Well, well... After a bit of research provided from a friend, I have found some of the truth behind the "Pre-Ignition Catalytic Converter," or PICC. What's really interesting, however, is that the PICC is, indeed, a hoax. It doesn't work and what's worse, I nearly fell for it from an ad in Popular Science!
The "Science of Fuel Economy" displayed on the PICC web site is a thing of beauty. It's really, really convincing and I was sucked in! But no more. Yes, that's right - no more.
Here's the scoop on Dennis Lee, the creator of the PICC:
http://www.phact.org/e/z
http://www.phact.org/e/dennis
http://www.nmsr.org/denislee
Read it all for yourself and make your own judgment.
For me, I won't be swapping out my catalytic converter for the ultra-efficient PICC that runs on water, used oil and lots more. No, I won't be havin' that.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
The Pre-Ignition Catalytic Converter
Monday, February 11, 2008
Anyone Know the Science Behind This?
For those Popular Science readers in the crowd, perhaps you've seen this ad in your magazine. It's for the Pulstar Plug. Not just 100 times more powerful than your standard spark plug, no. It's 20,000 times more powerful. For added effect, let's repeat that: twenty thousand times more powerful!
I'm not a mechanic nor am I an electrician or a scientist. I don't really even possess an in-depth knowledge of spark plugs. If you are any of these, we welcome your expertise on the matter.
The Pulstar Plug uses some electrical components that I'm familiar with so I understand why it does what it does, I think. But is there some hard evidence to suggest that this kind of plug will really give you the benefits that the web site suggests?
The plug creates a more powerful spark because of the special "pulse circuit" which appears to be a capacitor of sorts. The explanations on the web site indicate that the intensity of the spark is then increased due to this. Because the spark is more powerful the combustion of the gas is faster causing an increase in horsepower and overall efficiency.
Again, I'm no scientist, but I'm open enough to believe this sort of thing. But I'd like to hear from someone more educated than me. What do you think? At $24.95 per unit, is it worth the investment?
