Too Lean or too Rich

[ShazMax]

I read Sean talking about running way to rich or way to lean. How can you tell if it is to rich or to lean. I am under the understanding that pulling the plug and look at it. I recently had a stage 1 kit along with HMF exhaust installed and being ignorant of this makes me nervous. I had the shift light installed and have had it light up a couple times in which I immediately let off the throttle. It is set around 8500 RPM's, makes me a bit nervous seeing the light come on. I am just a nervous wreck.

 

[shawn kloker]

I read Sean talking about running way to rich or way to lean. How can you tell if it is to rich or to lean. I am under the understanding that pulling the plug and look at it. I recently had a stage 1 kit along with HMF exhaust installed and being ignorant of this makes me nervous. I had the shift light installed and have had it light up a couple times in which I immediately let off the throttle. It is set around 8500 RPM's, makes me a bit nervous seeing the light come on. I am just a nervous wreck.

I shift at 9500 and have the rev limiter set at 10,000.Anything over that is wasting time.Torque is dropped off.

 

[4gasem]

I read Sean talking about running way to rich or way to lean. How can you tell if it is to rich or to lean. I am under the understanding that pulling the plug and look at it. I recently had a stage 1 kit along with HMF exhaust installed and being ignorant of this makes me nervous. I had the shift light installed and have had it light up a couple times in which I immediately let off the throttle. It is set around 8500 RPM's, makes me a bit nervous seeing the light come on. I am just a nervous wreck.

I shift at 9500 and have the rev limiter set at 10,000.Anything over that is wasting time.Torque is dropped off.

Since I don't have a air shifter, I set my light at 9000 rpm because it steams past 9 before I can shift.

Pull the plugs and you should see a light gray...

Stop being a wreck and ride it... I would be VERY suprised if it was dangerously lean as the Max seems to be a pretty rich bike.:thumbs up:

 

[one2dmax]

It's vitually impossible to hurt the engine due to rich or lean issues. You will however do long term damage if WAY off (which is hard to do too). Most people tend to jet too rich and virtually all jet kits have you setup this way.

Excessively rich will end up causing buildup on the pistons, valves, ect.. causing loss of power and efficiency. Lean will actually run hotter temperatures and could cause damage by excessive combustion temps. I've personally never seen any damage from lean and I've run pretty darn lean! Either way not being on the money will only cost you a bit of HP and Torque.

I'm sure you are a bit rich with the stage 1 but if you are happy with how it runs (for now) then ride it and enjoy. When you are ready to maximize your stock carbs you can switch to a stage seven or my kit.

8500rpm's is well within the safe range. With other upgrades internally they can take over 11K with no issues. Stock - 9500 is really about it for long term life. Stock rods will stay together for quite some time at 11K but small ends will wear out soon.

Sean Morley

 

[ShazMax]

If I am thinking right, black on the plug is to rich and white is to lean. The HMF helps me stay out of the throttle in town being I live in a tree hugging community outside Aspen that is strict on noise pollution. But once out of town it's hard not to open it up. Just trying to learn before I hurt the engine, rather than after....it's cheaper if you know what I mean. Sounds like I am OK riding it as I do. Nothing like getting on it and smoking all these friggin rich pricks on their high dollar harley's and BMW's. Thanks for the info

 

[113s&s]

know a lot of harley and bmw guys who arnt and could give two shits about racing but put 20.000 a year on there bikes...max dont smoke to many asses unless you looking for harley and some bww riders..be carefull theres a bmw out there that will eat you for lunch and the sound of the way yours is running probably a few harleys also

 

[vmaxinID]

Basalt, CO Elevation: 6,620 ft

Do you know what size: Main jets were put in?
Do you know what: setting the needles were set to?
Have the Brass covers to the A/F screws been removed?
Are you still running the stock air filter?
Are your plugs: balck and dirty, white and ashy, tan and greyish?

I have the same HMF, and Stage 1.
I am at 4,500 ft, so lets talk turkey.

 

[4gasem]

OATA:whistlin:

 

[vmaxinID]

OATA:whistlin:

WTF is OATA?

 

[4gasem]

WTF is OATA?

It's an Old Ass Thread Alert!:whistlin:

 

[vmaxinID]

It's an Old Ass Thread Alert!:whistlin:

Thats some nerd:whistlin: shit there.

 

[4gasem]

Thats some nerd:whistlin: shit there.

What ever... I'm not the one that spent 14 days at the Star Wars convention wearing a Vador mask...:whistlin:


:rofl_200::biglaugh:

 

[vmaxinID]

What ever... I'm not the one that spent 14 days at the Star Wars convention wearing a Vador mask...:whistlin:


:rofl_200::biglaugh:

Um, it was 15 days, and the Star Wars convention isn't till June.

So kiss my lightsaber.

 

[Robbarrie]

There is different stages in running an engine depending on your throttle.
Idle and low, mid, high

If the bike runs rich on idle it doesn't mean it will run rich all the way through the bikes range. The way to tell is read the plugs or have the bike dyno'd and have the pros take readings on the exhaust gases temps and the mixture of expelled unburnt fuel

If reading the plugs is all you want to do or afford - you have to do it in that range your trying to figure out. But the bike should give you an idea from how it runs and responds and reacts to throttle changes. If you want to make it better or suspect a lean/rich issue you have to make small changes and test to see if the bike runs better or worse at that range. If it seems to run good on start up, idle and low, midrange, and wide open throttle. Then understand - it ain't going to be worth it if your not racing where .01 of a second can mean the difference between winning or being second. As a previous post said, don't worry about it if it seems to pull hard and smooth from stop to WOT.

If this is not the answer your looking for may I suggest reading the sticky on sparkplugs.