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Okay I replaced the aluminum rod and resistor in the plug caps with brass rod and installed the NGK DR8ES-L plugs. Took it out for about a 15 minute ride and checked the plugs when I got back. The condition indicated that it is suddenly very lean. Before doing this I had in the standard NGK D8EA plugs and the condition was perfect. The plugs were a nice tan/brown. So is this normal to see when doing this mod? I made no other changes. So i'm slowly adjusting the needles to try to get that brown/tan color back in the plugs. Just wondering if this is something that should be expected.

 

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okay i'll keep adjusting. I think i'm getting to alot of turns out at this point. not sure how many because I set it to 3 when I first replaced the jets a couple months ago. But it's many more than that now. Maybe I need to go to a 130 jet instead of the 125 I have in there now?

 

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I tend to think that unless you are doing full throttle plug chops it will be the 78 jet that may need to go up a size or two.

So if i'm tending to have to turn the needles out too many turns then go up with the smaller jet? Right now I'm running 90/125. you think go up to maybe 95/125 and I should be able to have the needles at the more normal 3 or so turns out?

 

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Well, since I had the bike running pretty good before the mod, I decided to just go back to the aluminum rod and resistor for now. There wasn't really anything wrong with the bike before the mod, I did it just because I thought it would be the right thing to do and I also can't stop myself from doing stuff to the bike. I put the old non resistor plugs back in, re installed the aluminum and resistor and started with 3 turns out because I have the pods, no h-pipe and 90/125 jets. I adjusted accordingly from there. I don't know exactly how many turns out I am at this point but it's somewhere between 2 and 3. My plugs are now a perfect brown, the bike runs great throughout the entire power band and I finally got the idle to settle in nice and smooth. So until I begin to have issues that could possibly be deemed as a result of the plugs and caps, this is how i'm going to leave it. And when I do decide to install the brass rods I will probably rejet to maybe 95/130 to alleviate that lean condition.

 

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thanks so much for the follow-up. I appreciate that you closed the loop for me. I think I am close and might adjust to 3 full turns out to see what happens. This sort of shows how the Brass Rod Mod can affect the burn. I wonder if repeated with an Aluminum Bar, if there would be a difference?

Not sure about that. I think that copper and brass are a better conductive material than aluminum. Yes try the 3 turns and see how it rides and how the plugs look. I agree with what the guys posted earlier that it's getting a better spark with the brass rod and burning fuel more efficiently. Since I have done away with the H-pipe and airbox I think that if I want to continue with the brass rod then I will have to rejet yet again and adjust the needles from there. Assuming that you have a stock set-up then adjusting the needles should be all that is required for your situation.

 

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interesting. Considering the small length and diameter of the rod we are using it probably doesn't really matter what is used in this case. I don't know how you would even be able to tell the difference if you tried aluminum or copper. Maybe i'll throw some aluminum in there just for the heck of it.