Recently I had posted about the failure of an E3 spark plug. I know there are different opinion on them but I sent them back to the manufacturer and put in a set of HD-6r12s. I took it for a run last weekend and the bike ran well but I notice the mileage seemed on the low side although I didn't actually calculate it just noticed on the guage. I pulled them out after the ride and they had a light tan colour. They used to be white always but I figured perhaps some of the brown colour was from the 2 month old gas that's been sitting in the tank this winter.

Today I received a reply from E3 and they are sending me a free replacement set of plug however they had this reply. "The plugs returned were significantly cold fouled. Carbon buildup on the marked plug with black tape has enough carbon buildup to cause the spark to arc along the insulator nose causing misfires or poor ignition."

This has me thinking. Over the winter months I installed a set of true duals. I have power commander 5 and I went to dynajet and downloaded a map that was closest to what I think I have. I am wondering if in fact the new map has me running to rich which would suggest the reason my mileage seems down as well. There is no black smoke from the pipe with the exception of the rear cylinder if you crack in from a 30 second idle. That is also the cylinder that failed. So now I have to try and figure out what map to use. Dynajet suggested the one I'm using but the one previous was for stock exhaust with slip ons.

I would love to be able to use Fuel Moto for a revised map but up here in Canada, I wasn't able to buy from them. I would pay them to do a map but their policy appears to be only those who purchased originally from them can use the service. I tried contacting them via email to offer to pay but no response so ill muck around up here and maybe get lucky. Oh there isn't a dyno in 150 miles from me so a dyno tune is out as well.

randy

 

I would ride those tan plugs till the cows come home.

 

I know with my shovel and 65 ironhead, tan plugs meant everything was perfect, but I'm told on an 03 road king TC, that isn't the case. I do know that the plugs were always clean with the power commander map previous.

randy

 

Refund the E3 plugs , buy some standard plugs put them in a ride for many miles the E3 are a scam. Tan is good you are doing fine.

 

Now they're sending you another set of junk plugs? Too bad they didn't just send a refund! White means lean,tan is fine.

 

I suggest using nothing in a TC other then stock OEM plugs. Light tan color is what you want to see, white/light grey is too lean, black too rich. As far as MPG, you are running a winter blend fuel, mpg will be off 15-20%. Aftermarket plugs will foul or fail and most likely the issue, not the tune. If you haven't installed external crankcase breather system, I suggest you do that.

 

Checkers, External crank case breather system? Not familiar with that. I have two rubber hoses that are connected from my High flow backplate under the air filter to the top corner of each cylinder head. Is that what you mean?

randy

 

Supposed to be tan . Ride it !!

 

As others have stated, tan is good. As for what you have, I seriously doubt, unless you get lucky, will find a perfect map for your setup. I tried downloading maps and the bike ran well, but not perfect. I got the bike dyno'd and the bike runs better and gets better mileage. I still make small adjustments when the weather get much warmer (different map). You should never see black smoke on a good tune.

 

Kind of surprised no one has jumped in here with the "can't read a sparkplug with fuel injection" argument. May now they will. I always enjoy that one.