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Gunson's Colourtune

  • Thread starter Thread starter sv650
  • Start date Start date
S

sv650

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...or colortune for those of you south of our border.

This product is a sparkplug with a window, that lets you see the colour of the combustion flame in the cylinder. You can also see the spark, and determine wether the cylinder is firing properly.

I had been trying to get my GS1100GK running properly all summer. I had cleaned and re-installed the carburetors, and tried to adjust them so the bike ran properly to no avail. Every time I pulled the plugs -- black soot. I needed to balance the carburetors anyway, and reading the reviews, settled on the Morgan Carbtune ( a great product reviewed elsewhere on this site). While browsing their site (www.carbtune.com) I came across the colourtune product, and said to myself, "Why not?"

Once the colourtune was installed in the motor, all Earl's descriptions became clear. Apparently, the previous owner had enlarged the jets in cleaning the carburetors, and no matter the adjustment, the bike would run rich. Without the colourtune, there was no simple way to determine this. All the adjustments by ear did little good, as the carburetor could not be properly tuned.

Once fresh jets were installed, adjustment was easly accomplished, and the bike's performance can be monitored through the full rev range. Imagine doing a complete plug test in your driveway in a few seconds, rather than hours to make adjustments with multiple test runs. The colourtune allows this as you can see what is happening in the cylinder at any speed. If you wished, you could purchase enough to fill all the cylinders, and tune the bike even faster.

The tool comes with a concise & clear manual, but seems writen for either cars or Harley- Davidsons, as the engine speed described in the notes are at the low end of the scale. However, once you recognize this, and think of the engine speeds noted as being relative, rather than absolute, you get back on track quickly..

I wish I held the patent on this product. There should be one in every home mechanic's toolkit.

Ease of use 5/5
Value 5/5
Clarity of instructions 4/5

More info on this product can be found at:

http://www.carbtune.com/colortune.html
http://www.surenet.net/~verhey/colourtune/Intro.htm
http://www.xs11.com/tips/maintenance/maint34.shtml

SV
 
Um, wasn't the black soot on the plugs a big clue that the bike was running rich? :lol: :lol:

Anyway, it does sound like a big time saver, and much cheaper than an oxygen sensor.

I've also found drilled-out jets, and the boneheads who perpetrate this crime against good mixture should be beaten with a rusty handlebar.
 
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