Blown Alcohol racer Mike Canter wrote one of the best plug reading articles out there for new plug readers. It will take a little bit before you gain confidence in reading them and trusting what you read. But once you do it will be the first thing you look at. https://www.dragstuff.com/tech...hol-spark-plugs.html

Thanks for the link!

Something just dawned on me that I glazed over in our conversation. Your egt looks close and afr seems rich. I agree that there is not a magic number that works with every combo. But if a person looks at in generalities then maybe we can see something that gives us an idea of what to try. With that in mind... Lowiah egt and low afr might be telling a person the engine has too much timing. Running more timing than optimum will make the engine crave fuel. Just something to try in your quest for more power. If it doesn't work then don't worry about the numbers and give the engine what it wants

Scott

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen Hughes:

quote:

Originally posted by wideopen231:
As I and others have said the truest reading is plugs.They know more about whats going on in cylinder than anything else. ET tells you what makes best power every where and mph tells you how much power you are using to get job done.



Rather o2 or EGT's they are just another tool.Use them correctly and they will serve you well.

As cpl have said you will get lots of different views and most maybe right its just how they go about making them work. Some times there is such thing as too much info.

What does a properly tuned methanol engine plug look like?

On NGK's(only plug I run) if you burn cadium most or all away aroung and turn up first thread you are about as close to perfect as you will get. I know some have said you burn all the way around and first thread completely,too close to lean IMO and have never seen any gain in that last little bit.
I am happy when it burns 90% around the plug and do not worry about getting up to thread. Very little to no gain , so why push it to limit.Remember the idea of any engine is to see how much fuel you can make it burn,not how lean can you run it.We want power and more fuel burned efficiently means more power,screw gas mileage.

As 358T said the engine will tell you what it wants,but kind of like a wife you have to figure out how to understand what it means.

quote:

Originally posted by 358T:
Something just dawned on me that I glazed over in our conversation. Your egt looks close and afr seems rich. I agree that there is not a magic number that works with every combo. But if a person looks at in generalities then maybe we can see something that gives us an idea of what to try. With that in mind... Lowiah egt and low afr might be telling a person the engine has too much timing. Running more timing than optimum will make the engine crave fuel. Just something to try in your quest for more power. If it doesn't work then don't worry about the numbers and give the engine what it wants

Scott

I agree with Scott.
You can cover up too much fuel with timing, and too much timing with fuel. Often it all becomes more efficient when you back both off a bit. Probably not going to hurt a thing running that way. But it may bring your numbers into making a bit more sense.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wideopen231:
ET tells you what makes best power every where and mph tells you how much power you are using to get job done.
QUOTE]

You got that backwards!

This is just my car but I like to keep the 02s right around alky scale 5.5 to 5.7. Is really steady there and good mph.

quote:

Originally posted by Bucky:

quote:

Originally posted by 358T:
Something just dawned on me that I glazed over in our conversation. Your egt looks close and afr seems rich. I agree that there is not a magic number that works with every combo. But if a person looks at in generalities then maybe we can see something that gives us an idea of what to try. With that in mind... Lowiah egt and low afr might be telling a person the engine has too much timing. Running more timing than optimum will make the engine crave fuel. Just something to try in your quest for more power. If it doesn't work then don't worry about the numbers and give the engine what it wants

Scott

I agree with Scott.
You can cover up too much fuel with timing, and too much timing with fuel. Often it all becomes more efficient when you back both off a bit. Probably not going to hurt a thing running that way. But it may bring your numbers into making a bit more sense.

Thanks guys, i’ll study that as well.

Tune main pill for highest possible converter flash, then work on the high speed to optimize/improve the MPH.

If no high speed, just pill it till it shows the best ET.

Richen till it starts bubbling/gurgling/popping before shift point once it gets there that's as rich as it can get. Lean it out from there till it runs best, keep leaning till it falls off at the shift point then that should be your range.

If you got a high speed, follow same process as above, then start bringing in high speed pill size and pressure adjustments to optimize RPM and MPH.

I used the old school philosophy if it gains 10 degrees of water temp going down the track then your tune up is pretty close

On plug reading: my blower car picks up a bunch by burning a couple threads vs just the top of the plug. I can go three threads on this motor and just barely Clearance a bearing where it seems most combos won't tolerate that much heat. EGTs approach 1300 on that tuneup.

The only NA injected car I've ever tuned actually slowed down if it burned any cad at all. Fastest ET was about 8 pills fatter than where it would start to burn the cad on a couple plugs.

quote:

Originally posted by Kris D.:
Tune main pill for highest possible converter flash

This is how I got started on my injected combo. Completely unknown engine and injection system, mixed and matched parts, and a pump that was at least 5 times too big for the motor.

First time I put it on the converter it got to 3k then flooded and shut off. After 3 or 4 tries on the converter it was within about 10 of where it ran the fastest in the track