Mixture question...
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 21,949
Likes: 6
From: My house
RE: Mixture question...
Spark plug reading is not very reliable at all with todays fuel, with the oxidizers and additives to make it burn cleaner you will get a false reading, it looks lean, but in reality it burns so much cleaner than the old leaded fuel is why you see the white. The correct way to check for rich/lean conditions is to get a base dyno run with the wego in the exhaust, you will have a read out of the AFR numbers which will show the true tuning of the bike and if it's lean or rich in any of the rpm ranges. You don't have to take my word for it just ask any competant tuner, that's how I learned it, because I was trying to read my plugs on a metric bike I had and I freaked out, thought it was so lean it was going to seize, but on the dyno AFR readings, I was actually a tad on the rich side in the upper range and good on the low speed to mid range.
Banned
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 14,082
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RE: Mixture question...
Thanks John, don't know what we would do without guys like you and Skip and some others here. Never thought about the status of todays gas, I generally consider it trash, but you bring up good thoughts about all the cleaner burning addatives. You bagger guys are worth something after all?? J/K!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 21,949
Likes: 6
From: My house
RE: Mixture question...
You're welcome, I was like you I had never thought about it, in my old motocross/hare-scramble days and building boat motors, we checked the plugs, when I first got back into street riding years later, I had a Honda Shadow Sabre 1100 that I put a dial-a-jet system on and I had never pulled the plugs before that so that's why I thought man I'm going to burn it up, so I contacted the tuner at the shop I bought it from and he filled me in on what the real picture was. I guess you might still be able to get decent readings on the two stroke engines (mixed fuel and oil) and that's a guess at best.
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Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,272
Likes: 10
From: Orange VA
RE: Mixture question...
Thanks all. Appreciate all the info That's why I like this forum so much; a lot of good advice and information concentrated in one place.
Nowadays, is there ever a time where reading my plugs will yield any benefit?
Nowadays, is there ever a time where reading my plugs will yield any benefit?
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 21,949
Likes: 6
From: My house
RE: Mixture question...
Not really, around $35.00 for a base dyno run, checks AFR and gives the H.P. and torque figures. By the time you do some plug checks burn your fingers, strip a spark plug hole, it's cost effectivie to do the dyno. No guess work there. There are some ECM systems out there which are self tuning with wego's that install in the exhausts, a little pricy, but if you have a custom map done up, this alternative would be cost effective. I think evenually all bikes will have wego's from the factory, probably within the next couple of years, even with a carb there's similiar systems that can read the AFR from wego's installed in your exhaust, in essence you become the AFR reader and adjust according in the jetting.
AFR stands for Air Fuel Ratio
AFR stands for Air Fuel Ratio
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