New Spark Plugs

Bladed · Oct 22, 2009, 11:49 AM

About two days ago I started getting a rough idle when starting up the car and after a few mins a CEL would come on. Turns out Cylinder 2 is misfiring, so now it seems as if I need new spark plugs after 33,000 miles. I remember evosoul doing alot of research on Pulstar plugs but to me it seems as if the negatives outweigh the positives on the Pulstar plugs. There's the rough idle, and after searching for a few hours I've found a few people had the plugs fail on them after only 1,000 miles. That is really horrible considering they cost about $75 shipped for the set. The gains seemed positive though, so its tempting to give them a try. But I wanted to know what some other options are as far as a good performing spark plug. I'm not expecting the gains to be much, but any power, tq, and mpg I can get will be worth it to me, even if I can't notice it lol.

Also, are there any aftermarket wires available for our car yet? And how about a spark plug cover other than the RRM carbon fiber one?

evo_soul · Oct 23, 2009, 07:43 AM

The pulstar plugs them selves work fine. Right after my 10,000km testing I swapped them into my other older cars and I have had 0 problems. and thats after 50,000km of more driving.

The issue is just that every car is different slightly, and the ignition/spark process is very paticular, any variation can be seen as a fault. In the pulstar situation, a timing advance of 1 or 2 degree's would clean up some of the idling and P0 code issues.

Because the plug is basically a capacitor , the firing is delayed by a few nanoseconds, this is countered by the intense spark that it produces. Unfortunately, in some combustion chambers are just not the right size, or height to work 100% in every case.

I had left suggestions with the CEO of Pulstar, hopefully they will make these tweaks and improve on the technology.

that said, I am a believer

its just not ready for prime time for the lancer

ambystom01 · Oct 23, 2009, 09:51 AM

Stay away from the Pulstar plugs, they're nothing more than a scam. They're expensive, temperamental (a lot of people have reported minor to major issues with them). The reported power gains are achieved because they mechanically advance the timing, you could do the same yourself for free. Buy regular spark plugs and call it a day.

evo_soul · Oct 25, 2009, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ambystom01

Stay away from the Pulstar plugs, they're nothing more than a scam. They're expensive, temperamental (a lot of people have reported minor to major issues with them). The reported power gains are achieved because they mechanically advance the timing, you could do the same yourself for free. Buy regular spark plugs and call it a day.

Interesting? My testing found that it retarded the timing slightly due to the capacitor effect.

Do you have any links about this mechanical advance? I am curious to read up. I havent been following it in the past 9 months.

ambystom01 · Oct 25, 2009, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evo_soul

Interesting? My testing found that it retarded the timing slightly due to the capacitor effect.

Do you have any links about this mechanical advance? I am curious to read up. I havent been following it in the past 9 months.

Check NASIOC, I think it was on there.

Bladed · Oct 26, 2009, 10:09 AM

Has anyone heard of or tried the "E3 Advanced DiamondFire" sparkplugs? I saw their add on the main page, here's a linkhttp://www.e3sparkplugs.com/technology.htm.

Bladed · Oct 26, 2009, 10:47 PM

Found a site that dyno tested a few different spark plugs, their results are here.

So now im torn between the E3's and NGK Iridium 2314. I've read a lot of reviews from a lot of different sites about the E3's and almost all of them are positive. Also, spike TV has a show called "Horsepower" and they hooked an engine directly to a dyno and tested these plugs against another high quality, premium plug and they noticed a 2-3 mpg increase and a 5 horsepower increase. I'm reading nothing but good reviews about the E3 and since I first saw their add on this site, I'll probably give them a try.

I have yet to find replacement wires or coils for a 2008 lancer though. Maybe some from another car will work (thinking dodge caliber)

ambystom01 · Oct 27, 2009, 10:24 AM

5 HP isn't significant, that's well within the error rate of all dynos. Buying plugs for performance is a waste of money, buy plugs that last, are reliable and cheap.

lancerguy0208 · Nov 15, 2009, 03:40 PM

Bosch and NGK make real quality plugs. I have Bosch Platinum +2 plugs in my car. Anything with multiple electrodes will help with fuel efficiency because it burns the air/fuel mix more completely.