Rich or lean???

Hi all,

I know a lot of people won't like this, but I am running a 4 into 1 exhaust, pods and a different tank.

I brought a colortune and it appears to be good, but the plug is looking sooty... which makes me think it's rich. But at higher rpm (above 4k) it falls off a cliff which makes me think its lean...

I know there's heaps of info here and I've read so much that I've confused myself... haha

I did upload a couple of pics... I also have a video, but I'll upload that later

Anyone point me in a direction?

 

I don't think you have a lean problem if your plugs look like that. Looks like it is running very rich and maybe it just overloads the plugs at higher rpms. Since you are running pods I can't offer much help, but there are folks on here that may be able to. Good luck.

 

Thanks mate, the colortune looks like the colour is good. However, I agree the plugs look rich...

I appreciate the comment though!

 

Is that the colortune at idle? Have you tried to blip the throttle? I think, since you are running pods--ugg, for the colortune to be somewhat accurate it would have to be observed under load at higher rpms.

 

I have not had much luck with my colortune for some reason on stock XJ550. Even with good color on the colortune on a range of settings, but I have had plugs that end up indicating rich on operation.

I end up having to read the plugs for final tweaking.

 

I like the colortune for the initial setting, but then I read the plugs.

When using the colortune I close the pilot screws until I get some white (lean) and then open them until the white just disappears--all at idle. That done, I am finished with the colortune plug and put it back in the tool box. Then I insert new plugs and take a ride of about 15 or so miles and look at the plugs. If still solid white I open the pilot screw about the width of a dime--do for all plugs. Then I ride again, read and adjust as needed until all the plugs have a nice gray or light brown color. It took me a couple of weeks and several rides to get the proper color, but it sure was worth the effort. By the way, on my bike, which is bone stock, the settings on each cylinder vary from slightly less than 2 turns open to slightly more than 2 turns open. None are anywhere near 2 1/2 open. I think this varies from bike to bike and cylinder to cylinder based on wear, air filter, valve settings, etc.

 

The only thing I add to this process - I sync the carbs, then I get all the plug's reading right, then I do a another running sync (in case it has changed)...then check again....repeat as necessary. Over a course of a few weeks it gets dialed in.