so how do i know if i'm "Rich enough" w/ the pilot jets?

here are some pics of one of the spark plugs from about 10-15 miles on it, not really hard on it.

after i wiped off the whitish stuff, it looked clean.

i figure if that whitish stuff was aluminum from my piston, the top wouldnt look so clean, it'd look more burnt...






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Judging by the pics, I would say that your pilot is running a little lean. I would definitely try and richen up the pilot screws. After you get the pilots set, I would then check the main jets by doing a few full throttle passes through a few gears then immediately shut the bike off after you let off the throttle. Pull a plug and see where your mains are at. You MUST remeber one important fact. Eachof the differentjet functionsinside the carberators are based off of throttle position and not just RPM level. I can rev my engine to 6 or 7 grand while in neutral and only be at 1/8 throttle position. At 6-7 grand, the needle diameter and position have the most influence but since your only at 1/8 throttle, your still running off the pilot jet. By this I'm saying in order to check the plugs you need to take note of where your throttle position is because sometimes even though your revved pretty high doesn't nessesarily mean your throttle position matches the RPM level. I hope you understand what I'm saying.

 

so should I do a couple passes / throttle cuts at 1/8 throttle all the way up to redline? will that keep my pilots primarily working, and therefore look at the plug. after that I can richen up the pilots?

the reason why i'm worried of riding it, is i dont want to break anything if it IS indeed running super lean......

so after i pull the spark plugs / doing plug cuts for reving up (how high should i go) at 1/8 throttle, depending on how they look, then after adjusting till they look good,then do a couple wide open throttle plug cuts?

after doing a couple 1/8 plug cuts, will the plugs even look different? or no...? since the plugs are brand new.
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Well, it's definitely not too rich. Take your pilot jets out another half turn or something.

If your bike is sitting there idling and you can smell the unburnt gas coming out of the tail pipe, it's too rich. OR, when it's idling, If you give it a little twist of the throttle and it sputters a bit and then catches and revs up, too rich.

You're not going to hurt the bike really if it's too rich. IF it's too lean and you go out and hammer it, you might hurt it. Probably not, but it's a possibility.

Once you feel good about your mixture screws, go out and hammer it, cycling a few times through the 5-9K rpm range. If you don't feel the bike start to really take off at about 7-8K rpm, then you could probably go up a main jet size.

If it bogs down and stutters a little bit and then takes off, you could maybe go down a main jet size.

What's the altitude where you are? Is your airbox modified or anything? Dynojet or Factory pro or anything like that?

good luck!

Here's a cool "spark plug pictures" page, but it's kind of a drag-racer kind of thing, so take it with a grain of salt.

http://www.4secondsflat.com/plug_chart.html

 

right, i've seen the spark plug page(s)...

anyways, so unscrew (out) the pilot jet screws half a turn, then give it a good rip at wide open throttle, and see if it really takes off, or doesn't?

we're around 1000 feet above sea level, not anything to affect the amount of oxygen / make it run richer, so no worries.

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Well I guess I'm jumping the gun a little bit. You need to get your idle mixture sorted out with the screws first, and then start finding out if your main jet is right.

 

bump
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I just went out and ripped on it pretty good for a few pulls. came back, plugs look the same as the pictures. no black stuff onthem at all. whitish stuff. the insulator was white still.[align=left] [/align]

 

So, what's the bike running like after you go ride for 5 or 10 miles?

 

The bike feels fine. I definitly don't have enough experience to really feel that it's weird, except its backfiring pretty good out the exhaust on decel. like i'll get on it a little bit, let off, and it'll gurgle and then a couple loud BOOMS out the back.


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