Color tuning

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lpburke86

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Has anyone ever heard of this? If so, has anyone used it? It sounds good from what the shop told me. Basically its some technique that allows you to perfectly tune the engine so that all fuel burns properly
 
Yes, I've heard of it on the Honda Goldwing Owners Forum. Requires a special spark plug with a clear body that allows you to see the actual color of the burn in the cylinder. After carb synchronization, this is the final adjustment to carbs that I'm aware of. Haven't wanted to spend the $50 or so to buy the kit, but respect the mechanical opinion of the gent who mentioned it on the GWOF. I get good overall performance from sychronization, both power and fuel consumption.
 
lpburke86":1xsrtff1 said:
I get about 40 on the highway, but only about 26 around town.... would that tuning help those numbers?
Click to expand...

:music: a 90cc Honda Cub wouldn't help those numbers, I think your at, or very close to as good as it gets. :music:
 
Goldwings are touring bikes....meant to be on the open road at cruizing speeds. That's where they are designed to run, so that's where they get the best performance. Around town, 'Wings are heavy, and the start/stop aspect is going to pretty much kill any fuel economy, regardless of how it is tuned. Will a proper, complete tune make it better? Certainly, assuming the carbs are clean, synched, and adjusted correctly. The gearing, fuel curve, and ignitions are more suited to running at highway speeds, not lugging around town. I'm sure there is a "happy medium" there somewhere, but I would bet that tuning for better in-town fuel economy will hurt the on-the-road performance/economy. Prolly not a lot, but it would be noticeable. Using the above mentioned technique seems a little overkill, to me. Is one more mile out of that 5 gallon tank really worth the effort? :mrgreen:
 
A wide band O2 sensor in the exhaust would be the best way to check mixture levels across all rpm. A little more money. I have heard that tuners have a removable one that will give you a pretty good idea of where you are at.
 
lpburke86":1fc3fqj9 said:
Has anyone ever heard of this? If so, has anyone used it? It sounds good from what the shop told me. Basically its some technique that allows you to perfectly tune the engine so that all fuel burns properly
Click to expand...

Do you mean Morgan ColorTune?
https://www.carbtune.com/colortune.html

As other poster mentioned, it's a special spark plug through which you can see flames in the combusion chamber.
But isn't it mainly for adjusting idle air mixture?
I am not sure idle mixture affects city MPG greatly.

I have Morgan CarbTune which is a finely constructed manometer for carb synching but not ColorTune.
 
Yeah, you really need a high speed camera to capture flame front propagation etc. and nowadays so many movies on YouTube.

But still I want to watch with my own eye balls if it's ... $20 :hihihi:
$55 is too much for me and I need three sizes to cover my fleet.
 
I've got a Gunson Gastester, exhaust gas analyzer, that I picked up several years ago. You stick a probe in the exhaust pipe and the meter shows the percentage of CO(carbon monoxide) in the exhaust. Adjust the mixture screws until the meter reads what you want and you're done. My 920 Virago had removable plugs on the exhaust pipes so the cylinders could be tuned individually. One of My future projects is drilling holes in the head pipes on My Wing and welding in fittings so each carb can be dialed in on its own.
 

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