These plugs have been in for maybe 6 weeks at most. They are red and rusty?
Bike: 1991 with 8500 miles. AmSoil in the engine. Put in 4 weeks ago.
What can make the plugs look like this? They are dry, crusty and reddish. The bike runs fine but does seems to drink oil.
Bike always garaged. Not ridden in the rain.
Ideas anyone? We removed them while the forks are draining, and getting ready for a compression check while we wait for the forks.
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Interwebs say anti-knock additives in fuel do this.
http://www.classictruckshop.com/clubs/earlyburbs/projects/spark/plugs.htm
He uses Chevron 87. There is a little cloudiness in the gas from probably old crud coning loose in the tank that may be contributing to it.
He will be replacing tanks soon so we won't worry about it. Put in new plugs and will monitor it.
Water in the fuel system? Or some sort of other fuel contamination?
on the subject of weird spark plugs. I just pulled this out of my gs 500. How in hte hell did it run before?
(http://imgur.com/cTIw1aE.jpg)
note the little hooks are not hidden behind.. they are literally just not there, doesn't even look like there's a spot where they broke off.
You have the famous brisk plug there but I shall let addy explain them as he knows the most about them.
Contamination i'm guessing.
dr.....plugs arc to the side,probably not as efficient cos the idea never commonly took-over.
The Brisk plugs are a ring fire. Spark goes from the center pin to the passive rings on the ceramic shaft then to the base.
More spark and more efficient burning of the gas. Those plugs are about $14 each.
You can google it and see the reports on the Brisk plugs along with video demos of the spark.
Was anti seize used on the plugs? I have seen copper "conductive" anti seize somewhat do this, but not to this extent and not on a motorcycle.
Really a long shot I mean its all over the electrode so I doubt this is the cause.
Is vandalism a possibility? Someone pulls the plugs and drops something down into the pistons to try to damage the bike?
it sits all night and eats at the plugs, but doesnt give the culprit the desired effect?
I am shooting in the dark. :icon_lol:
Could be gas and some crud still coming off the inside of the tank as the gas is a little cloudy.
Bike runs fine. Tank will be replaced in a month or two.
looks like i better replace that tank sooner than later! back to blue sooN!
update @adidasguy this morning i checked the oil after our vashon run. When i left your house that morning i was almost F when i checked this morning oil was at exactly 1/2. Yup i checked on the centerstand 3 times. In reading other posts someone mentioned that maybe they messed with the idle screw down below. I know when i was FIRST had the bike my dad twisted that thing a lot. Maybe he over did it. The bike idles when warm at just around 1100-1200 i would say. Should it maybe be higher? Does this explain some of the smoke ollie saw on the way back at the vashon island ferry? not sure but the bike is still drinking oil.
You definitely have a problem here. Those plugs look like they were mucked up with a combination of burning oil and bad gas. Smoke is a good indication of burning oil as well. Idle speed or any other carb adjustment won't affect oil consumption. 1200 is a good idle speed. I think I saw in another thread that your compression was good, but it seems like an issue with piston rings. Do you know any more about the history of the bike? How many miles, was it rebuilt at any point?
I am the third owner. The second owner a 22yr old didnt have a single tool to his name. He was trying to fix things incorrectly. I mentioned to adidas that the gas tank i got from him always had this orange tint when i looked at the gas i pour in. Its like cloudy orange. Also when i checked the oil this morning inside the engine it was black instead of the sort of clear violet when it comes out of the container. The bike is running fine but this is the most visible symptoms i can see.
1: orange cloudy gas in gas tank. The tank was painted orange. Adidas mentioned he cleaned but maybe its worth another look.
2: there is sometimes smoke coming out the exhuast but its not dark or anything. and it only lasts a few seconds. Bluesmudge mentioned on sunday he saw some come out but it only lasted like a second or two.
3: the oil this morning was darker than when it comes out of the bottle. i am not sure if i was just looking at oil in a semi dark room and so i was just seeing the low light conditions.
4: the bike just drinks oil. not sure why. just changed oil filter and checked leaking but nothing significant if at all.
im very perplexed :dunno_black:
in testing with adidas guy this saturday we found out something must be wrong with the pistons or valves. Im leaning towards piston rings because the valves compression was good. thanks again adidasguy for helping me figure this out.
Our test involved putting a cloth or two behidn the exhaust to check for oil. sure enough it turned black whenever i revved the engine.
From my experience with a lot of older cars oil does turn black fairly quickly in high- mileage vehicles, but usually takes a few hundred miles to do so.
On the other hand Audrey seems to keep that nice honey looking tint to the oil so far so maybe its just the wear and tear on your engine.
I was thinking that maybe that tank would benefit from quite a bit more cleaning, probably still some sediment down in the pockets that didn't come out the first time?
Hey was just reading a bit about compression testing on here:
http://autos.yahoo.com/maintain/repairqa/engine/ques056_1.htmlhttp://autos.yahoo.com/maintain/repairqa/engine/ques056_1.html
Never tried the adding of 30wt oil after the first test as described in here to determine if its a ring or seal issue. They both in spec though?
We had I think 150 or 155 each side. With some oil in, it went to 180 as I recall.
We are realizing the bike probably has many more miles than on the odometer.
Original tank was rusted with pin holes.
Forks worn out - never had forks with bushings that bad.
Engine eats oil.
There is road rash on the upper left chrome headlight ring - meaning it went down and probably took out the speedometer. So probably a replacement speed-o or the bike really has 108kmiles, not 8k. It is an 89.
Given those things, I think we're looking at a high mileage bike. Even though carfax shows no accidents, they only show what is reported. Dropping a bike doesn't get reported unless there is a police report.
We should go at it now with the thought of a high mileage bike rather than one with 8k miles that sat most of the time. We will always replace with newer parts from now on. I ordered many sets of new bushings and those forks will get totally rebuilt. Especially the top bushing - with that bad, the fork wobbled at the seal and of course would leak. Just I never encountered bushings that worn. The tubes are perfect! Go figure? Anyway, you have replacement forks that are good and your original forks will get rebuilt 100% for another project.
Remember to measure how much oil you're using. That will tell us how serious it is. Its not leaking on the outside so it must be eating oil.
I guess the 30 psi difference in compression says the rings are bad. We can replace those. Austin left his cylinder honing tool in the Cave and can show us how to use it.