Japan Meets BritainThat's the best /only way to read a plug. Don't be surprised if the come out a lot whiter than you might have expected. Remember that the mixture ring is way down inside so take a jeweler's loop and flashlight. Good luck and be safe. Well, 'plug chops' are free, but time consuming and not too accurate. I'm planning to get something like this:
http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products/lm2.php Less expensive versions show up on Ebay regularly- any wide band O2 sensor will provide a very accurate picture of your fuel/air mixture, and can do it on the fly and in any conditions you want to test. I plan to buy a spare header and weld the bung into it for testing. A group of riding friends could buy the setup together and have little investment in a 21st century tuning tool. I'll report how it works. Rick
Looks interesting and look forward to seeing how that goes for you, though surely don't plug readings and road testing have some degree of accuracy? And setting up and using a computerized system has a certain degree of time consumption as well, and hopefully you'll know how to accurately interpret the readings it produces. Yet probably 99% of people who work on and ride motorcycles don't have access to computerized dynos or anything along those lines, so what are they to do? And what were they doing back in the 60's? I mean, were all their engines seizing and blowing up because they were doing road tests and plug readings?
When I was talking to the dyno guy in the Baltimore area and told him what we were currently doing, he said that basically they'd be doing the same thing, only they had the advantage of the exhaust/gas analyzer, as well as being able to do it in an indoor, controlled situation with constant temperature, no wind, etc. As you can see from this 7 year investigation, I'm all for looking into any kind of advantage to help the final goal of a better riding and more reliable machine. But for me, it's gotten to the point where I need to draw the line somewhere, otherwise this whole venture is going to drive me even crazier than it has, and will turn itself into a $100,000 venture (no, I am nowhere near that -- really!). Here again, I put almost 20,000 miles on the bike before the rebuild and by tuning it by using the same methods we're presently utilizing, and I need to trust the knowledge and experience of my mechanic, as well as my own riding experience and perception on this bike.
Just waiting on those powder coated side covers and for the weather to be good. Right now the temps are back down in the 40's, and they were actually calling for some snow today, which is weird. Well we know that 270's and 300's are too big, due to its 'nosing over' at WOT. And right now it's at 240's and running great. So if it turns out that it's not 240's with the plug chops, it's either 250's or 260's, so should be pretty straightforward -- famous last words!
Yes, still the 626's. One nice thing about them is that the jets, floats, slides, etc are all readily available and - from what I understand - are simple to work on. One negative thing however, is that because of their 'simplicity', they are more limited in terms of adjustments. As well, I don't know whether or not they'd be better suited to engines that would orient the carbs in a straight vertical position. But I think Norton used these and they were slightly canted forward? One thing I think is cool is that the Read Titan with its 350 big bore kit, high lift cams, porting and polishing etc used....26mm Amals!
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