Color of the soot in the end of the exhaust

Ya know, it's a little more trouble, but over here in the USA, we pull the plugs and take a look at the color they're burning at. Chocolate brown is ideal, black is rich and grey is lean.

Considering the cost of an engine, we just go ahead and uncrew a plug and have a look.

That's voodoo, just wiping the exhaust tips with your finger and adjusting the carb(s) like that!

May as well adjust the carbs by how much smoke is coming from the exhaust pipes under full acceleration, too much smoke, rich, no smoke, lean.

Pull a plug, it doesn't take that much time!

Yeh ok, I didn't mean I actually used that to adjust the carbs.
It was just a quick way of knowing that they NEED adjusting.
I'm used to old British cars designed to run only on leaded. The Pantera is the first car I've owned that will run on unleaded - so I'm still learning.
We didn't go unleaded here till the 80s.

I'll climb and pull a plug.

quote:

Originally posted by Rapier:
Yeh ok, I didn't mean I actually used that to adjust the carbs.
It was just a quick way of knowing that they NEED adjusting.
I'm used to old British cars designed to run only on leaded. The Pantera is the first car I've owned that will run on unleaded - so I'm still learning.
We didn't go unleaded here till the 80s.

I'll climb in and pull a plug.