2005 Hyundai Accent

If you were asked to picture an economy car in your head what would it's qualities be? Underpowered? Slow? Good gas mileage, right? It seems that 'good gas mileage' is synonymous with 'slow', but what if there was a way that you could have mileage and a little bit of speed? That's where Pulstar plugs come into play. Lets see how the Accent fairs.

Stock, this car pulled 103 HP at 5900 rpm and 102 Ft-Lb at 4700 rpm. The little car accelerated from 65 to 80 mph in 6.65 seconds over .14 miles of simulated road. The fuel economy test ended at 998.59 cc of fuel used.

With Pulstar plugs BE-1 installed the engine made 105 HP at 5900 rpm and 104 Ft-Lb at 4550 rpm. The acceleration test gave us 6.57 seconds in .13 miles and only consumed 953.17 cc on our dyno. That was the least we'd seen on our dyno so far for fuel economy.

The difference is there and can be seen. For those of you that wonder if the 2 hp was from dyno error, the runs with both sets essentially superimpose each other, the only difference is seen when the plugs are swapped out. We saw a 2 HP increase (1.9%), an extra 2 pounds of torque (2.0%) and a 4.5% increase in fuel economy.

Unfortunately, this car was an automatic, because of this it made getting power pulls difficult. As you can see, the only part of the engine's powerband that we have graphed are between 4250 and 6000 rpm. We are able to see peak torque and horsepower in that graph so it does tell the tale but We aren't able to see what torque gains gave us the MPG increase. With a fuel savings of 4.5% you'll use that much less fuel, or at $3.50 a gallon, you save an extra 16 cents per gallon.

www.pulstar.com

2005 Honda S2000

The S2000 is one of those cars that comes from the factory very well tuned. It makes peak power at its redline and has an amazingly flat torque curve for a non-turbo 4-cylinder engine. This is a DOHC rev machine. It sounds simply amazing at high rpm and makes good, usable power up there and as it urns out this car does very will with the Pulstar plugs. So much so I'm actually a little reluctant to post the gains from this car seeing as it did so well.

With stock plugs in it we ran our first series of tests. We got 224 HP at 8000 rpm and 153 Ft-Lb at 6400 rpm, respectable numbers. It accelerated from 35 mph to 70 mph in 5.65 seconds over a distance of .08 miles and consumed 1303.69 cc in the fuel economy test.

Pulstar BE-1 plugs installed and the engine hot and ready to go it put down 240 HP at 8000 rpm and 170 Ft-Lb at 6400 rpm. 35 to 70 took 5.53 seconds in .08 miles and finally, consumed 1139.79 cc.

These are very impressive results, a 16 horsepower increase (7.14%), a 17 Ft-Lb increase (11.11%), we decreased passing acceleration time by .12 seconds and decreased fuel usage by 163.91 cc giving a 12.57% increase in economy. Now, I must note that this car already had a cold air intake on it but that is the only mod done to this car.

These numbers are great, try to find an intake that gives you 16 hp without pairing it with an exhaust and running you easily into the $,$$$.$$ arena. For a little over $100 the Pulstar plugs seem like a very good bang for the buck investment. Especially considering the fuel economy increases.

www.pulstar.com

2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R

It's speculated on the internet that a DOHC engine can't possibly see gains from the Pulstar plugs because of where it is in the chamber. On these engines the plug is usually positioned directly in the center of the chamber with two intake valves on one side and two exhaust valves on the other. The 2.5L Nissan 16-valve 4-cylinder happens to be the engine in the car we tested today.

With stock plugs installed the 2.5 put down 189 HP at 5900 rpm and 197 Ft-Lb at 3800 rpm. The acceleration test came out to 7.99 seconds to 80 mph from 40 mph over a distance of 0.14 miles and consumed 1081.49 cc on the fuel economy run.

Pulstar plugs DG-1 installed at .044" gap the engine made 195 HP at 5900 rpm and 203 Ft-Lb at 3800 rpm. Acceleration from 40 to 80 took 7.95 seconds and took 0.13 miles while the fuel economy test yielded 1039.85 cc of fuel usage.

This comes out to a power increase of 6 HP (3.2%) and 6 Ft-Lb (3.0%) and a fuel savings of 41.64 cc (3.9%) versus stock. The acceleration didn't quite give us much of a result, at a difference of a mere .04 seconds (.5%) but it is a positive result nonetheless.

These are good gains and about what you can expect to see from a typical after market bolt on that isn't FI (Forced Induction). For only about $112 you'd be hard pressed to even find a cold air intake that you could bolt onto this, or any, engine.

www.pulstar.com

2000 Acura 3.5RL

While this car had already been tested, it was tested using our old procedures that weren't as, shall we say, reliable as they could have been. So with the new testing in place and done many times over we came back and ran this car through the ringer again.

With a new set of NGK Iridium plugs installed at a .044" gap we attained 184 HP at 5100 rpm and 202 Ft-Lb at 4350 rpm. The car went from 30-65 mph in 7.84 seconds over a distance of 0.11 miles and completed our USO6 drivers trace using 1657.254 cc of fuel.

The Pulstar plugs were swapped in and gapped to .044" as per Honda's specs into the already hot 3.2L v6 and it pulled 192 HP at 5130 rpm and 211 Ft-Lb at 4350 rpm. The acceleration test yielded a 30-65 mph time of 7.22 seconds over 0.10 miles and consumed 1469.877 cc in the fuel economy trace.

The results of this testing give us 8 more horsepower (4.3%), 9 more pounds of torque (4.5%), a decrease in passing acceleration time of 0.62 seconds (7.9% quicker) and 187.377 cc less fuel consuption (11.3% better fuel economy).

If you look at the dyno chart you can see why this increase in fuel economy is so significant. We don't just increase the amount of power at the top-end, it happens throughout the power band. You can see that the 9 extra pounds of torque holds true from about 2900 rpm to around 4850 rpm, and because of this, when you are cruising on the freeway turning 3000 rpm or accelerating in town at 3000-4000 rpm you are right where the Pulstar plugs give you a great gain, this means you use less throttle to keep the same speed or acceleration curve as before and hence, save fuel.

www.pulstar.com

2004 BMW Z4

On Febuary 1st, 2008 a 2004 BMW Z4 got strapped to the rollers in our lab for testing.

The stock plugs on this car have been the talk of the auto industry for some time now. The stock plugs in this BMW are the Bosch R3 or Platinum +4 plugs. The idea behind them is that 4 points of possible ignition will give you a much more reliable spark and the surface-gap discharge design should give you the most combustion chamber exposure.

With new stock plugs we run our first set of testing again. We got a 40mph to 80mph acceleration of 9.24 seconds over a distance of 0.16 miles. Peak horsepower was 211 at 6000rpm and torque peaked at 193 Ft-Lb at 4000rpm. Fuel consumption over the fuel economy test was 1174.99cc.

With new Pulstar BE-1 plugs we attained a 40-80 mph acceleration of 9.07 seconds over 0.15 miles. We made 218 horsepower at 6000rpm and 202 Ft-Lb at 4000rpm. Finally, our fuel consumption trace took 1100.34cc.

We did fairly well with this car; gained 7 horsepower (3.3%) and 9 pounds of torque (4.7%). We reduced passing acceleration by 0.17 seconds (1.7%) and fuel consumption by 74.95cc (6.4%).

In the market of performance modifications we fair well among the other options out there for Z4 owners. We cost $23.31 per hp gain. A CAI for this vehicle runs around $350 and typically gives the Z4 about 11hp making it a $31.82 per hp upgrade, again, remember that this is a wide open throttle figure and part throttle gains aren't to be had with a cold air intake. An exhaust system will run you about $750 and that's around $50.00 per hp assuming it gives you 15 hp(a reasonable number).

www.pulstar.com

2003 Nissan 350z

January 30th, 2008 we ran a 2003 Nissan 350z.

With the tests from DSport and Modified magazine revolving around the power increases they saw from the 350z we decided to do our own full tests and see what results we get including fuel economy. We didn't see as big of increases as those independent tests did, DSport got 5.2whp and Modified got 11whp but we did see increases. As usual, new stock plugs were installed and we ran our first set of tests.

With the stock plugs the Z pulled from 40mph to 80mph in 6.04 seconds and took 0.1 miles to do it. The engine made 284 horsepower at 6000rpm and 275Ft-Lb at 4400rpm and the fuel economy trace consumed 1192.78cc of gasoline.

When the Pulstar model DG-1 pulse plug was installed we went from 40 to 80 in 5.89 seconds but still took 0.1 miles to do it. If we had a more precise mile reading on this test we would show a shorter distance. We managed 289 horsepower at 6000rpm and 278 Ft-Lb at 4650rpm and the fuel economy trace consumed 1156.82cc.

To summarize our gains, we got 5 additional horsepower (1.8%) and 3 pounds of torque (1.1%). We reduced 40-80mph acceleration by 0.15 seconds (2.5%) and fuel consumption by 35.96cc (3.0%).

Lets see how we stand up to other performance parts out there. The plugs in this test retail for $163.15 shipped and therefore cost $32.63 per hp in this example. A cold air intake will run you around $310 for this particular car and should yield at most 12 hp from the research that I've done, and that's with an exhaust system paired with it. That's $25.83 per hp, not bad, but remember this is only a wide open throttle increase. A cat-back will set you back about $850 for this car. That realistically comes out to around $56.67 per hp.

Even though I can't say we are a huge clean winner here, I am happy with these results. The stock plugs for this car are double platinum plugs. We're talking extreme long life plugs, projected tip and fine point electrodes. It's a mighty fine plug if I must say so myself, we had some very good competition in the ignition department and still pulled harder in the end.

www.pulstar.com

2004 Jetta GLI

On January 28^th, 2008 we tested a 2004 Jetta GLI.

We installed new NGK Iridium plugs at .030” gap and ran our first set of tests. The 40-80mph passing test with the stock plugs was 8.04 seconds over a distance of 0.14 miles. The power pull resulted in 210HP @ 5550rpm and 249Ft/Lb @ 2950rpm with an average 212hp and 187Ft/Lb. The mileage test yielded 609.45cc of consumption.

After this series of testing we installed new Pulstar BE-1 plugs and ran the exact same tests again. The 40-80mph passing test took 7.15 seconds over a distance of 0.12 miles. The power pull gave us 219 hp @ 5450rpm and 256Ft/Lb @ 3300rpm with an average 221HP and 195Ft/Lb. The mileage test took 530.34cc to complete.

Overall, we got a 9hp (4.3%) increase in peak HP and 7Ft/Lb (2.8%) increase in peak torque and as you can see above, these numbers are true throughout the entire power band, not just a small part of it. We cut 40-80mph acceleration by 0.88 seconds giving you an 11% reduction in time to 80 and a reduction in fuel consumption of 79.12cc or 13%.

Lets take a brief look at what is out there for this car. A cold air intake for this Jetta is in the range of $230-350, depending on the company you get it from and the filter you use, and 9 HP is at the high end of typical results from a cold air intake at wide open throttle only, as is the case with most intake and exhaust systems. Just comparing these two items you have $12.53 per horsepower from the Pulstar plugs and $25.56-38.89 per horsepower for a CAI. A cat-back system for this car will average about $620 and at that price the exhaust system would have to help make an additional 49.4 HP to match the cost per HP that the plugs offer; and that, as we all know, isn't going to happen.

www.pulstarplug.com

New Pulstar EPEP test, what is it?

In every comparison test there is always one thing that must remain constant for test data to be accurate, everything. There are a few things that are easy to control; acceleration, distance and speed being a few of them, but others, such as weather, are a little more difficult to control.

In a few places over the US there are dyno shops running completely climate controlled rooms for their tests, we here at Enerpulse, Inc. don’t have access to one of these but have come up with a way to get our test results as accurately and quickly as possible so there is little to no change in variables between the tests.

We start by strapping the car to the dynamometer, the car will stay here for the next few hours as we run our tests. First, the plugs are changed out for new stock spark plugs. The engine is warmed up and the car is run through a series of pulls to establish a base-line. Then, a 40-80mph acceleration test is performed. Finally, a fuel economy test is done using the trace shown above. The trace is exactly the same for every car and is very similar to the official trace used by the EPA for their testing.

We change the stock plugs out for a new set of Pulstar plugs and follow the same exact procedure for testing as the stock plugs underwent.

www.pulstarplug.com