Pulstar Pulse Plugs

So I just got the new issue of Motor Trend and I noticed an add for these Pulstar pulse plugs. Has anybody ever heard of these plugs? Seems like some good shit. Looks like a pretty sweet concept, but does it work?

www.pulstarplug.com

 

i saw these in the newest motor trend also........seems kinda like another somebodys version of "snake oil", although i have no doubt it would work decently on certain applications. seems to be a good idea though.

 

I am trying them now in my wife's rav 4 sport 07 , and untill now she has told me is that it has more power from stop to go , and its giving me a goog millage to .

 

from what I've seen they're piles of crap. A friend works for them and when I last saw him this past summer he said they were having problems with the insulators cracking. They were also experiencing something like a 75% failure rate on inhouse testing of the plugs. He ran a set in is Suburban on a trip from Albuquerque to Taos (5-6 hr trip). When we got to Taos, his truck was running like shit. We pulled the plugs and 3-4 of them had no ground left, it was completely burned off.

 

Jeremy, you forgot to mention that I had inadvertantly put the wrong plugs into my suburban, which meant that there was an interference issue with the PISTON. no damage done fortuantley, and when we got back to ABQ I but the right pulstar plugs in CB-1 not AD-1, and have since been extraordinarily happy with them. I now run Pulstar in all of my vehicles, granted I do work with the company that makes them. But I would never work for a company that makes a product I don't believe in.
As a side note that same 89 suburban, 5.7 V8, 4X4, 4.10 gears, and 6,000 lbs unloaded is seeing over 18MPG on the highway when I let the cruise control take me on down the road at 75 - 80 MPH. So I will encourage anyone who is interested in the pulstar plugs to give them a shot. Hey they come a 30 day money back guarantee and a four year manufacturers waranty, because you know poorly made products always come with guarantees right.

 

Well I used to get 18 and 19MPG on my 89 4x4 Surburban doing about 70MPH with just GM heavy duty plugs. The worst plugs I used were those Bosh platinum. Lost power and gas milage.

 

i am interested about these also, i want to know if they save any gas if i were to run them on a 4.0 taco. they are not cheap at 25 bucks a piece.

 

All I can say is that a bought them for my taco 4.0 litter and al I have had is problems it has been 3 times I have send them back because pieton # 3 , 5 , 6 , left me waiting for a tow truck. I spoke with them and they told me to send them back and I will receive 6 new ones. But the question is do you want to have to chenge youe spark plug every 3000 miles . Beleive me it happened to me 3 times even my check engine went on with misfires in 3 piestons. I ended putting back the originals back on again. All I can say is you will notice the difference in gas millage, they really help a little bit saving gas , but they can't take the heat.

 

What altitude do you live at? My results are leaving Albuquerque NM 6000 feet +/- and heading up from there ending in Angel Fire NM 9000 feet +. At these altitudes the best I have ever of a truck with a 5.7, and 4x4 is about 16MPG.
If there is anybody who is in or near Albuquerque, why don't you get in touch with me, and we'll see if we can't get some imperical data on Toyota trucks. If you are able to leave your truck with us for the better part of a day, we can do a complete test on it.
The testing procedure is entirely done on a chassis dyno, first with fresh OEM replacement plugs then with fresh Pulstar plugs. We do WOT pulls, as well as follow the EPA USO6 testing procedure. We would love to get some data from one of these trucks, and as a thanks to the vehicles owner you get Pulstar professionally installed and a copy of the test data.

 

The problem is not the heat, the problem is generally the installation. It is important to remember that our insulator is much thinner than what you will find on a spark plug. This does not pose a problem for heat tolerance, as this thinner section is not inside the combustion chamber. However, they are more prone to cracking. This cracking usually results from a side load, we have found that this occurs when the installer uses a cheaper spark plug socket, with an inaccurate rubber boot inside of it. When the plug is being torqued down the socket leans to one side and causes a force from the terminal downward. This will cause the ceramic to crack where it meets the metal shell. Our recomendation is to use a standard 5/8" deep socket, this will prevent side load.
The other common problem is the installer has gapped the plugs too large. The maximum gap that we recomend is .040" any larger than that and the resistance accross the gap is too much for the increased power being sent to it.

 

hans what do u have to say about the above?, having so many problems abviously is not worth having the spark plugs, unless they were not installed correct, i would think they have to be pre gapped already. instead of messing with them.

 

Pulstar plugs come pre-gapped at .040", which is the appropriate gap for the 4.0 V6.
Again I would like to extend an invitation to any in and around the Albuquerque area to get a free set installed. Anyone who would like to learn a little more about our testing results should visit www.pulstarplug.blogspot.com
we have a lot test data posted there.

 

il pay for shipping,! i want to test them

 

I wouldn't mind letting you guys use my truck to run your tests one weekend I'm up in ABQ, but I would like some more info on what all is involved in the testing.

 

one guy with a 4.0l tacoma tested these in his truck and did before and after dyno's with hardly a gain at all. IMO, it's not worth that much money for them for these particular vehicles. Denso Iridiums are great and last 90k miles...

 

The spark plugs were install by myself and did not use a spark plug socket with the rubber boot beleive me it is the heat i even used the grease the send .

 

who ever wants to try them go ahead and do it , I did it and beleave me I did not mess with them , this is the voice of experience , I tried them and had to change to the original because I started having miss firring . No offense if you guys want to waste your time and money no problem but I already wasted min e and wont do it again. Remember this is not my opinnion it is a fact.

 

You have to work for them or you have not tried them.

 

Jeremy,
If you are able to get the truck to us on a weekday, we would be happy to test it. At the same time you can see our facility, which is pretty darn impressive. But just like you we really don't want to spend our weekends hanging out at the office. For more information on our testing procedure I would like to direct you to our blog page
http://pulstarplug.blogspot.com/2008/02/2004-jetta-gli-pulstar-test-results.html

I hope this helps.

 

Getting to ABQ on a week day is pretty much impossible because of work. Maybe if I take a day off for something and have time.