When I pulled my plugs (approx. 7k on 'em) to do my valve shims, they looked like this -


I'm thinking that is way too much oil but haven't had any issues other than the loss of 2-4 mpg and the bike has been running great since I reinstalled them. The only mods I've done that might affect this are the PAIR delete and a slip-on...

Guess I'm just wondering if I should be concerned? Would a Power Commander would be helpful or necessary?

 

Looks like its running rich. Oil leaves a white powder on them when it's burning.

 

Yes, I figured as much with the drop in mpg.

Is there anything I can or should do, short of getting it tuned? Or just not worry about it? One of my "old school" mechanics said I just need to let 'er eat, i.e. more throttle, more often. I was like "Dude, I've got enough tickets and don't need an excuse for more!"

 

Getting it tuned is never bad. Are you running a PC that you can tweak a bit? They are made and tuned to perform at higher rpms. The downside is that they tend to run a bit rich if you keep them low.

Unless there is another physical problem contributing to the rich running....

I find that I get a tad better mpg if I wind it up a bit and ride a little harder.

 

No PC at this time and wondering if it's worth bothering with...

I'll try to keep the rpm's up, see if it affects the mpg either way, and then pull the plugs to have a look after 1-2 k.

 

That's really rich looking. A/f ratio is set and moniterd with the O2 sensor so if it was off enough from what the factory wanted it would throw a code and rpm's shouldn't matter. My bike used to get 50mpg. Down to maybe 40 at this point, but it's got a lot of use by now.

 

Yeah, that is what I'm concerned about but it is running nice and smooth right now and the unburned gas smell isn't as bad as it was before I did the valve shims, fpr, and new air filter.

For now, I'm planning to just keep tabs on my mpg and check the plugs again in a couple thou...