Essential and recommended tool for balancing the mixtures

[M.J.S]

Went for a run last night and a quick once over showed the manifolds at approx 195 to 205 degrees centigrade.

Mark.

[b-havers]

I assume the rain has stopped, then
Thanks, I'll see what I can get hold on, locally.

[redskatejbf]

Whilst I appreciate this could balance the mixtures between cylinders to some degree, does a higher temperature indicate a weaker mixture and conversely lower temperature richer mix between the cylinder being compared with?. I ask this as I am aware that it is possible to find, in a diesel engine, a cylinder / injecter that is not running correctly by monitoring the exhaust temp. in comparision to the other exhaust temps. The load on a diesel has a dramatic effect on the exhaust temperatures, high load = high temp.
Regards John.

[M.J.S]

You're spot on there John. After a good run yesterday I put the thermometer on the manifold and 1, 2 & 3 were showing approx 192 to 197 degrees whilst 4 showed at 234. Pulling the plugs it was immediately obvious no 4 was a touch leaner than the others, so I have screwed it out an eighth of a turn and will recheck them later.

Earlier in the day on those setting by the way, the car was on the engine tuner and was showing a CO of approx 3.0 to 3.2, which I believe is about right.

Now the mixtures are hopefully sorted I have also swapped the BP5ES plugs I was running (to stop it coking up at slow running) to BP6ES to see whether that makes any difference (the recommended BP7ES used to choke it dead.)

Mark.

[redskatejbf]

Hi, M.J.S.
The temps. you obtained are / would be a good ball park figure for someone to aim for ( I havn`t tried it ) but did you check immediatley after the run? I would imagine the temps. of the exhaust would rise very quickly in still air and give a false impression of cylinder temps. Hopefully this rise would still be relative to the exhaust gas temperature in the respective cylinder / s. as the water and head temperature would rise in tandem.
Next time you check, please report back , and see if the temps. rise dramatically when you leave it ticking over for several minutes.
If this is another means of setting / checking air / fuel ratio between cylinders cheaply I think it would be a great advantage to us paupers.
A great pity that Kieth Frank does not post here anymore, he would indicate if we were going up a blind alley.

Regards John.