Jonathan Ratty Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 Whilst looking for advie about re-balancing my DCOEs the other day, it was suggested I invest in a Colortune to help check the mixture. Does anybody have any advice or opinion on whether it is worth the £20 quoted for it by Halfords? Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Sewell Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 If TQ is anywhere near Reading, you can borrow mine. I found it useless, but other people say they are brilliant! Low tech luddite - xflow and proud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Ratty Posted May 20, 2004 Author Share Posted May 20, 2004 Thanks - My grid reference is in Molesey, by Hampton Court. I've heard mixed reports as well, but thought for £20 it might be worth trying. When I pulled the plugs out to take a look, they were pretty sooty. And with a Xflow engine, I need all the help I can get to get the engine running economically. Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Sewell Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 Setting idle mixtures will not do much for economy as you should never be idling! With a 1700 xflow, I doubt that you'll improve on 5 miles per litre (unless you go 3D ignition). Providing you do not go too crazy, it is fairly easy to set by ear. The way I found worked best was to loosen the front nose but not remove it. This then resonates around 1000rpm and gives a very audible change with revs. Then set the idle mix to give highest revs, reseting the idle speed if necessary so that the transition is in the sweet spot of the resonance. I have tried digital rev meters but they are not damped enough to get a sensible reading and analogue rev meters are not accurate enough. So do it by ear.... Assuming that you have not changed the idle jets away from the standard 45F9, the correct idle mixture position should not be less than 1.75 turns out and not more than 3 turns out. Make sure that you note your starting positions and if you get lost you can revert to them, or else the default setting is 2.5 turns out. Also, I found it useful to paint one half of each screw head so that I could tell which were "half-turns" out. Low tech luddite - xflow and proud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Monoogian Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 No opinion on it either way but Marc Hicks used his Colortune on my mini the other week - it's pretty cool just to see the engine firing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick W Posted May 20, 2004 Share Posted May 20, 2004 Worked well on my lawnmower! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonkeyBoy Posted May 21, 2004 Share Posted May 21, 2004 I use a colortune to set idle mixtures, pretty easy to use but i still find i get sooty plugs so i'm still not convinced either way of it's benefit. Still experimenting with it to find the best setting. I tried the 'by ear' method and ended up screwing my settings up (which was when i invested in a colortune). Verdict: Unsure. Alistair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Ratty Posted May 21, 2004 Author Share Posted May 21, 2004 Thanks, guys. My local motor factors in Elephant give me trade prices (don't know why; must have nice smile or business a bit slack, I guess), so bought Colortune for £17. Will give it a go tonight as blasting up to Birmingham tomorrow for the Motorshow, hurrah! I wonder if I can take my Classic onto the caterham test drive area during the build this weekend? Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebottle Posted May 21, 2004 Share Posted May 21, 2004 ermmm....the Motorshow doesn't start until next week (27th May)...... *confused* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Ratty Posted May 21, 2004 Author Share Posted May 21, 2004 Bluebottle - Thank goodness it does only open next week. I design the lighting for Bentley, and if I turned up after press day, they'll probably be cross with me. I get four days before to get it all ship-shape, and the cars arrive this afternoon, inc. the Le Mans winner (still in post-race dirt). Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now