Hungry for Spark plugs

[Mack]

Does anyone have an idea why factory jetting would foul so many plugs?

I took my 84R to the Badlands off road park in Attica, IN on friday. Pretty cool place to ride and my R ran great all day with one annoying reoccurrence. I went through 6 plugs in 8 hours. I started out with stock pilot and a 138 main that id put in earlier in the week due to lean plug chops. The 138 gave me a black read but I didn't have a 135 so I went with it. Everything was going well until I took on a pretty big hill and my trike bogged out at the top and died. Other than a cracked front fender (pissed) a bent clutch lever fouled plug and a panicking run down the hill, all was well. I changed the plug and rode back to the truck and jetted the main back down to a 130. The rest of the day I was good on the hills as long as I didn't open it WOT or i'd foul the plug.

A 130 is the factory main and my trike is all stock. I spent the rest of the day changing plugs every hour or two. A few times I would shut it of to take a break and when I started it back up and took off it would bog down and die with no start until I changed the plug. another time, I was drag racing my buddy on his lt250r and I got it revving real high in first and it just crapped out and died with another fouled plug. To me this indicates rich at 3/4 to WOT but why would that happen with factory jetting?
My brother suggested that the timing may have delayed a bit over the years? I am also running NGK BR9ES which all 3 Honda shops in my area have recommended for my trike but another member on here said to run BR8ES.

All in all it ran well and being my first real ride on three wheels (been on 4 all my life) I actually like a lot of things about trikes better than quads. My only dislike is those steep hills that are rutted out by quads at the very top and pretty much serve as a deathtrap to a center placed front wheel. I just wanna get this thing dialed in for the next trip. Any suggestions or insight regarding timing or any other ideas would be appreciated. Mack

[jmax857]

Is it burning clean or does the exhaust stink? Any black sploog coming out the exhaust? What oilfuel ratio arr you running. Are you using quality oil?

[Mack]

I'm running Klotz at 32:1. The exhaust smells like the klotz but it smokes moderately and yes black oily sploog consistently seeps from the exhaust. It doesn't blow out or anything, but the end of the silencer is always wet with it. What would this indicate? I just thought that was typical of a two stroke.

[hoosierlogger]

I would cut back on the oil a little bit. Maybe go to 40:1

[just ben]

kinda sounds like a weak coil,even with too much oil you shouldn't be going through a plug every hour

[jmax857]

Do a resistance test on the coil. Does it have a nice blue spark? Are tbe plugs gapped properly?? Stinky exhaust and an abundance of black splooge would indicates a bad clutch side crank seal. It would be obvious and if wouldnt run top notch either. 32 to 1 is not too much oil espefially for a air cooled r

[bkm]

Have you performed a compression test lately?

[Thorpe]

Trans oil still full? (crank seal going?)

[Jason125m]

My money is on the coil. You would be able to tell if crank seal is gone. Oil doesn't burn white... Lol.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

All good advice, and I will add that most of the time, factory jetting for just about anything is going to be safely rich to begin with. That has been my experience with multi-cylinder sleds, trikes, bikes and on and on.

If your coil, trans side crank seal and comression all check out OK, it sounds to me like you just might need to drop the needle one notch and step your pilot jet down 1 size.

Don't go messing with sparkplug heat ranges to try and address what is actually a jetting issue. That is a VERY common misconception and mistake. The heat range rating of a sparkplug only indicates how quickly it will transfer heat from combustion into the cylinder head, thus (in tandem with jetting setup) regulating combustion chamber temps to a degree. Yes, it can be a band-aid to an improper jetting setup, but it is not the proper solution and could end up costing you a top end on a long pull in warmer weather. The BR9's will keep you safer with a long pull.

After reading your post a second time, it seems that it is responding to jetting changes to a point. Check your trans oil and make sure it's not mysteriously low. If that checks out, then I would say try some jetting changes, mainly with the needle position and pilot jet. If it is unresponsive to jetting changes then start troublshooting other components.

It's kind of putting the cart before the horse to jump into all the other possibilites if it is responding to jetting changes. You check all that other stuff if it is unresponsive to jetting, or the jetting jumps all over the place and is unstable. That would indicate problems with ignition and/or crank seals....

[Thorpe]

My money is on the coil. You would be able to tell if crank seal is gone. Oil doesn't burn white... Lol.

Did I miss white smoke somewhere in the description? I caught constant sploog out the exhaust...?

[Jason125m]

No, he didn't bring it up, but I would assume he would notice IF his R is smoking white ( which it isn't, i hope? )
That's how I came to the coil conclusion.

[Thorpe]

Gotcha....

[Micahdogg]

All good advice, and I will add that most of the time, factory jetting for just about anything is going to be safely rich to begin with. That has been my experience with multi-cylinder sleds, trikes, bikes and on and on.

I agree with this. I've also noticed the needle making a dramatic affect on spooging. So I would also agree in trying lean the clip.

I would also use a BR8ES with 50:1 premium. I've used Klotz quite a bit and it is great, but gummy and will clog your carb easily (semi-regular riding for me meant cleaning the carb twice a year). Just make sure your carb is clean to begin with, but otherwise I've had no performance problems with Klotz. Also if your compression is around the 100 psi range, you will eat plugs often, but the machine will otherwise run well.

[Mack]

First off, Thanks for the abundance and variety of replies.

To clear a few things up, My trike is not smoking white. It does smoke consistently but its a blue smoke and just smells like klotz. Also, I am assuming that a BR9ES is gapped properly out of the box but please correct me if I'm wrong because i've never heard of gapping a new plug to a specific tolerance before screwing it in. I haven't had a chance to check my tranny fluid but I will first break I get. Finally my compression is high if anything, 185 to 190 on a craftsman gauge and 180 on a Harbor Freight gauge.

Do a resistance test on the coil. Does it have a nice blue spark? Are tbe plugs gapped properly??

Last time I checked, I had great spark. How exactly would I do a resistance check on the coil? Am I simply measuring ohms from input to output or something different, and what kind of reading should I come up with in a properly functioning coil vs a weak one?

After reading your post a second time, it seems that it is responding to jetting changes to a point

Ride-Red, It does seem to respond to main jet changes. I haven't messed with the needle or the pilot but I've been thinking my pilot is rich for awhile now. Is there any risk in leaning out the needle? Especially since its getting cold (mid 30's to low 40's here)

Last question, Would it hurt to reset the timing since its probably never been done since it left the dealership in 84?