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what external breathers to fit

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  • robots
    robots
    5 years ago
    efi just delivers the fuel, thats all, no different to carbie or whats on your lawnmower
    spark plugs still the best indicator of how your motor running, clear pictures and descriptions in the service manual 

  • tussuck
    tussuck
    5 years ago
    Seee..... this is where the 'autotune' comes into its own.  I'm sure I have sparkplugs somewhere in the bike, but am confidant that the Thundermax sorts these out.
  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    5 years ago
    No wonder they call this the mad house
  • Ratbob
    Ratbob
    5 years ago
    Quoting Grease Monkey on 28 May 2019 08:57 AM

    No wonder they call this the mad house

    On ya GMH, gotta tell it like it is. 
  • robots
    robots
    5 years ago
    quite surprised the pic was put up actually
    is there a link between the plugs and external breather? fuel consumption

    the pic show the plugs quite black, could be sooty like. different angle could be different
  • Ratbob
    Ratbob
    5 years ago
    Quoting robots on 28 May 2019 10:02 AM

    quite surprised the pic was put up actually

    is there a link between the plugs and external breather? fuel consumption

    the pic show the plugs quite black, could be sooty like. different angle could be different

    In my experience Unleaded leaves a nasty black build up/sooty residue, rich or lean. It’s the devils spawn. 
    Leaded leaves a nice dry grey film and I recall tuning my old carby bikes not to leave a black residue.
    If not ridden enough, Unleaded also leaves a nasty sticky residue in carby bikes, clogging float bowls etc, Hate the shit.
    So for me those photos of blackened pistons looked exactly the same as pistons in my 69 Bonny and it didn’t have a breather going back into the carbs. It was the shit fuel alone. Well that’s what I reckon.
  • robots
    robots
    5 years ago
    does the same thing happen when put unleaded in your car? (if have car)
    you can change your VE table and adjust the look of your plug quite easy (bike wont blow up), not the fuel, not lead or no lead

    out of spinach in QLD, thats what i reckon
  • Ratbob
    Ratbob
    5 years ago
    Quoting robots on 28 May 2019 11:41 AMedited: 28 May 2019 11:55 AM

    does the same thing happen when put unleaded in your car? (if have car)

    you can change your VE table and adjust the look of your plug quite easy (bike wont blow up), not the fuel, not lead or no lead

    out of spinach in QLD, thats what i reckon

    Interesting. Change your VE tables as much as you like, I don’t think you’ll ever get a clean grey/dry residue from unleaded coupled with peak performance. Plugs and piston tops always look dirty, well that’s my experience.
    Try tuning a 69 T120r with unleaded, I found it impossible to get it to run on one cylinder. With my CB750 K1 the carbs and plugs  would clog up and float bowls pissing fuel and the fabric exhaust filter on the removable baffle would clog, never happened in the 70’s with leaded fuel. Unleaded is too unstable, it leaves a sticky residue in carbs and slowly deteriorates after 30 days or so, but filling the old machines with leaded avgas eliminates all these issues. 
    So yeah same thing happens when you put unleaded in a old carby car. A mate with classic cars reports the same issues but larger capacity engines seem to suffer less. Ie my 1968, 1175 Mini (bored out from 850) hated unleaded but his V12 E Type with Strombergs runs fine on 91. 
  • robots
    robots
    5 years ago
    Ok will do.
    Won't get peak performance with that motor. 

    Can track your fuel  consumption with PV.. use that info to change things up. 
  • brash
    brash
    5 years ago
    I'll stick to a calibrated oxygen sensor thanks....
  • robots
    robots
    5 years ago
    Ok
  • Lushy
    Lushy
    5 years ago
    The steel end of the plug thread is black. It is much cooler due to the alloy head it's screwed into sucking out the heat, so has dark deposits. The insulator is pretty much white. It looks fine. I think the engine ( if it's Ralph's 110) is going just fine. Remind me of the torque Ralph? My experience with breathers is varied like all the available set ups. The size of the passages is often too small for a higher output motor. Oil grade/type is often an issue especially with softail models.
  • Hoodeng
    Hoodeng
    5 years ago


    This is the setup i use ,gets all the junk away from the air cleaner. As you can see it uses the S&S inline check valve and runs up over the motor . If you go to my gallery you can see what the outlet pipe under the mufflers looks like after a long run, there is a little condensate residue there pretty much all the time. The part numbers are S&S, the 'T' Rubber hose is S&S 17-0339.
    +1 on what Lushy said about the plug colour, the porcelain tells you how your motor is running and that is running pretty clean ,the steel shell does not always get itself hot enough to clean itself. You could probably wipe that residue off with your fingers.

    Cheers.
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  • Bigfella
    Bigfella
    5 years ago
    Quoting Lushy on 29 May 2019 10:56 AM
    The steel end of the plug thread is black. It is much cooler due to the alloy head it's screwed into sucking out the heat, so has dark deposits. The insulator is pretty much white. It looks fine. I think the engine ( if it's Ralph's 110) is going just fine. Remind me of the torque Ralph? My experience with breathers is varied like all the available set ups. The size of the passages is often too small for a higher output motor. Oil grade/type is often an issue especially with softail models.

    Hey Lushy, Whats the better oil grade/type for Softails in your experience?
  • ralphski
    ralphski
    5 years ago
    ok, 

    ok, backing plate has been milled down to accommodate breathers 
    happy with the final result.
    i won't be fcking around with the tune.
    porcelain is what you check when looking at plugs, agree
    never said plugs were dirty, i was thinking they may have been cleaner, hard to confirm 
    have dropped about 1 litre of oil from the tank, see if that helps
    grade and type of oil, maybe not the issue, regular oil changes and volume are
    bigger diameter of the orifice of the breathers helps, agree 
    thanks boys, see how it goes........ 
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  • Grease Monkey
    Grease Monkey
    5 years ago
    Good on you ralphski, you got it sorted, as you say, see how it goes.
  • robots
    robots
    5 years ago
    thats bit to drop in 5000kms, you running Penrite
  • perthhog
    perthhog
    5 years ago
    Quoting robots on 29 May 2019 10:40 AM

    thats bit to drop in 5000kms, you running Penrite

    Re read his post  robots  it hasn’t. Used  the oil he’s reduced the oil in the tank 
  • ralphski
    ralphski
    5 years ago
    Quoting robots on 29 May 2019 10:40 AM

    thats bit to drop in 5000kms, you running Penrite

    sorry, just to clarify, haven't used 1 litre of oil in the 5000 km's.
    i have drained about 1 litre of oil from the tank.
    my heads that have been machined, and i have read that reducing the oil volume can sometimes prevent my issues as stated
    yes, normally Penrite V-twin  
  • Lushy
    Lushy
    5 years ago
    Lowering the level may help. Oil that does not foam in the tank is good. Lowering the level helps with that. On phone now with fat fingers. More later. Cheers
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