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Reading my spark plugs

Discussion in 'XJ Technical Chat' started by Madmusk, Jun 17, 2013.

  1. Madmusk

    Madmusk Member

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    Can anyone give me a good reading of my spark plugs? Is it possible to have the ceramic just not take on much color even though the mixture is correct? I've seen a lot of conflicting info such as "you need to have paper bag brown to chocolate brown plugs" and then a few posts later someone says you can't get good color on the plugs with today's gas. Does it just take many hundreds/thousands of miles to get there?

    Here's one of my plugs after 200 miles. All 4 look the same.

    [​IMG]

    As you can see, the ceramic only has the slightest tinge of color - just off white - but there's a healthy amount of soot on the outside ring. According to this website, that's just right. Is it? Specifically, this person states "Do not look at the porcelain to read jetting !!!"

    These 200 miles I've ridden on these plugs was after having colortuned, erring on the side of rich - just off yellow and into the blue, well before "bunsen" blue kicks in. My gas mileage on my last tank was a good 10 mpg lower than what it was when the bike was definitely too lean, but that might just be a one tank fluke.
     
  2. Polock

    Polock Well-Known Member

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    looks good to me, i think todays gas has a lot to do with porcelain color.
    that's what a plug would look like in a newer car
     
  3. RickCoMatic

    RickCoMatic Well-Known Member

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    My opinion, ...
    Too Lean.

    ColorTuning:
    BLUE is the right mix for IDLE.
    Getting the Bike to Idle nice is easy with the ColorTune Plug.

    But, ... you NEED --> More than Blue to get-out-of-the-hole.

    Try tuning to the point where the Blue just starts to fade-out do to supplementary richness.

    That ceramic tip is a little too clean for my tastes.
    You're better-off being a tad Rich ... than being too Lean.
    You can fix the problems caused by too Rich without a fuss.

    The problems caused by too Lean can ruin you.
     
  4. Madmusk

    Madmusk Member

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    Hmm, if I go any richer I'll likely have a yellow flame at idle. There's zero hesitation in off-idle transition. Maybe it's just the gas I'm running?

    I'd like to err on the side of rich, but I have a feeling I already am and the plug isn't really telling the story well.
     
  5. RickCoMatic

    RickCoMatic Well-Known Member

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    I'd believe the Plug, ...

    Tweak it a bit more Rich.
    A tweak ain't all that much.

    If a stopwatch displays 60 Seconds ...
    A tweak would be 3~4 seconds.
    Negligible.
    But none-the-less, ... significant.
     
  6. Polock

    Polock Well-Known Member

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  7. KrS14

    KrS14 Active Member

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    That's a nice link, I hadn't seen that one yet!
     

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