Thread: Pulstar Plugs

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A spark plug's purpose in life is for the electrical energy to jump the gap at the proper time. The voltage required to jump that gap is set by the properties of the medium (air plus fuel) in the gap. If the dilectric strength of the medium is 50,000 volts per mm, then the spark happens on the voltage rise when the 50,000 volt level is reached.....putting 80,000 volts thru the circuit will not make the spark happen sooner, later, hotter, colder, or whatever......the only way to make the spark hotter (higher voltage) is to either (A) change the dilectric strength of the medium in the gap or (B) make the gap wider. The GM HEI distributor accomplished this by raising the coil voltage and specifying a wider plug gap....remember that the pre-HEI gaps were down in the 0.035" range while the HEI plug gap is 0.060" or so. Their goal was to provide more energy in the spark...they couldnt change the medium (air/fuel in the chamber) but they could increase the plug gap so the voltage required was higher. Then, they beefed up the supply system so that the energy was available to jump the gap at the precise time.

I have never been a fan of "miracle" devices....if the idea is so great, the auto manufacturers would figure a way to incorporate it into their product....if an increase in fuel economy of 2mpg could be accomplished by a change in spark plugs, every car in the USA would come equipped from the factory with those plugs...there's that much at stake. It would be so easy for the auto makers to up their CAFE if they could only buy the "miracle".

There may....may be a benefit into a longer spark duration..
to light the mix more effectively but putting a capacitor into a plug, putting multiple electrodes on a plug, adding horse apples to the box, etc. defy the laws of physics. But,
as P.T. Barnum once said, "man is the only animal that you can skin more than once"