Anyone heard of these? Not quite sure what to make of them.

Plasma Directs are PNP aftermarket coils with an amplifier built in. The claim is that they produce twice the current of stock coils, which translates to four times more spark energy. Another interesting feature is that they convert DC to an AC discharge. Looks like they gained about 25 HP on a mildly modified STi.

I contacted them about the application for the G35 and 350Z, they said to expect gains between 5 to 20 HP, depending on whether or not you have engine management and/or FI.

If the claims are true, seems like a very elegant way to gain power, by getting more out of the AF mixture as it is. Downside is that they cost $1000.

http://www.okadaprojects.com/usa/products_direct.htm

 

huh I wonder if that is true who is gonna be the first to drop the money

 

Dsport mag did a dyno on these and this is a direct quote. "Okada projects plasma direct ignition coils increased peak horsepower to 272.77 at the wheels. We noticed nearly uniform gains of up to three horsepower between 3,400 rpms and 4000 rpm. Low-end torque improved by up to 10lbs off the line and increases of 3 lb-ft occurred throughout the power band." The Z I believe was equiped with a jwt intake, headers w/cat delete, exhaust, and plenuim spacer.

 

Honestly - you can/will get the same thing from the HKS Twin Power and harness - for like $600 or less.

Gains are far better for FI -you can get about 200 more RPM with more timing - so more boost and HP from it's use - not to mention much smoother running...

Rick

 

Interesting, so it looks like the HKS unit is an external amplifier (for the stock coils)?. I'm guessing it just boosts a DC discharge then? Okada claims it's the AC discharge that makes their product special. I wonder if the AC discharge and plug-n-play factor are worth the extra $400. I'm a huge plug-n-play fan though, if the performance is very close, you're right, probably not worth it for a lot of people. But there is something nice about being to able to pull out the stock coils and directly replace them with the plasma directs.

Other thing I'm wondering about is the tune factor. I'm assuming that if there's even a hint of knock, that's gonna get ugly real fast.

 

OK - so the HKS unit is plug and play. You have the unit and a plug and play harness - vehicle specific. It took me about 20 minutes to install. The coils will take a 'bit' longer to do. Tuning is actually easier. Far less chance of knock with a much better spark - it's the prime reason for using these devices.

Check out the HKS unit on their site. The coils vs. the HKS are virtually identical. In fact - the HKS unit puts out 9 joules more power.

Rick

 

Wow, I didn't think the HKS unit would be that easy to install. They're listing it for $580 on their site (with the harness). How much do you think it helped your setup?

 

Like I said - 200 more rpm's, which also yields more boost and more advance on timing - all good power!!!

I gained roughly a 1/2lb of boost - so about ~12HP. With timing etc, after the tune - all combined, I gained a total of 27HP and 9lbs of TQ...some of the best $600 I ever spent ont his car.

For NA with tune - you can expect about ~10 hp - maybe more.

Rick

 

Not bad, I may consider this for the next performance step with my Vortech (plus a 2.87 pulley).

 

Looks interesting is there any pricing?

-sean

 

Where can we order them at? NVM, looks like they are $995.00

-Sean

 

Looks like they have them here:

http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/pric...Ignition/Coils

I'm leaning toward HKS now though, after Rick posted his results.

 

Here's where to go:

Darkside Motoring - ask for Eric
Tell him I sent you as well....
818.349.6221

 

Plasma direct coils have been around for a while, IMHO, they are borderline scammy. A good set of Iridiums, and an HKS DLI is all you would ever need. We've tuned engines to 650whp on our DD without even a DLI....never have spark blow out.

The NA testing we did on the HKS DLI shows a very minor power improvement....but there is some benefit to running them, particularly on FI motors.

But paying $1000 for low single digit power gains seems excessive to me. Reminds of split fire spark plugs, and all the various iterations of "better" spark plugs.

 

Thanks Sharif. $1k seems like a lot for a minor gain.