Hey, thanks to the wonders of modern technology... you can help teach me to analyse my spark plugs...

Here they are::

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwightgunning/sets/421274/

The file names give the cylinder... (I wrote the order down in reverse on the pieces of paper)

What do you think? The center part of #4 (that the anode? is set in) is the only noticeable difference for me.

dewey

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dwightgunning.com

i say colours good
nice brown biscuit colour (ideally a little lighter than that)
which means mixture is good.

the black shiny stuff, i'd say could be oil
which is not so good

which means you can blame the rings
or valve guides

but its not so much a bad thing

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Inconspicuously Conspicuous
Appreciation without Depreciation
forever chasing clearer skies...

hrm I've done less than 1000mi since this engine was built. I've been running bp ultimate with (Lucas) lead replacement.

It's not blowing smoke.

We did have a problem when we first built the engine that the rocker cover was filling up with oil. My mechanic friend who installed the engine (didn't build it though... engineers did that) couldn't figure it out so he took a rocker post stand with no oil feed hole and drilled his own... that seems to have solved the excess oil, everything is getting enough oil up the top.

As an aside, I spoke to him the other day and he said the cause of it could be the cam bearings going in upside down... apparently there's a big hole/little hole and your supposed to face the little hole to the feed. He'd spoken to another mechanic who'd had similar problem with massive amounts of oil up top... when they pulled the race engine the cam bearing was upside down which fixed it.

If I've got way to much oil up the top could it be just overwhelming the guides to the point where oil gets down into the cylinder or do you reckon I've got bigger issues?

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dwightgunning.com

i dont see any major issues there
you're getting a clean burn at the tips of the plugs
and theres not smoke so i think its ok

unless someone else more experienced than i (no mechanical experience, no qualifications, 21 yr old uni student, likes to sit and twiddle his thumbs)...

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Inconspicuously Conspicuous
Appreciation without Depreciation
forever chasing clearer skies...

i think your potentially on the right track. they look a bit too oily but hard to tell in a pic.. however excessive oil in the chamber would show in exaust fumes.

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No longer Ms Westwoods mini outside her original kings road shop

Cool cool. I'm not driving it real hard at the moment anyway.

A few questions about the pulsar dizzy's... I have the DR83 model. I need to remove the vacuum advance unit. Is this a simple task?

At the moment I just have it the pipe blanked off and the dizzy upside down because the adv. unit was fouling against the oil pipe so we flipped the dizzy cam and put the unit upside down. I wanna get it up the right way before it rains and I get water in the breather holes.

I need to wind back the static advance a little I think, the starter motor is struggling some times. I seem to remember Dr Mini saying he's got a switch to turn on the the pulsar dizzy once the starter motor is up to speed. I think I may need to do the same... should I put the switch across the wire that goes to the positive or negative side of the coil?

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dwightgunning.com

that dissy stuff just went over my head
ill just twiddle my thumbs now

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Inconspicuously Conspicuous
Appreciation without Depreciation
forever chasing clearer skies...

I'd leave the vac can on it, just pull the dizzy drive shaft out and move it around a tooth or 2.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Okay sounds good... I'll give that a whirl.

After searching, Kev has put the kill switch on the +12v line from the dizzy.

dewey

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dwightgunning.com