Sparky plug reading

[The Raven]

Tell me about these sparky plugs

The last thing they burned was fuel stabilizer tainted gas and idle RPM

Right (looking forward) plug




And the Left plug

[AustinJake]

Left plug, carbon foul, wet, so oil is probably it. You could try a hotter heat range plug, if the oil coming in is a small amount, you might be able to combust it.

Right plug looks like calcium or ash deposits.

[StephenB]

What part number are the sparkies?

Right plug: very lean, cracked isolator, ran hot (? or maybe heat range too hot), looking NOT good at all, how dos the piston crown look and the valves
Left: black, sotty, rich (or could be heat range too cold), looking NOT good (but could be normal after a 1/4hr run to the next beerstore)

Based on the above, your carbs need a very good clean, basic adjustment as per the book and two new plugs, BP6ES I believe. Once you got it running ajust idle and throttle cables to perfection and check your plugs after the first 500mls. Inspect your heads if you hadn't planned already.

[The Raven]

Originally Posted by StephenB

What part number are the sparkies?

Right plug: very lean, cracked isolator, ran hot (? or maybe heat range too hot), looking NOT good at all, how dos the piston crown look and the valves
Left: black, sotty, rich (or could be heat range too cold), looking NOT good (but could be normal after a 1/4hr run to the next beerstore)

Right; Not cracked or deformed in any way just very sooty...whats weird is there is also black in there too.

The bike had only idled for the last 20 minutes (not at once) before being pulled apart.

[SOLO LOBO]

How many miles on your G/S?

If your needles and need jets have never been changed and the mileage is somewheres around 45K, I would say to swap 'em out as they are a wear item.

I think the Bing/BMW recommendation is less than 45K, but can't remember.

[StephenB]

Originally Posted by The Raven

The bike had only idled for the last 20 minutes (not at once) before being pulled apart.

That explains the right plug and naturally, the left shouldabeen the same. Since it isn't I suspect it was already damaged. Could be a heat range or carb or engine problem or a combination thereof. Open the engine and have a looksee.

[The Raven]

Originally Posted by SOLO LOBO

How many miles on your G/S?

If your needles and need jets have never been changed and the mileage is somewheres around 45K, I would say to swap 'em out as they are a wear item.

I think the Bing/BMW recommendation is less than 45K, but can't remember.

Yeah it's at about 50-55k not really sure as the speedo died before I got it and I have a UK spec GS speedo that reads wrong...but gives me a fuel gauge.

I have already ordered the rebuild kit for the carbs and the jets and needle are on my MAXBMW fuel/air wish list (cool feature they have BTW).

That reminds me, I need to go add plugs

[Trailrider200]

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

[robtg]

Originally Posted by The Raven

Tell me about these sparky plugs

The last thing they burned was fuel stabilizer tainted gas and idle RPM

Right (looking forward) plug






And the Left plug

They are old dirty sparkplugs. ------Nothing else.

[squish]

If you park your BMW on it's side stand a lot the left plug will always show a little oil fouling,

The right plug looks like it's running a little hot, However if the gas then went past it had stablizer I'd get a new couple of plugs make sure then coils and the HT leads are in good shape and put a few 100 miles on the bike, then look at the plugs.

These days with the fuel we have and how lean most bikes are, especially at idle it's hard to read plugs,

The best way to do it is shut the bike down and then coast to the side of the road then pull the plugs (but you must be in some sort of safe controled area to do this)

[bikecat]

Borrowing the thread ... on idling ....

My R100R needs choke from cold start, and requires that to be kept on for a while and some revving before it can idle without the choke being pulled ... normal?

Cheers

[supershaft]

Wow! Squish got to it. My first guess to what is "wrong" is the side stand! Chances are other than that there is nothing wrong.

Plugs running white are NOT necessarily too hot! Plugs run white in about everything nowadays! Gas has changed additives and dies over the years AND have you noticed how the newer stuff is getting more powerful AND more fuel efficient? It's quite OK to run things leaner than many think! It is in fact where the power is AND a cleaner running, longer lasting engine!

Personally, my boxers don't even have sidestands and I read pistons, not spark plugs for the most part. The photo examples above are EXTREME examples. Surely you don't need to look at the plugs to figure that stuff out?

[The Raven]

Originally Posted by supershaft

Wow! Squish got to it. My first guess to what is "wrong" is the side stand! Chances are other than that there is nothing wrong.

Plugs running white are NOT necessarily too hot! Plugs run white in about everything nowadays! Gas has changed additives and dies over the years AND have you noticed how the newer stuff is getting more powerful AND more fuel efficient? It's quite OK to run things leaner than many think! It is in fact where the power is AND a cleaner running, longer lasting engine!

Personally, my boxers don't even have sidestands and I read pistons, not spark plugs for the most part. The photo examples above are EXTREME examples. Surely you don't need to look at the plugs to figure that stuff out?

OK dragged a flashlight down to the shed today. The ashy plug was clean on one side, ashy on the other. It was the BMW plug with the 7 in the number.

Looking in the holes...sorry no photos, both pistons looked the same, spotty black but still could see spots of silver on the piston. A little wet on the bottom, but that could be oil/or condensation? May toss in some PB for good measure in case it is moisture.

[supershaft]

My advise is to get some new Bosch W7's and move on to what is really going on if there is anything going on.

Don't let your bike idle so much. Take it out and ring it's neck and then look. Chances are if it isn't pinging it isn't too lean or too hot or too advanced. I have a little light that you can stick down the spark plug hole. You can see things a LOT better like that. It's a KD tool too that is at a lot of auto parts stores.

[The Raven]

Originally Posted by supershaft

My advise is to get some new Bosch W7's and move on to what is really going on if there is anything going on.

Don't let your bike idle so much. Take it out and ring it's neck and then look. Chances are if it isn't pinging it isn't too lean or too hot or too advanced. I have a little light that you can stick down the spark plug hole. You can see things a LOT better like that. It's a KD tool too that is at a lot of auto parts stores.

The bike runs pisser. Idles, no pinging, no complaints. I was actually surprised to see the plugs looking like that...but the last thing it did was a whole bunch of small speed stuff and idling. This whole thing is probably a case of the typical bmw "Oh crap something is wrong and I need to replace half the engine" paranoia