What do these plugs say

[BuddyRich]

Bike is running strange, What do you think of the plugs?

[BuckShot]

Plugs should be a light brown color.

Not a mec. , but I'm sure someone else will be able to lead you in the right direction.

[silverdeer0454]

Take a look at this link. It may help out.

 

http://www.dansmc.com/Spark_Plugs/Spark_Plugs_catalog.html

[Marcarl]

I'd say put about 1\2 qrt transmission fluid in a tank full of gas, run it thru, and then post again. Seems you have carbon build up in the one cylinder, and that will cause some issues.

[loehring]

I'd say put about 1\2 qrt transmission fluid in a tank full of gas, run it thru, and then post again. Seems you have carbon build up in the one cylinder, and that will cause some issues.

Transmission fluid in the gas?! That is completely new to me. I have never heard of that. Will that really work?

[GeorgeS]

I would say a little on the rich side, but not bad.

 

I've seen a lot worse then that

[Monsta]

Tranny fluid!?! Maybe in a diesel engine (it can be a lubricant for the injectors) but not a gasser.

 

When did you last service your air filters?

[bongobobny]

Transmission fluid in the gas?! That is completely new to me. I have never heard of that. Will that really work?

 

Ahhhh!! Sounds like someone found out what Marvel Mystery Oil really is!! It serves as a decarbonizing agent on the valves and combustiuon area. It DOES work, sort of, but then again so does droplets of water which literally blasts off carbon deposits when added to the intake in the right ratio. That one is very hard to do and hardly ever used...

[Marcarl]

Transmission fluid in the gas?! That is completely new to me. I have never heard of that. Will that really work?

An old timer told me that trick years ago, so we all did it occasionally just to keep the combustion chamber cleaned up. Haven't had to worry much about it lately with no-lead, fuel injection and all, but it did work. Mechanics were always amazed at how clean the combustion chamber and the rings were if you did this once in a while. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for fuel injection, don't know why, just never tried it, but it makes sense in carburated engines of yesteryear. The fluid doesn't burn as quickly as fuel and so tends to bind with the carbon in the cylinder, loosens it, and helps it to burn off or to be ejected right out the back side. Result? a clean or cleaner combustion chamber.

[Redneck]

They say your scooter is running fine.

[Greener]

I agree with Monsta to check the air filters as your first step.

[Squeeze]

An old timer told me that trick years ago, so we all did it occasionally just to keep the combustion chamber cleaned up. Haven't had to worry much about it lately with no-lead, fuel injection and all, but it did work. Mechanics were always amazed at how clean the combustion chamber and the rings were if you did this once in a while. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for fuel injection, don't know why, just never tried it, but it makes sense in carburated engines of yesteryear. The fluid doesn't burn as quickly as fuel and so tends to bind with the carbon in the cylinder, loosens it, and helps it to burn off or to be ejected right out the back side. Result? a clean or cleaner combustion chamber.

 

I'm not saying this wouldn't work or not, honestly don't know.

Besides that, it could open up some Leeway for reduced Valve Clearances when done now on a Engine which has a Lot of Miles on it and had nothing like this done before. I'd be quite hesitating over such a Treatment, and think twice about what Ghost I am going to call ...

[V7Goose]

Well, the first thing they say is you are missing two plugs!

 

The color is good, but that first one seems to have something on the back side of the insulator - probably just the picture, but it looks strange. The gaps also look a bit wide, but again I expect it is just the picture and the type of plugs.

 

Ya really can't tell a lot without looking at all four plugs, and since you are gonna have them out, I'd just change them at the same time. Even if you don't think the plugs are ready for changing, why wouldn't you do it anyway and just keep those for a backup set? If you feel the need to read the plugs because something doesn't seem right, putting new ones in is the only way to be certain you don't have to mess with them again while you hunt down whatever else is going on.

 

I had an almost new pickup back in the 70s with a V-8 that started doing something different after a fill up on a road trip - wasn't real pronounced, but I could feel the engine somehow when I never could before. I suspected bad gas, but when I pulled the plugs I found one of them "whiskered" - a piece of carbon lodged between the electrodes. I had read about that possibility, but never expected to actually see it in person!

Goose

[skydoc_17]

Spark Plugs are Like Wives, (or girlfriends) You can look at them for an hour, you know something is wrong, but the challenge is to figure out what the heck to do about it!

Here are a few questions I would ask myself it this was my bike:

1) When was the last time I changed air filters?

2) Have I been running mid grade or high test gas in the bike lately (no-no)

3) When was the last time I took this bike up on the freeway and got the revs up past 5000 RPMs? (even though these bikes LOOK LIKE a Harley, You can't ride them like a Harley!)

4) Did the sooty plug come from the Kickstand side of the bike?

5) Have you been riding and left the choke on lately? (See #3)

 

If you will answer these questions honestly, and post the results I will be more that happy to chat with you about some of the issues I think you are dealing with. It could very well be a combination of a few things, and a few riding habits that are easily adjusted which would give you better performance.

 

(Just for the record, I have used the tranny fluid trick on many cars and trucks in my younger days with good results. However, I prefer to use a syringe full of Seafoam in the Vacuum port of the intake boots on motorcycles, you would not believe what comes out of the tailpipe of a scoot when you give it a snort of Seafoam in the intake! *CAUTION* DO NOT TRY THIS IN A GARAGE OR INCLOSED AREA! It's a smoker!)

 

The plugs on this bike would not lead me to believe that the Seafoam treatment is called for.

Earl

[04Midnight]

I prefer to use a syringe full of Seafoam in the Vacuum port of the intake boots on motorcycles

Earl

 

Can you elaborate, please? Are you talking about the same vacuum ports that I use to sync my carbs?

[saddlebum]

A little rich on the fuel but not too bad for a bike, check the condition of your air cleaner. Also that insulator is very white indicating that the plug itself may be just a little too hot try going down one heat range on the plug. the perfect colour of the insulator should be a light to medium tan.

 

Use extreme caution on the water trick. Yes it does clean the carbon, but on a badly carboned engine it some times frees it up in chunks which in extreme cases can do valve damage. Sometime its safer to use one of the commercial cleaners because they soften the carbon up, rather than just kind of blast it of in pieces.

Edited June 15, 2009 by saddlebum

[skydoc_17]

04 Midnight,

First off, let me say that before I would do the Seafoam treatment, I would be asking myself the questions that I listed in the above post and would try to modify my riding habits and maintenance of my bike first. With that being said, I have attached a pic below of the rig I use to inject Seafoam into the vacuum ports where you connect to do a Carb. sync.

Bike to operating temp., syringe hose connected to vacuum port, SLOWLY, feed the Seafoam into the vacuum port while reving the engine. (It's gonna' smoke out the tail pipe!) Switch to next cylinder. The rig I use holds about 1 1/4 oz. of Seafoam.

ABSOLUTELY COUNT ON REPLACING ALL 4 SPARK PLUGS AFTER YOU DO THIS TREATMENT!

The carbon deposits will melt on to the end of the spark plugs and make them hard to fire. I usually only do this treatment on pretty high milage bikes, or bikes that have been lugging around alot.

By the way, I could not find your name in your profile, Do you work for the CIA?

Since I can't look you in the eye while I chat with you about your bike, it would be nice to at least call you by name.

Just my thoughts, for what they're worth,

Earl

Edited June 15, 2009 by skydoc_17
FORGOT PIC! OOPS!

[V7Goose]

I'm having a blast watching all the replies to this thread! We all get to look at the same two pictures without any other information,and the responses range from good to rich, carboned up, too hot, etc. All I can say is the majority of opinions here MUST be wrong (since they are so different)!

 

There certainly is no guarantee that my opinion is not one of the wrong ones, but I'll repeat it anyway - those plugs look perfect. The color is just what they should be, including the ground electrode. There is NO carbon build up, and the little bit of soot on the end of the plug body is absolutely normal. Plugs are read ONLY by the color of the insulator and electrodes, with attention paid to uniformity and any surface deposits. If the engine is running so hot or lean that you don't have light black soot on the base of the plug body (the same surface as the entire head of the cylinder), you would probably have major engine damage before long.

 

Of course, I am assuming the plugs were pulled after normally shutting down the bike at idle, so they don't give you a true picture of what is going on at cruising RPM. But they look good enough to suggest all is well there too. Good luck on guessing who to believe!

Goose

[CMIKE]

When I looked at the photos...I thought they looked good...then all this stuff starting flying. I thought maybe I am gonna learn something here.

I am always willing to learn something new and I did about the injecting Sea Foam in the vacuum ports. I do not think there is problem with the plugs to warrant this from these photos.

 

I am not a mechanic but have looked a many spark plugs on racing dirt bikes trying to get the carb adjusted right (jetting, Fuel/Air mixture). They are kinda finicky about temperature. elevation and modifications.

[chabicheka]

Bike is running strange, What do you think of the plugs?

What do these plugs say

 

 

had my speakers at full volume, but didnt hear a thing....from either of them.

[Yammer Dan]

I'll throw another one in there but might be Hydro's talking this morning.

 

Yamaha Ring-Free is some great stuff. You might try it with the injection system or just run it according to directions. I always use something like this about twice as strong as directions call for. But those plugs don't look that bad to start with.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Bike is running strange, What do you think of the plugs?

 

 

 

Hey Buddy, What do you mean by 'strange'?

 

Those plugs look ok to me, by that I mean they dont look bad enuff to cause misfiring. If your having misfiring a little or a lot, with those plugs, I'd check to make sure the gap is correct, and then do a sparkplug 'test' ( you know, old school way) then look for something else going on.

[BuddyRich]

Got lots of comments and that was what I hoped for.

OK the bike idles fine. Runs good all the way up to red line at less than full throttle. In any gear giving it full throttle the bike begins to miss and bog down above 5k rpm . Removed one of the air filters and housing totally. Can get full throttle in 1st and sometimes second. But when in third can't give it any gas without bogging and missing. I pulled the carbs last night and I'm going to try to reset the floats today following Goose's writeup. Its just weird when it miss/bogs/takes off for a second then bogs again.

Oh yea, Iridum plugs so theres no gapping them and all 4 look the same

 

[stardbog]

Oh yeah Buddy, you got lot of good stuff here. From transmission oil to sea foam shot and other carbon blasters...... Is it easier to Call Eck ??? :rotf:

[V7Goose]

Got lots of comments and that was what I hoped for.

OK the bike idles fine. Runs good all the way up to red line at less than full throttle. In any gear giving it full throttle the bike begins to miss and bog down above 5k rpm . Removed one of the air filters and housing totally. Can get full throttle in 1st and sometimes second. But when in third can't give it any gas without bogging and missing. I pulled the carbs last night and I'm going to try to reset the floats today following Goose's writeup. Its just weird when it miss/bogs/takes off for a second then bogs again.

Oh yea, Iridum plugs so theres no gapping them and all 4 look the same

Based on this, I'd look at fuel pump, fuel filter, or gunk in the main jets (but I'd also put in new regular plugs). Can't hurt none to do the float levels since you are there, but I'd be real surprised if it helped those symptoms. The only thing that would match would be floats too low, and there is virtually no way that can just develop on it's own.

Goose