Thanks ScottB. Apparently the splice of about 8" of wire worked. (Soldered of course).

Took it out for 3.5 hours today, 25 mph to 60 mph traffic and not a single hiccup. Sputtering is completely gone and the beast runs like it was built to run.

I'll take a pic of the plugs in a few hundred to see how they're coming along.

Was getting itchy to pull the plugs but only have about 220 miles on the beast since the O2 sensor. Spent the last two of three weeks out of town so haven't been riding.

This picture of the front left & back left shows a very slight improvement on the back cylinder. I think I'll run a couple of tanks with Seafoam, might speed the process up a bit.

Anyone think I should just swap out the rear plugs? The beast is running like a top so it may be throwing money out the window.

Just clean it and use it.

Makes sense davej.

BTW, what do ppl use to clean plugs? Brass brush and/or chemical cleaner? If chemical, which one?

Used to be we used a small self contained sand blaster. Don't see them much anymore although it seems like I remember seeing one for sale online at Harbor Freight. Me, I just use the wire brush on the grinder (lightly) to get the top part clean and the rest burns off after a while. Although that isn't recommended for the rare metal type plugs nor probably the sand blaster either for that matter.

Scott B.

I agree. I still own a spark plug sand blaster from back in the day and one thing you have to be careful of is it can pack sand up around the electrode insulator which then falls into the cylinder so if you use one inspect the plug closely and use plenty of air making sure plug is clean

That spark plug sandblaster can still be gotten at Harbor Freight for $9.99.

Use a propane torch to burn off the carbon ... no brushing, no blasting ..

Doc

DocShadow wrote:
Use a propane torch to burn off the carbon ... no brushing, no blasting ..

Doc
This works great!

Iv'e been jusing the std $25 type spark plug specific sand blaster avail in jcwhitney/Eastwood Tool cat etc for the past 40yrs,that does the best job IMHO.

But with that said its a must to also use compressed air to blow any residule sand /dirt/carbon out of/off plugs post sandblasting .

Then after that i also spray some carb cleaner deep into plugs that also gets every last little bit of junk out,then one more shot of compressed air and your done.

But again,you must do the post sand blast cleaing of all plugs just like i stated or you run the risk os residule sand getting into a cyl scrtaching it resulting in oil use.

But i have never ever had a problem when sanblasting plugs using the above post blast cleaning method for 40+ yrs i have been using spark plug sand blasters.

The sparkplug sand blaster actually has a post sand blasting compressed air blow off internal to the unit to blow out any residule sand/carbon etc . But to be safe i do the additional carb cleaner spray out and compressed are blow out aof all plugs i sand blast to ensure all sand/carbon on long gone to avoid any issues later on.

Then regap the plugs ,put antisieze on threads,and reinstall plugs.

I clenaed & regapped the original plugs on my 06 R* that had approx 5k miles on it when io got it last yr ,bike now has 10,500 miles and plugs still look great ,with minimal wear and will get well past rec 8k mile spakplug change time per yami .

I can generally dlb plug life using a spark plug sand blaster to clean/regap plugs as long as motor is dialed in correctly not running rich and or using oil with no other issues.

I can do the same for dbl platinum plugs in cars where pulgs come out looking good at 100k miles with minimal gap gad growth ,i clean and carefully regap them and your good for at least another 50k+ on tho dbl plat plugs.

HMM,gets me thinking about changing to dbl plat plugs in my R*,doing that could get many miles out of the dbl plat plugs vs std non plat plugs esp since the plugs are are pia to get out of the R* having to at least partially pull the tank to get all 4 plugs out.

The inexpensive $25 sparkplug cleaner/sandblaster comes in esp handy when dialing in motors/carbs on cars/bikes that have fuel fouled plugs that were new or close to being new,saves a lot of $ right there.

But you can only clean plugs approx 2x or 3x at most because every time you sand blast a plug doing that removes a little more ceramic from the inner ceramic shell changing heat range,less ceramic holds less heat meaning the plug gets cooler in heat range when that happens.

Its the inner ceramic's ability to hold heat that determins its heat range,its not how hot the spark is which is what a lot of people think determins heat range of sparkplugs which isnt the case.

The thicker/larger/denser the inner ceramic core is the more ability the plug has to hold heat to brun off carbon etc from combustion process making it a hotter plug,less cermaic means there'
s less ceramic meterial to hold heat thus making it a colder heat range that has less ability ro burn off carbon/contaminant's.

So the more you sand blast the plugs the more ceramic material is removed from the inner ceramic core the colder the plugs heat range becomes,it's that simple.

BTW,when using wire wheels /brushes etc to clean plugs doing that can leave metal contam behind on ceramic that can lead to misfiring/shorting of plugs if not cleaned propelry with carb cleaner & compressed air post doing that.

Also,i know of somone that did that yrs back not realizing a piece of the wire wheel broke off and inbedded itself deep into a sparkplug and unfortunately he didn't blow out the plugs with carb cleaner & compressed post the wire wheel cleaning either.

Well when that piece of wire let go is got stuck inbetween the piston/wall scratching the heck out of it leading to a quick death of the cyl that got that plug,that cyl sucked/burned oil smoking like heck shortly after installing that plug with wire stuck in it that quickly let loose so be very carefull when doing that & clean plugs afterwords with car cleaner & compressed air too.

Scott