would be run in all forms of racing? F1 ect... so has anyone used them?

[Chris Y]

Sounds like snake oil mixed with tiger repellant.

"The improved combustion efficiency burns fuel sooner and more effectively, which equals improved mpg". Hmmmm...

A few years back, I tried a selection of those spark plugs which had more than one electrode, or a v-groove or something. All with the intention of giving "more powah". The results were less than negligible on a rolling road.

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by Chris Y

Sounds like snake oil mixed with tiger repellant.

Sounds more like a free plug to me, sorry advert.

[Dave Brand]

Take a look at:

http://www.fuelsaving.info/ignition.htm

A quote:

"A fire doesn't burn hotter because you use a bigger match to light it; a bigger spark won't make the fuel/air mixture burn any hotter either."

[dtype38]

Hi SBR, welcome to 10-10ths and thanks for the question. Be interesting to see if anyone has used them and if they saw any difference.

In the mean time though, I'm afraid direct links to commercial websites are considered as advertising and are not allowed on the forum unless as a direct response to a question eg. "does anyone know where I can buy some...." etc. Its all in the FAQ. I'm sure if anyone is interested enough, they'll do a search for it .

[graham bahr]

Originally Posted by Dave Brand

Take a look at:

http://www.fuelsaving.info/ignition.htm

A quote:

"A fire doesn't burn hotter because you use a bigger match to light it; a bigger spark won't make the fuel/air mixture burn any hotter either."

absolutely

if you have enough spark at the right time, whatever clever things you do with the plug you wont gain more power

[dtype38]

Having said that, there seems to be quite a lot of pretty fancy spark plugs out there. Plugs for modern motor bikes use all sorts of fancy materials and cost a fortune, but they think its necessary. For old bangers I seem to remember innovations such as "Splitfire" and twin electrod plugs which claimed to give a more reliable spark.

So when you say "enough" spark, is there not scope for a plug that can give a good clean spark even when a bit coked up, or running outside its ideal temperature range?

[graham bahr]

dont forget a lot of the aim of modern spark plugs is to give a very long service life, especially if connected to a wasted spark ignition system which doubles the number of sparks the plug makes, also for emission reasons with relatively lean mixtures (compared to what we as racers use which are generally rich and dont need much of a spark) its vital that no spark ever goes astray

[Chris Y]

I think Splitfire and multi-electrodes and v-grooves and all that, could help in cases where the spark is relatively weak - i.e. you have an old tired 'normal' road spec coil, rather than a 'race' coil.

Other than that, they could help to make the plug last longer - again in road spec use with lots of mileage.

Other than that, I think they're just gimmicks.

[Dave Brand]

Originally Posted by Chris Y

I think Splitfire and multi-electrodes and v-grooves and all that, could help in cases where the spark is relatively weak - i.e. you have an old tired 'normal' road spec coil, rather than a 'race' coil.

Alfa Twin-Spark engines use one (primary) four-electrode & one (secondary) single-electrode plug per cylinder.

NGK's website explains the reason for multi-electrodes. It's nothing to do with providing a better spark - it's just done to prolong the service life of the plug. Irrespective of number of electrodes there will only be ONE spark - between the centre electrode & the gound electrode with the smallest gap. As the gap increases because of spark erosion the spark will move to an electrode which a smaller gap, & so on through the life of the plug.

[GORDON STREETER]

I seem to remember a dyno test in one of the boy racer bling mags a while back where they tried all the various makes of plugs . And surprise surprise there was no measurable difference between them at all.

[graham bahr]

ive been there and done it too a whole morning on the dyno and handfull of different plug types, at best i might of found 1bhp, the differences were so small that it was impossible to say if the differences we were seeing were down to teh plugs or just slight variations in temp/dyno runs etc

[dtype38]

I'm pretty sure that was just down to temp/measurement variations, but I'm guessing that you were using new plugs of the various types. I was only suggesting that they might make a difference when old/worn/fouled etc.

Course, none of us would ever venture on track without fitting a new set of plugs..

[Notso Swift]

Can some one out there show me how you can do any better than, or show any improvement over optimal?

nuff said.

[GORDON STREETER]

I would think that the people that claim amazing power/performance from their products are talking about being better than a champion N9Y that was the staple diet of most cars for about 20 years

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...toledo!-column Interesting read on F1 plugs
I admit to using Splitfire plugs for a few years in the series that I did with the BTCC, but only because I was given loads for nothing for running a logo !

[SBR Racing]

Thanks for your feed back. Found this on the net about F1 Spark plugs.

“This spark plug has a smaller heat exposed isolator surface exposed and is a super- old spark plug; therefore, it gets dirtyy easily. To overcome dirty, a capacitor discharge system is used which reaches rapidly the required voltage to produce the sparks.
It is used in engines of high performance like the engines of Formula 1.”

So they do use sum of the same technology in F1 as used in the pulse plugs but for other reasons to overcome the dirty build up.

[Dave Brand]

Originally Posted by SBR Racing

So they do use sum of the same technology in F1 as used in the pulse plugs but for other reasons to overcome the dirty build up.

There's a big difference between using a capacitor discharge ignition system & building a capacitor into the plug! The type of ignition system used is somewhat irrelevant - as long as sufficient energy is supplied to the plug, it doesn't really matter how it's done.

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by Dave Brand

There's a big difference between using a capacitor discharge ignition system & building a capacitor into the plug! The type of ignition system used is somewhat irrelevant - as long as sufficient energy is supplied to the plug, it doesn't really matter how it's done.

That's what I thought although I admit that electricity to me is all magic stuff. I was always under the impression that a capacitor stores electricity until it's needed then you need a means of discharging it, isn't this what the coil pack does? So if you have a coil and a capacitor in a plug how is the plug energy discharged separately to the coil energy?

I also remember various ignition gizmos at trade shows that would discharge the spark for a longer duration and supposedly give more power and better fuel economy. They never seemed to catch on and despite all the improvements in ignition technology over the years spark plugs still seem to be pretty much the same as they have been since their innovation.

[GORDON STREETER]

Quite right Tim. The only thing that's really happened is that most plugs now are resistor types to stop interference with all the electronic gizmo's fitted to modern cars. Years ago there were all sorts of aftermarket things claiming this n that when you could do the same thing by just having a slight gap in the plug lead !
Apart from that the only other thing is they used to cost 5 bob each