• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Diamond Fire E3 spark plugs

lightngsvt

CEG'er
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Messages
52
Saw them on Horse Power TV today where they claim they make more HP and use less fuel than the competition. Just wondering if anyone has used these and if they work? Or are they just more snake oil?
 
snakeoilsnakeoilsnakeoilsnakeoilsnakeoilsnakeoilsnakeoilsnakeoilsnakeoilsnakeoil

Spark plugs either fire the mix or they don't. If they don't fire, you have a mis. If they do fire, different plugs don't make any more power.
 
yea i saw them too. they ran them on a dyno and claimed 5 more hp. i don't know if those numbers are real but thats what they said.
 
During my career as a tune up technician I saw so many "innovative" spark plug designs that I don't remember them all. I saw them when they had problems with them, and usually the customer would not believe it. I invited them down to see the scope pattern. Sometimes I told them I would install new plugs and if it do anything I would put their snake oil plugs back in. I never had to put the old ones back.

One of the most memorable ones was a Bosch plug that had the Bosch name ground off and the side wire removed, so that the center electrode was all that stuck into the cylinder. The gap was unmeasurable, since it had to jump to the side of the head or piston or whatever. They ran OK for a few days than went to hell. One customer, an airline pilot, was so sold on them that he kept installing them and then bringing the car in when it didn't run right. The con man salesman was a true con artist. I changed the plugs twice in one car, and once in his other car. There were about a half dozen cars with those plugs, most of them were airline pilots.

Champion has or used to have an "air gap" spark plug. The part number included a "U". No other major plug company had them. the air gap is internal to the plug, and increased the voltage required to fire the plug. It did make the voltage higher when it did fire though, and was good for oil burning engines that otherwise might oil foul. As you might guess, though, it taxed the coil. The "plasma" design looks similar.

Their demonstration is just snake oil. They can build a demonstration device that will show whatever they want, and it doesn't need to in way way match how the actual engine runs.

If you really want to send your money off somewhere, pick your favorite charity. That way there is a much better chance that your money will actually do some good.
 
why dont you take a look at what kinda plugs are used in a jaguar, or a mercedes or a ferrari for that matter. If those innovative plugs made any difference you would see them being used in higher end cars, as cost would not be such an issue.
Regular copper plugs are going to be your best plug, well silver plugs are better. But thats not important.
Platinum plugs are going to last longer than copper, which lasts longer than silver, however platinum does have a slightly weaker spark. Manufacturers use platinum sometimes though due to maintenence issues, longer maintenance intervals sell cars.
Iridium plugs will last longer than platinum still, and have a slightly stronger spark than platinum. So if you arent going to use copper in your engine, you might as well go iridium, especially if you run FI or anything like that.
On a side not, iridium and copper wont foul under nitrous. Platinum will. I guess I am not sure about silver.
If you are going to look for a plug that is going to give you any type of performance increase, however unlikely it is, I would say spend money on silver plugs.
Best way to make your plugs burn more fuel is if you can increase the gap while still getting good spark.
 
I'm interested in seeing a non-biased test of the new Pulstar plugs which kinda claim to do the same thing.
 
Saw them on Horse Power TV today where they claim they make more HP and use less fuel than the competition. Just wondering if anyone has used these and if they work? Or are they just more snake oil?

Ya, saw these during the Wings game tonight.... gave me a good chuckle. They look like modified Bosch Platinum +4s.
 
meh like I said. If high end sports cars and luxury cars arent running them, then they more than likely will make no differece. Those companies spend more than enough money researching what will make their cars perform better, and if companies like ferrari are doing things like indexing the plugs from the factory, then why wouldnt they spend a couple extra bucks on "Miracle Spark Plugs" for that extra 5 hp.
 
from sparkplugs.com... based on this and other research, I wanted to try iridium plugs.

499.jpg
 
I use iridium plugs in all my vehicles. Iridium plugs last a lot longer than platinum, and more than double or triple what a copper plug would usually last.

-edit- Autolite iridiums in my contour. NGK iridiums in my escort. Although I dont think my butt dyno is calibrated well enough I would be able to tell the difference between stock plugs and the iridiums, they made a hell of a difference when I replaced worn out plugs with the new iridiums, LMAO go figure. I also use only synthetic oil in my cars. So meh, I got a few bucks less for performance goodies, but I spend money on my babies for their maintenance and get them the best.
 
Last edited:
Well the numbers show that Iridiums did make an improvement over other plugs and they should last longer as well. The Autolite Iridiums arent anything special but the NGKs are especially when you consider their low price.
 
That table didnt say anything about autolites. The autolites ran about a dollar less a piece at the parts store, but I bought those cause they had them on hand and I was working harvest and didnt know when the next day I would be able to go to town to the parts store is.

Visually the plugs are not really any different from NGKs. They have similar grounds, the same ultra fine electrode, honestly, there is probably no difference.

Technically, Copper plugs should give you better performance than any iridium and platinum plug simply because copper is a far better conductor. That means you can have a stronger spark which means you can run a larger gap, therefore you will burn more fuel. But I like iridium for the fact they last so long, and I am used to using them anyways, cause unlike platinum they wont foul under nitrous and with a fine electrode and the stronger spark they give compared with platinum means they are less likely to get blown out under boost from nitrous or superchargers or turbochargers.
 
the center electrode is generally copper and the ground electrode is generally nickel on a copper plug. Many iridium and platinum plugs are constructed the same. With a nickel ground electrode. The center electrode is the important part as the size of the center electrode is determined by the type of metal. copper is softer than platinum, platinum is softer than iridium. Thats why the electrodes are larger on copper than platinum, and larger on platinum than iridium.

As for the ground electrode, its not so important. As the size of the ground is not really important at all to how concentrated spark you are able to make. Since the way plugs are made makes only a very small area of the ground electrode close to the center electrode. The spark is going to take the path of least resistance and jump to the closest part of the ground electrode. However, as the ground electrode is so wide and thick, it is going to conduct better than a fine copper, finer platinum, or ultra fine iridium tip. The general conductivity of the metals is not the only part to consider with the conductivity of the center electrode, as thicker metal is also more conductive. Due to a larger path for the electrodes to travel. Simple physics. The construction of the ground electrode is only important to the life of the plug, and when you can buy plugs that are made with a platinum ground electrode or an iridium ground electrode then you are prolonging the life of the plug far beyond a plug with a standard nickel ground electrode, however it wont effect performance by changing ground electrodes. But going from a plug with a life of 60,000 miles to a plug with a life of ~100,000 miles is worth it right?
 
Back
Top