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Buell Forum » XBoard » Buell XBoard Archives » Archive through December 01, 2004 » Rich Lean How can you tell? « Previous Next »

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Tatsu
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 08:37 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

I hear folks talking about rich or lean conditions for the bike. What is that and how do I know if I have this problem or not? I have a XB12R with, a drummer, box mod, race filter and race ECM and looking to gain a little bit more performance by getting the TFI unit. I was curious.

Thanks
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Fullpower
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 08:53 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

run it wide open up a long steep hill, when you reach whichever rpm range you are concerned with
thumb the stop switch to off, squeeze the clutch, coast to a stop, have a smoke, remove a spark plug, inspect the color. lily pure white is lean, dark brown is rich. beige/tan/cafe au lait color is good. oh, you have an XB, sorry, i said remove spark plugs. what i meant was, remove motorcycle, and then inspect the spark plugs.
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Darthane
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 09:03 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

LOL...Tatsu, find a dealership with a dyno - most of them have the capability to measure the A/F ratio of your bike's exhaust over the RPM range. It'll tell you if and where you're rich/lean.

You'll have to get that done anyways if you want to squeeze any more power out using a TFI or anything similar.
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Glitch
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 09:10 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

What Darth said.
I found a V-twin shop near me that will do dyno-runs for $30. I was more convenient and less expensive than the any dealership in my area.
This way you'll know where in the RPM range you're running lean if you are.
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Reepicheep
Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 08:20 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Kudos to F&S Buell here in Dayton, OH. Dyno runs for $35, and that includes fuel air ratio. Have an appointment this afternoon for the 05 9 series stock ECM versus race ECM. Should be interesting.
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Whitetrashxb
Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 10:27 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Reep,

will you let us know the results?

thanx
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Aaron
Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 11:14 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Reep ... not sure you're aware of this, but F&S made an enormous contribution to the Team Elves effort the first two years we ran.


(a little hard to see, but it says "F&S Harley Davidson" just below the lower white stripe)

Gary Stolzenburg of F&S sent me lots of parts I needed, and never charged us a dime. What's more, he loaned about $3000 worth of trick XR motor parts and let us use'em for 2 seasons. They made all the difference in the world.

Support F&S whenever you can, they're good people, and we owe them.
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Tatsu
Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 12:38 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Okay I got it. Get a dyno run that has the ability to do a A/F ratio readout, then use the TFI to smooth those values out. Thanks for the input.
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Blake
Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 02:48 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

When you are rich, pretty girls will follow you around. When you are lean, you can ride longer, go quicker in a drag race, and don't need suspenders to hold up your riding pants. : )
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Bomber
Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 02:57 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

plug chopping (well described by Fullpower, btw, thanks) works great on carbed/points motors, less well on carbed/electronic ignition motors, and less well on FI/electronic ignition motors -- it gets harder and harder to read the plug accurately, as the little black boxes try valiantly to correct for the lean/rich conditions (or so it has been explained to me)

that said, Full's description was right on the money, but if you've never seen a plug out of a rich/lean motor, you'll have little context in which to place the knowledge gained from looking at yer plugs -- plug reading is just as much black are as science (according to the NKG and Chapion reps I've spoken to) -- don't ferget to sprinkle some squireely blood on the magnifying glass!

dynos work great!
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Reepicheep
Posted on Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 08:08 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Custodian/Admin only)

Aaron, Good to know. They have been good to me, and the owner of the place is the real deal, a grizzled old crotchety dirt tracker.

Whitetrash... dyno in the knowledge vault http://www.badweatherbikers.com/cgibin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=3842&post=347045#POST 347045

I will let people that know more about this stuff then I speculate, but at this point, unless you are changing the exhuast, I don't think there is much reason to get the race ECM.
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