How can you tell if you are running rich or lean.

[strat1960s]

Is there a way to tell if I am running rich or lean? I don't have an exhaust sniffer so other than that, I do not know how to tell. I thought you could tell by looking at your spark plugs, but I may have been mistaken. All my plugs are tanish-gray.

Ted

 

[Asa]

plug indication is one way to go about it
http://www.getfaster.com/Techtips/Plugs.html

 

[strat1960s]

Here's the deal.

I am stil loosing oil. I found a couple of drops on the floor and around the inspection cover of the trans. The leads me to believe that the rear main is leaking. I am still not totally convinced that is the only place I am loosing oil. I still have some light smoking from the exhaust, but the soot is not building up around the tailight pannel like it had been. I know that before the rebuild I had a lot of oil in my exhaust system and it will take some time to burn/blow all that oil out.
When I went to pick up the car, the technician told me that I was running a "little on the rich side". I spoke to the owners son and he said bring the car by with the jets kit and they would take care of the carb for me. When I got there the guy I spoke to was not around and the owner told me he would look at it. After waiting around for almost 4 hours the owner told me that he would explain the basics of carbs to me. After talking about it for a while the owner told me that the easiest way to correct the rich condition was to advance the timing. So that is what I did.
Now having said that, when I spoke the the guy that said he would adjust the carb originally he said the carb was running way rich and that the cylinders are probably washed. I'm not looking forward to paying these guys anymore money to do something that they said they would do for me in the begining.
This is why I want to know how to tell if I am running rich or lean.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

I am taking the car in for them to check it over on Monday.
Ted
Ted

 

[Anonymous]

If its lean, It usually will stumble, and backfire through the carb if you jump on it hard. If its rich, the exhaust will burn your eyes. Drive it, and yank the choke out a little bit. If it runs better, you are lean.If you think it may be rich, pull off a vacuum plug or a line while its running. If it smooths out, its rich.

 

[CobraSix]

Tannish-gray sounds about right. I don't suspect you are running too rich. What is your mileage at? Nothing you tell us really points to running rich.

Also, when is it smoking? What color?

Slade

 

[strat1960s]

My odometer never worked. I go off engine RPMs to tell how fast I am going. 5200 RPMs= 55 MPH.
Correction: 2200 RPMs = 55 MPH

Anyhow, here goes the math equation to figure my mileage.
10 gallons of gas lasts me about 6 days.
I normally only drive from the house to work and back, which equals 24 miles per day.

6X24= 144 miles % 10 gallons of gas.
So, I gues I get around 14.4 miles per gallon.

But then again this is the first time I actually sat down and figued my mileage. That kind of sounds like bad gas mileage, doesn't it?

Ted

 

[Anonymous]

My odometer never worked. I go off engine RPMs to tell how fast I am going. 5200 RPMs= 55 MPH.

That is defintely not correct. I turn maybe 2500 rpm at 55mph. 5200 would be very high revving for highway driving.

 

[PutPut6]

My odometer never worked. I go off engine RPMs to tell how fast I am going. 5200 RPMs= 55 MPH.

In first gear?

 

[strat1960s]

Yes, that was a type-O.

I meant that 2200 RPMs got me 55 MPH.

Sorry about that.

I used my Garmin GPS pedometer to figure out how fast I was going. Then I just compared it to the tachometer.

Anyhow, does aproximately 14 MPG sound about right?

Ted