Enerpulse offers capacitor-enhanced spark plugs

A U.S. ignition products company, Enerpulse, Inc., has begun marketing a newly designed ‘pulse plug’ under the brand name of Pulstar Model BE1, specifically engineered to replace spark plugs in most late model BMW, Mercedes and Chrysler cars and claiming to provide them with improved fuel economy and performance.

Pulstar is the first capacitor-enhanced spark plug, called a pulse plug, and is claimed to represent the largest technological advancement in spark plug design in the past 100 years. Whereas 50-watt spark plugs have dominated hitherto, Pulstar™ pulse plugs generate up to 1 million watts.

Enerpulse says it has demonstrated its ability to improve vehicle fuel efficiency over conventional spark plugs by as much as 12% in its own real-life road tests. The firm says its dynamometer tests comparing spark plugs to pulse plugs typically indicate that Pulstar BE1 improves torque and horsepower by 6-10% in most BMW, Mercedes and Chrysler vehicles. Some large displacement engines like the BMW 6.0L V12 or the Mercedes 5.5L V12 are said to show even greater torque gains. Pulse plugs'spark duration is so brief that Enerpulse says no harm can come to components of standard engines, but that colder combustion units should be used for modified performance engines.

The Pulstar's larger, up to 1 million-watt spark ignites more of the fuel presented to the cylinder in a shorter period of time compared to a standard plug, so combustion gases expand more rapidly. In addition to improving combustion efficiency and yielding better overall engine performance, fuel consumption and associated green house gases are, claims Enerpulse, reduced by as much as 10%. The company sells the Pulstars, said to have the same durability as ordinary plugs, direct online at $24.95.