muscle car tuning tricks/techniques

[figgie]

Ok seeing some threads brought up an idea. People now a days rely on dyno's to do thier tuning but I know that alot of oldschool techniques for tuning still apply today and some do not (spark plug indexing).

For instance.

Reading spark plugs after a run.

Who here has done that? Who here does not know what it is? Tuners (John Reed!), do you guys use old muscle car "tricks" to aid in tuning/adjusting settings at the track?

Post any other old school tuning tricks/techniques.

 

[John Reed]

Ok seeing some threads brought up an idea. People now a days rely on dyno's to do thier tuning but I know that alot of oldschool techniques for tuning still apply today and some do not (spark plug indexing).

For instance.

Reading spark plugs after a run.

Who here has done that? Who here does not know what it is? Tuners (John Reed!), do you guys use old muscle car "tricks" to aid in tuning/adjusting settings at the track?

Post any other old school tuning tricks/techniques.

I like to keep an eye on the plugs, it helps give an idea how far you are pushing the setup, how even the fueling is cylinder to cylinder (and us baller EFI guys can actually trim for that), etc. The old school guys have a lot of good info and techniques that still apply today.

 

[IJ.]

I always read plugs before and after hitting the dyno they tell a story

I spend a HUGE amount of time on my road tune the dyno is a great tool to nail down the WoT mixtures but there are so many variables in the real world that need to be compensated for.

 

[X-man]

I read the plugs at the track on everything we run down there. Everything from my Supra to our 565 BBC. We pull the plugs every run on our 383 SBC we spray a 350 shot on. We have three tracks that are local we run at and there is an elevation difference of 1500 ft each way, ours being in the middle at 2000 ft. They usually require a jetting change of at least 3 sizes up or down depending on which track and the weather.

 

[figgie]

Nice to know some folks still use this "old" techniques

John. I take it you use it for per cylinder fueling and timing aid also (hooray MoTeC!)

 

[mk3ukr]

IMHO this old school technique on EFI cars with abilities to datalog run is very valuable tool only to detect signs of detonation and to confirm equal fuel distribution between cylinders. I remember on carburated motors they use brand new set of plugs and shut down engine after the run to tune for correct AFR.
I always let my motor idle about 1 min before shutting down if I want to see plugs. Only once in last 3-4 years I saw signs of det - tiny specs of aluminium on ground strap. Before that I knew how plugs look like after detonation only from V8 magazines

 

[EVOlutionary]

On my carb'd racing quad I used to do the "swap in new plugs, make a pass, shut down, read plugs" method to tune for WOT mixture. On the late model cars we just use the stock knock sensor, a wideband, a known-good intake mani setup that gives consistent cyl to cyl mixtures, maybe EGT's, and the MBT method to tune . . .