Look forward to seeing your results! BTW, do you know of any manufacturers developing and producing dampers?

 

I work for a spark plug manufacture, and we ordered a set just to test. We found that they do make more spark when they work but when we ordered them 2 of 6 plugs was bad. This makes me think, what would be the longevity of the plugs, and would they fail shortly down the line. I wouldn't recommend these plugs unless you pretested the plugs and you are only doing short runs.

Also i found another review on these plugs and the owner had great result on the plugs the first 30 mins, then after that the car started to sputter as if a cylinder dropped...and immediately drove back to the store he purchased them from, swapped in another set of plugs (don't remember what brand) and said it was back to normal.

In conclusion....great item if they make it work, but not so great on durability and longivity of the plug, and if you need to DD your car not a good plug.

 

Not only did your company and the reviewer have problems, but so did Wave...just goes to show this new technology still needs to be QA'ed before being distributed...could be my 4th year project hahaha

 

Good to know guys. I'll keep the stock plugs and a small tool kit in the car, just in case. What type of feedback did you guys get from the company when they failed?

We're primarily known as a Subaru/Mitsubishi shop, and could potentially be doing testing on those FI platforms, so it'll be good to know for those applications which are significantly more brutal then the L15A. heh

Jorge (RiftsWRX)
ProjectWRX -A Subaru WRX enthusiast site

 

Just read on page 1 and you will see that this happened to me. A bad plug sent the car into "limp" mode. But as manxman stated, his plugs work just fine.

It is funny that this thread was revived today because I just pm'd manxman about his plugs and saying that I was thinking about giving it another go. This has definitely sold me on letting it be. They are just too much money to deal with the hassle of receiving faulty plugs.

 

Jorge, nice to see you over here. I enjoyed your posts a lot on NASIOC. I'm finally getting off my butt and trying to actively sell my subaru. I'm going to miss the turbo, but the Fit has much more of a go kart feel.

 

Thanks for the kind words bud! Yeah, for almost 2 years I was hell bent on not laying a finger on this car. But, figures, old habits die hard, and now I'm starting to work with manufacturers in the testing and R&D phases on certain products. A few locals had already asked about having me tune it for them, but honestly, unless you start to do some pretty serious work, I'd estimate that you're talking a few HP vs the dynamics built into this ECU. But that's just from testing I've already done.

Sorry for the /ot sidebar.

Jorge (RiftsWRX)
ProjectWRX -A Subaru WRX enthusiast site

 

Guys,
talk about these Pulse plugs is prompting me to post what I though so far to be of no significant value to post on the first place!
Capacitor being built in within spark plug makes for a very unreliable plug prone to failing as some of you experienced. Using these plugs might get extremely dangerous on public roads and FWY! While loosing one or two cylinders would not incapacitate older cars, new one certainly will! ECU will shut it down to prevent engine damage! Would you enjoy loosing engine power on a FWY in the middle lane surrounded with other traffic moving at 75mph around you! Death trap!
Electronics do not like heat! On the side note to heat, my 1990 CRX Si igniter kept failing even after it was replaced by Honda under unofficial recall. I ended up removing it from inside the distributor and bolting it to the inner fender just behind passenger headlight to give it some airflow. I made a 4 wire harness to it that I loomed nice and clean. Boy what a difference in performance! It made more gains than Crane Cams full ignition set up or Nology wires and Beru Silver spark plugs! Unfortunately Fit is maxed out as is and Honda is no longer mounting sensitive electronic components on/in engine itself. We are SOL until somebody creates affordable programmable ECU that we can tune for performance! There is only 100cc difference in engine size between Fit and CRX Si, but difference in power gains with tuning on older engine is astonishing. You can gain 25-30 hp on a CRX with bolt-on's, while on Fit it takes forced induction.
With that said, I mentioned Beru Silver tip plugs that Nology made famous along with their wires. I purchased them when Nology was just starting up over 12-14 years ago and loved the results on a CRX. I decided to test them on a Fit. It cost-ed me just under $49 with shipping and taxes. Half of Pulse's price! They are 100% reliable! They are used in everything from daily drivers to drag and road racers. Nology retained rights from Beru(German plug maker) and is now manufacturing them in Check Republic by Brisk. They work very nice in the Fit. Car is noticeably smoother on idle, but I can barely feel any difference in performance or increase in mileage!
Fact is that modern engine direct ignition(one coil per plug wire built in) has no energy losses as ignitions of yesterday driven by a single coil! Even SILVER(best conductor material) core plugs can't create significant gains against platinum(worst conductor material) on direct ignition engines! That is why OEM's opted for durability and longevity type plugs vs. performance that wears in 20-30K miles (read Manxman's post #79 of this thread below!).

Now you understand why I did not even bother to post my Nology Silver plug results. It is up to you, but I believe that safety and reliability is more important than gaining 0.5HP or 0.5mpg. It is only your life and lives of your passengers and fellow commuters at stake. Your call!
If you would still like to change your plugs, IMO go with Nology Silver or some performance NGK's. At half the price of Pulse and 100% reliability over them at least you will be safe. I am including pics of Nology for your reference.
I JUST DO NOT THINK THAT IT IS WORTHTED REPLACING PLUGS ON NORMALY ASPIRATED FIT AT ALL! SAVE YOUR MONEY!
POSTED DYNO RESULTS JUST DO NOT JUSTIFY IT EITHER.
JUST MY $0.02!

Ivan

 

It's weird that this thread came alive again! FYI- my Pulstar plugs have been in and working fine since 08/05/07. Avg. mpg in my Sport AT is 35, with mixed mountain road and freeway driving. I did not generate enough miles on the stock plugs to really have any hard comparison data. The gains in hp and torque over stock plugs that were claimed by the manufacturer in their example 4cyl. Toyota (or whatever it was) were so small that I didn't expect to feel any power increase. The best way to describe what I DO feel is a little more smoothness at idle and a little more eagerness in accelerating uphill in mountainous areas. But this could entirely be due to imagination alone. I had no need to justify the higher cost of these plugs by insisting that they are wonderful- the idea behind the plug's design seemed worth testing, in spite of my impression that the high temperature of the cylinder head would probably harm the capacitors in the plugs. So far, no harm, but I drive far less than most of the people reading this thread.

As "ciburri" has posted, failure of a plug or two in the fast lane on a freeway would pretty much ruin your day. I don't believe that the Pulstar plugs justify either their cost, the trouble of installation, or the risks that they pose concerning sudden failure compared to the almost zero risk of sudden failure in stock plugs.

 

Well thanks for your honest comments folks! I am still hoping for a cheaper way to boost than the costly Forced Induction, but it seems that the day chicken will have teeth has not come yet!

 

Well thanks for your honest comments folks! I am still hoping for a cheaper way to boost than the costly Forced Induction, but it seems that the day chicken will have teeth has not come yet!

 

OK, back on topic.

By and large there are a few trends that follow my driving habits.

I can either drive like a normal human being (rare).

I can either beat a tank to within my limits (averages 25-27 MPG) in <20F weather like I have right now.

I can be "spritied" from time to time (averages 27-29 MPG) in <20F weather like I have right now.

This was a beat the hell out of tank.... BTW it's going to hit as low as -20F wind chill today.

30.9MPG when I filled up.

If the next tank still breaks 30MPG, and I even hold a conservative 30MPG average, that puts me 7% over my "normal" driving average (which is a mixed mode cycle of highway and city), and !!15.4%!! average above my average when I typically drive like this.

So, in short, it seems that the more you beat on it, the better the gain, which goes to justify what I'm thinking/feeling of just how much more efficient things are in those lower RPM, higher load conditions; "Dirty air region", as I think Nathan (one of the people I know at the company) called it.

Jorge (RiftsWRX)
www.ProjectWRX.com

 

OK, second tank; and mind you this was with a -20F windchill snap.

30.27 MPG.

So that is putting me at a solid average of ~12% increase in fuel economy.

Absolutely no issues yet with the plug.

Jorge (RiftsWRX)
www.ProjectWRX.com

 

nvm...it's a fit...LOL

 

Why is an ignition or plug upgrade needed on the Fit? Could you advance the timing?

 

In reverse order, no, you can't advance the timing, and an ignition or plug upgrade isn't "needed". There is just a lot of interest in trying to squeeze out any extra power or fuel savings possible (but not necessarily likely) with "bolt-on" this or "screw-in" that. Some of us will drop $3500. for some bolt-on hardware so that we can have 50% more power when we want it.

 

That is kind of what I thought.

 

The power increase with a $3500. supercharger is guaranteed, and expensive. The power increase promised by a $25.00 (each) spark plug is guaranteed also (by the advertising for the plugs), but it is so small that it is unmeasurable by the average driver. I new that I was probably wasting my time and money on the Pulstar plugs, but it seemed like it would be fun to try them out. I will change them back out for a set of conventional plugs much sooner than the Pulstar people say will be necessary simply because I expect these to fail due to heat damage to the capacitors eventually. Would rather change the plugs out BEFORE I have to limp home on 3 cylinders.

 

And your "research" benefits all that follow this tread.
After how many miles do you expext the time to swap the spark plugs? Also, will you track your gas mileage and inform us of any obsercable benefits?

 

As posted very early in this thread, I mentioned that I had experienced measurable (butt dyno, but SIGNIFICANT) benefits from two after-market capacitive-discharge ignition systems. One of them had such a powerful increase in coil output that the coil wire burned itself in half between the coil and the distributor cap. Before I wound up with a dead engine on a blind curve in the mountains, the system worked great. I purposely omit the name of this system here, but other people have posted similar near-disasters with this brand. I replaced the "death-trap" system with an MSD ignition, and received similar power increase without fuel economy loss. So the advantages of C-D ignition is what encouraged me to risk the expense to try these plugs. Had I been thinking logically, I would have been more careful- now I have "advantages" so small that I honestly cannot feel them, but now I also have the risk of plug failure for reasons not possible in conventional plugs. Oh well.

To answer the question, I will probably change the plugs out at-or-before 30K. The "before" part might mean anything, because having a potential problem lurking under the hood that would take 20 minutes and a few dollars to eliminate bothers me every time I think about it.

Oh, what-the-hell- the C-D ignition that is likely to kill you is made by Jacobs Electronics. Based on my experience with a V-6 SUV, their advertised performance gains are true. But they don't advertise the rest of
the truth.