when i take my glow plug out, its looks blackish. im running pretty rich, is this ok? the reason im running rich is because motor has only had less than 2 quarts through it. its a sportwerks v2 motor

Depends on the fuel, but a caramel brown, sometimes dark is ok. Just indicates its rich.

Blackish, what about the wire.

If your' talking about the wire, its too lean, and serious damage has already been done.

The wire should always look new, a bit shiny, and the sourrounding edge should be golden brown, that's what it should look like at optimal power setting.

If the sourrounding is grey/black, again, it could be a bit lean. Generally if your running rich, the sourrounding edge will look a bit wet, with a gold film around it.

What brand and blend of fuel are you running. Running a sports engine with 2 quarts it should be pretty much broke in.

Ya, if its a sooty black or grey, means it was running hot.

the wire is fine, looks shiny. the bottom part of the plug looks blackish, the rim part. i use 30% team sidewinder. the motor has never reached more than 230, it usually stays just above 200 when im running

Sounds like to me you need to lean it out. All so what blend Sidewinder are you running? If you are running the Basher blend it has WAY too much oil content. I do not like Sidewinder because of all the yellowiest brown gunk that is left in the engine. Do not tune to any given temperature but for performance and then check the temp to see if it is in a safe range of 210 to 280. Keep in mind running to cool is just as bad on and engine as running to hot.

team sidewinder 30% world i think. bought it from mr. benny

After you run a gallon or so through it take the backing plate off the engine and look inside. I ran 4 or 5 gallons of Sidewinder before changing to Byron and personally will never go back to Sidewinder. There are only 2 brands of fuel I am pleased with out of the many I have tried Byron and O’Donnell. Matter of fact I have all most a gallon of Sidewinder Worlds 30% is someone comes by I will give it to them.

All of the above are great info,

here's a site that is good info with pics.

http://www.rc-truckncar-tuning.com/G...g-reading.html

Dan.

The thing about reading glow plugs is it can depend on what type oils are in the fuel and how much. Readying a glow plug is a good thing to do but just like temperatures you need to take everything in consideration