Wilsons Sandbox

> > On Wed, 17 May 2000, Jim Hyman wrote: > > >'Reading' spark plugs is important when making performance modifications > >and/or carb jetting changes. It is also a valuable diagnostic tool to > >check on the internal health of the motor. Properly reading a spark > >plug is useful to check or pre-ignition or detonation problems. > > Speaking of reading plugs - Anyone ever install an oxygen sensor on their > KLR? Some SV650 listers were doing this. Appearantly, there is a little > LED readout that you can buy for this purpose. Install sensor in exhaust > header, re-jet, hook it up, clip the readout to your bars, ride, observe, > repeat as necessary. I'd imagine the entire project would be about US$100 > or so... > > RM

I use an air/ratio monitor on my bike for my jetting and "experiments". It has an led readout with the corresponding ratios, 1 to 14.7 being the optimum. They use O2 sensors as their data source. We use these inspecting and calibrating aircraft engines, as they are more accurate and quicker responding than an EGT. This will take out the inaccuracies and miss-readings of plug reading, BUT, quality air/ratio monitors are not cheap (you get what you pay for) and not for everybody. Unless you do a lot of tuning and jetting, the expense does not justify getting one. Plug reading is as accurate as most need, but due to the things I do to my bike, I`m often on the mixture edges and need extreme accuracy. Skip

On Fri, 19 May 2000, Skip Faulkner wrote:

>This will take out the inaccuracies and miss-readings of plug reading, >BUT, quality air/ratio monitors are not cheap (you get what you pay for) >and not for everybody. Unless you do a lot of tuning and jetting, the >expense does not justify getting one.

I believe one could use nothing more than some generic single-wire O2 sensor and a high-impedance voltmeter. I figure $25 for the sensor, $25 for the DMM, and about $30 for a shop to install the bung on your exhaust header... Am I missing something? RM

> > On Fri, 19 May 2000, Skip Faulkner wrote: > > >This will take out the inaccuracies and miss-readings of plug reading, > >BUT, quality air/ratio monitors are not cheap (you get what you pay for) > >and not for everybody. Unless you do a lot of tuning and jetting, the > >expense does not justify getting one. > > I believe one could use nothing more than some generic single-wire O2 > sensor and a high-impedance voltmeter. I figure $25 for the sensor, $25 > for the DMM, and about $30 for a shop to install the bung on your exhaust > header... > > Am I missing something? > > RM

No you`re not. That would work fine. I had tunnel vision and was thinking of my needs, which is mounted permanently on the bike. A cheap DMM won`t hold up to the bikes vibration, at least the one I ruined didn`t. It would work fine for checking while stationary or temporary mounting. Mine is mounted for constant use. It`s been on for over a year and held up to everything I can throw at it, including sitting out in the rain. You will also have to get the values from the sensor manufacturer or somewhere, to be able to have exact corresponding ratios. Excellent suggestion. Skip

Attachments :Nope you want a four wire Bosch. More $ means better sensor in the O2 sensor world. I installed a bung on my header, just over the gear box almost hidden. That far from the port I had to heat the sensor for proper readings. Four wire is better than three wire because a floating ground condition making the four wire more accurate. I paid $80 for sensor and bung, welded it myself and then repainted the whole header with high temp paint (1500 C). I bead blasted the old paint off first. I have a banana jack on the kickstand switch cover that I'll just plug my DMM into. I'll also use this to dump real time O2 versus RPM data into my laptop. Here's a pic. Can't give you more info than that since my bike is still in pieces. My Buchanan spokes came today Yippeeee..... I know what I'm doing tomorrow. laterZ Dash At 10:46 AM 5/18/00 -0500, RM wrote:

>On Fri, 19 May 2000, Skip Faulkner wrote: > > >This will take out the inaccuracies and miss-readings of plug reading, > >BUT, quality air/ratio monitors are not cheap (you get what you pay for) > >and not for everybody. Unless you do a lot of tuning and jetting, the > >expense does not justify getting one. > >I believe one could use nothing more than some generic single-wire O2 >sensor and a high-impedance voltmeter. I figure $25 for the sensor, $25 >for the DMM, and about $30 for a shop to install the bung on your exhaust >header... > >Am I missing something? > >RM

Craig Highline wrote:

> Basically the engine is half a Ninja.

Or all of a Ninja 500. -Tom '96 KLR 650