I came across this information on these pulsed capacitor-based spark plugs. They claim they give significant HP and Torque increases (4-10%).

Does anybody have any knowledge or experience with this product?

Here is the website link:

http://www.pulstarplug.com/howtheywork.html

 

Did you ever hear anyhing about these? I checked out the website. Pretty interesting. Not sure if I'm ready to throw $150 for them though.

 

I spent the best part of 2 years working on a F1 ignition system operating at 19,000rpm and studied how the spark forms and how it works in the engine. The only true way to improve the flame front is to have multiple points of ignition, like two plugs per cylinder :-)

This assumes you've already optimized the spark gap energy source and arc size.

The optimum spark current as I recall was about 1 ampere, after the arc had formed and the duration was set by the energy stored in the magnetic flux of the HT coil. This was on a CD system, same rules apply to a purely inductive ignition.

Putting anything else between the coil and the arc can only increase energy loss. The biggest energy loss is in the coil itself. Further I don't buy their talk about energy losses in the plug during the first 5uS. Ceramic is a very low loss insulator and about as good as it gets. Also 5uS is only a small part of the time, thus the integrated power losses, even if they were 100% during this time, are not an issue.

However have a spark as short as 2billionths of a second certainly is - long duration of the arc is better !

On reflection - definitely snake oil.

 

Agreed, total snake oil. The coil already functions as a capacitor. Adding another one is pointless.

timf- Formula 1? Do tell. What team, where were you, tell us some cool stories! BTW, I recall seeing a show on Speed a while back where they showed the plugs that F1 cars use. They were shorter/smaller to save weight but did not seem to be any more technically advanced than street plugs. If anything, they were simpler.

 

That was superb and very helpful. Please chime in as needed as snake oil comes up.

I doubted it from the get go....but your statement helps a lot.

Thank you.

 

Roadsterdoc - check your pm

 

Yes - the plugs are often smaller to make space for bigger valves. During one development phase we had a cylinder head with 4 plugs per cylinder to compensate for a poor burn. In the end it was necessary as a better fix to tweak the inlet gas flow to ensure better fuel combustion.
One of the problem of a very high reving NA engine is that its hard to get a full charge into the cylinder.

IE you might design for a CR of 10.5 but when running flatout at 19,000+ rpm it behaves more like a CR of 8 - or so the mechanical guys used to tell me.

Another interesting factoid is that normal road cars compute their ignition point maybe 2-3 cycles in advance as the engine RPM doesn't actually change that fast. In a F1 ignition system spark timing is calculated at the very last moment, typically 1/4 of a revolution before it's needed - if it was calculated 2-3 cycles in advance it'd be all out of wack with reality. At 19,000rpm you need some serious MIPs to perform that calc :-)

 

Hi, Not all that up on F1 motors but I also think those plugs are not going to make more power, I have seen improvements with Brisk Silver racing plugs over the others for the 996 TT motor.
Tim F, when I was running bikes one team tech said he did not feel the valves were even closed at 16,000. This was with conventional springs and some years back.
Tim

 

F1 uses 'air springs' - ie worked by compressed air, normal springs stand no chance above about 15,000rpm.
Sometimes you'll see the tech's changing out the air bottle !
Doubtless the same problems apply to high revving bike engines - but they have to last a lot longer than just a race or two as in F1.
Our mechanical guys goals at the time were to have the engine expire just as it passed the finishing line - that way they knew they'd extracted the maximum amount of work output from it !
The 1600cc turbo era was something else altogether/

 

Most imformative. Thanks for the write-up.