R Man

Is anyone using these? Have they helped your gas mileage any? How about performance? An increase of 2 or 3 MPG would be worth it as long as performance didn't suffer.

Road Rage

If you think any bolt can provide 2-3 mpg, let alone a spark plug, then you have been sold a bill of goods, or have no idea how a modern internal combustion engine functions.

Save your money.

Bitium

I had them in my car. They are great. I don't know about horse power, but my miliage when from 230-240 mile a tank to 280-290 a tank. The best way to prove this is:

I bought the haloplugs, put them in my car gain 40-50 miles per tank. It is true that the plugs I replaced(OEM) were 40k miles old. So to clear that thought. The radiator on my car broke, the engine overheated. Bunch of stuff melted, including spark plugs, gasket, coils, timming belt.....so on. Acura replaced my haloplugs with new platinium plugs (OEM NGK's plug) Believe it or not my car when down again to 230-240 Miles per tank. That is my story.

The cost for the repair was $2,700.00.

R Man

Thanks Bitium. It looks like the Halo plugs did improve your gas mileage by 3 mpg.

As for RoadRage, huh? I would have expected a more scientific answer from you. Halo claims their plugs improve gas mileage by 3 mpg or more. In Bitium's case the improvement equalled about 2 free gallons of gas per tank full. These plugs pay for themselves in about 6 months if the claims are true.

Xorg

I find it very difficult to believe that simply changing plugs would offer anything close to a two-gallon increase in fuel economy. Think about it - the spark plug does on thing - makes a spark. How much better or worse of a spark are you going to get?

ALFAV6

Xorg has a point.... unless some one can clear that up..

Road Rage

I did not think this required one - it is patently absurd! There have been miracle spark plugs around for many years. Fire Rings, Fire Injectors, the JC Whitney catalog had tons of them!

Look at it this way. Manufacturers kill to get fractions of a MPG increases - this means huge dollars to them, because they can adjust CAFE requirements to allow them to produce and sell more luxury cars with high profit margins. If a simple plug replacement could do that, they would already be in every car. They are not.

I checked the SAE archives and could find nothing on this design? Has it been submitted for peer review process? Does not look like it.

To produce better MPG, without signficant redesign, one would have to increase the amount of thermal energy produced per unit of air/fuel. The air fuel charge in this case is either proerly ignited or it isn't. Barring a completely screwed up set of plugs, the stock plugs do this perfectly well, and indeed are rated to do so for 100k miles?

I believe Bitium is sincere, but the fact is that anecdotal claims are almost always completely meaningsless in these cases. There are far too many variabes involved to put much faith in the numbers. After all, the bogus oil additives are laden with anecdotal comments from customers saying they got 25% more mileage, 50 more HP, etc etc.

It is is known as the theory of cognitive dissonance, and in this case it suggests that people whoi have invested ins omething are loathe to not perceive, and believe, that they have obtained it.

In the high-end of audio, I have seen people claim that the $5000 speaker cables they bbought sound better than regular lamp cord. There is no scientific basis for this whatsoever, yet they believe it as gospel.

Is there a website? I will look at it and give some more thoughts as needed.

Is that enough science?

R Man

Thanks RoadRage. Now THAT'S the kind of thorough, well-organized response that I have come to expect. I've said it before, I really appreciate your posts.

Check out the haloplug dot com web site for more info, particularly the installation notes. It seems that these plugs have to be installed professionally due to the fact that the spark advance must be retarded. You can’t just drop them in. So much for the quick payback.

acropora

Road Rage,
In regards to the commend you made about the $5000 cable and the lamp cable, I am sure all the audiophiles know that the 12 awg cable sounds crispier and louder, and hi and mid range are more differentiated than the 16 awg or 18 gauge counter parts. That's why people who are serious about stereo system are probabaly using 12G or higher grade cable to make their $10000/pr of b&m sound better. To do it scientfically, you can grab a sound level meter at radio shack and measure the dbs gain using the thicker cables. But for me I would rather grab the $0.34/ft cable at Home Depot than spending $100/ft of the same grade like Monster Cable, may be the $100/ft provides better shielding from EM interference, but that's not worth of the money for me.
As for the spark plug, I totally agree with you.
-A

1000bpm

This is way- off topic but there’s more to cables than their AWG ratings …. cable geometry, conductors, connectors, capacitance and insulation all play a big part. But I do agree with the earlier comment that many high-end cables are over priced and in many cases the sonic differences are purely subjective. Theres a joke that you can tell the cable manufacturers at high-end audio shows by their fancy cars in the parking lot

Xorg

I know a guy who does professional home theater installations for high end customers - I'm talking jobs that run $50,000+.

He's used just about everything on the market, and in his humble opinion, high end cables are a complete waste of money.

He buys his stuff in bulk from the local electronics warehouse and uses good quality connectors, saves thousands on each job, you couldn't tell the difference.

Personally, I used to buy Monster cables, until two of them had loose connectors and Monster refused to repair or replace them. Switched to good gauge Radio Shack at less than half the price, can't tell the difference :-)

Here is another tip: If you're buying coax cable, don't buy it in any store. Go to your cable company - they will sell it to you in bulk at their cost - mine sells it for 38 CENTS per foot.

Their cable is many times better than the stuff found in warehouse or electronics stores since they buy the best stuff to avoid interference and signal problems.

Road Rage

Regarding the High-End speaker cable (way off-topic).

I am an EE, and write professionally for a high-end audio publication as a hobby. I can assure you that you will not measure any difference in SPL from a 30 ft set of 18 gauge or 12. And I diasgree entirely that exotic geometries and conductors make any difference. This is based on theories of electrodynamics and Maxwellian equations. R (resistance), L (inductance), and C (capacitance) are lumped-sum model determinants of cable performance for audio fequencies (digital and RF are a bit more complex).

Just a tidbit to consider. Purity of copper conductor is a big selling point for audio stores. But it is irrelevant. The audio wave does not travel through the conductor - that's right, it does not! The electrons move through the conductor very slowly compared to light speed. The wave is propagated in the space between the conductor and the dielectric, and the conductor merely acts as a guide for the wave. Any resistance (impurities) in the copper merely caused a thermal effect, and does not alter the integrity of the wave. So any manufacturer or dealer who tells you that purity of conductor is important is flat out a liar, or just plain ignorant of the scientific principles.

Ok, recess is over, let's get back to drivin!