Ok, the car is running great, for those of you keeping up with recent improvements. I have two complaints, one I will leave alone until I get Drag Radials (I am breaking loose again, even with a spool, 3.80 gears, and 245 BFGs). This is a good thing, sorta... My bigger concern is continued running of clean and white spark plugs. This time, I am ready...I have finally purchased the Edelbrock metering kit. Based on the look of these plugs after a good 5-10 mile run at around 3500-4000 rpms, with a couple of 5000 rpm bursts, then revving in the garage for about 20 seconds at 3500 rpms, do you feel I should meter a little richer? If so, how much up? I am currently at stock calibration, #1 in the chart. Which would you suggest I move up to? I am guessing #23, but I have never done this and am not sure how this will affect the mixture and if I need to focus on the "power mode" or the "Cruise mode". Instructions are a little vague, but suggest going as rich as possible without doing a jet change, which would be #19 at 12% richer. I was thinking #23 as it is rod-only change, and good for about 6% richer. Any suggestions or prior knowledge?
before you change anything, make sure that the rods and jets are actually the ones they claim they are. I am on my fourth edelbrock for vehicles i have and none of them have come with what the jet kit says is supposedly in there stock. real pain to figure out where the real ones are on the chart and where to go from there. if you want it richer though, definately start at the first step up and go from there
my plugs look just like that... maybe a tad darker i am running 104 jets in front.. 100 jets in back and 7347 (i think)rods
ST, did you go up one richer or two from stock (I can't tell by the numbers you gave me)? Or, how many percent? I bet this takes care of some of the overheating when I get it setup right...
The pic appears to be very mildly lean. That could be lighting, or even my monitor though. Lean is mean... that is for sure, but it is hard on the engine. If you have cast pistons and stock valves, then that is reason enough to run a tad rich. You are correct, lean runs the engine hotter, so you will cool down some. What is the heat range of the plugs? Too high a heat range for your combo could skew a lot of things like detonation, engine temps, and plug reading. Other than these basics, I can't add much. I use Holleys... I like to make power! Dave
i am not sure.. but i think i am at the 23 mark... at least thats where i was told to try and be near to.. if you want it richer.... jet up .002-.005 stock jets are 100 and 95 stock rods are .070 x .047 my jets now are 104 and 100 my rods now are .073 x .047 the bigger the jets the more fuel.. but you also have to get larger rods.. or too much gas will go through.. i was told that this would be a great setup... but.. i have not had the chance to do an exhaust gas analyzer yet... that will be soon though.. well at least before i go through emissions again
Stock 8:1 pistons, GT40P heads with the stock 98 Explorer valves. Radiator was reamed two years ago, then I filled with muriatic acid for 30 minutes this summer to dissolve all the calcium/mineral deposits on the inside. 16X16 electric fan pulling, new radiator hoses, 160* thermostat with 6 1/8" "assistance" holes I drilled around the outside of the big hole. The picture is pretty precise on color, just a little brighter. Plugs are clean and white with a small tan spot near the top. I guess I will just bump up the shaded part of the graph at 45* angle and do the #23 setup, and run em again and look. Note that I never really ran it above 2000 for the first 3 hours of running, while I was test driving in the hood (open headers), tuning the carb and timing. During that time the plugs got a nice thick coat of carbon, which worried me. After about 15 total miles of 3000 plus rpms with some around 5000, the cleaned right up.
The plugs will change appearance according to the last a/f ratio that it saw. It may be that your mixture is lean only at idle but fat at WOT. That is why the pro's, put a new plug in, run WOT, throw it in neutral, shut engine off and pull the plug to read it - not after they've idled the car back to the pits. I understand you're not ONLY drag-racing the car but the information you learn from that will help you get in the ball park. I recommend you spend some time on the link I referred you to earlier: http://www.dragstuff.com/techarticles/plug-pictures.html Just my (at the cost of ) Good luck with it - sounds like you're having fun.
If thats running lean, why was I told on 3 diffrent forums that this is normal and means my engine is running as good and clean as it possibly can? Sorry to hijack your thread, Scott. Just 2+2 ain't equaling 4 for me when compareing your "lean" plug to my "normal excellent running" plug. My plugs have about 7,000 miles on them.
I was taught to look for an almost grayish tint. White is lean. Black is rich. Mix em together and you get gray. While it's not exactly "Gray" you get the idea. The plug he is showing by the pic looks lean. I run a little rich at idle and just about right at full throttle. SO reading your plug before and after a Run is crucial to get an idea what is really going on. Then again I also have a Gas analyzer at work
i was always told it should look like the butt end of a cigarette after smoking it... there are so many different ideas as to how a plug should look... i am so lost in the plug world... i dont know what gap to run.. and its so hard to replace the plugs at the track to check different gaps...
if you go to www.autolite.com , click on car care. in the frequently asked questions is on on how to read plugs. click on the "here" for more info. they have a color chart of the plugs and what it means when they look a certain way.
