every body talks about the blue smoke coming out of the exaust
if theres no blue smoke or white smoke then ur to lean
ive leaned out my engine so that it got way to hot but still had blue smoke ,has any body noticed this also

There should be blue or white smoke and a little oil coming out as well.

How hot are we talking here?

I think the engines are meant to run around the 260-280 range, which is bloody hot!

Know anyone with one of those temperature measuring gizmo's to try it out?

If not, there's always the spit test - put a drop of water on the head when your engine gets warm. It should take 5-7 seconds to evaporate. If it boils straight off, you're too lean. If it takes longer, you're too rich.

know im talkin 320 and still have blue smoke i can richen it up so the temps at around 220 and i have less blue smoke.

I think what you just said speaks for itself. The hotter temps are burning off more oil, so more smoke. The cooler temps are keeping the oil intact. Aerobirdbrain is right, there should be smoke and some oil coming out.

thats my point every body says if you got blue smoke out of your exaust then you are not to lean but thts not true.

The color of the smoke shows the temperature you are running. For you particular fuel, when you are running a bit rich you should see that the smoke is a bit darker than when running lean. Depending on the fuel it can be difficult to see. It depends on the fuel though.
For example the fuel I used last time almost had NO smoke. I was worried about the engine so after a tank I opened to see what is happening. To cut a long story short after 3 and something (about 3/4 of a gallon) litres of fuel the engine is like new although I get no smoke (and I run the ******* as lean as possible)
Even If I set the engine rich I get no smoke.(Its called KeilCraft it is 5% and it is general purpose for all cars,planes helicopters etc)

so smoke has no baring on how your engine is doing tempeture
is a more reliable method.

Smoke has to do with your running temp but it is not easy to make out the temp from your smoke.
Temperature is the best way to go but still smoke gives you a rough idea.
The fact that my car does not smoke does not mean anything. At the end my engine may die on my next pull!!!! You never know with those things.

You setup (kind of engine ,kind of car, kind of fuel- humidity and atmosheric pressure etc) plays a big role. If the car performs well you dont have to keep on leaning it because in the end you will kill something. Having blue smoke does not mean that you are running rich.

If you want to be sure (or dont have the money for a rebuilt if something goes wrong)
get a temperature measuring device. Most people use purpose made heat guns. I use my digital multimeter that also measure temp (I got it for around £10) The choice is up to you.

I hope what I am saying make sense (If you ask again!!!)

ur wrong.. there doesnt have to be fuel coming out for it to be running correctly. if fuel is spitting out you are running to rich. The whole smoke idea is jus to give you an idea, you shouldnt base your temp by it though.

So what is the best way to determine how lean/rich your engine should be set then? Have an IR thermometer on hand and set the engine to a particular temperature?

thats what i try to do the whole smoke thing doesnt work as well as temp

ur rude. As you seem to know it all, we'll direct all questions to you next time. The guy asked why there is more smoke coming from the exhaust when it is running lean. If an engine is tuned properly, oil doesn't have to be coming out of the exhaust but if it's running well, most likely there will be.

your still wrong. thanks for the compliment though, i get that occasionally for my correctness sometimes my mistakes also. anyways, if fuel is spitting out its not running well enough, you can tune it better. Fuel spittin gout is jus to be safe, and KNOW your not running to lean, so you dont wear out your engine. You WONT get the holeshot out of your engine if you have fuel spitting out.

theonly time fuel spits out is when im breaking in a motor after that u lean it abit fuel stops spitting out at idle anways
i still comes out at full throttle well not fuel but oil.

If I don't have any smoke coming from my engine there's something horribly wrong. Either I’m running too lean or the fuel I’m using doesn’t have enough oil content.

Max temps for R/C engines should never exceed like 240 degree’s at the heat sink. At 300 degree’s you’re cooking it so get your wallet out (you’ll need it later).

Rule of thumb: Lean is mean.

It’ll go and go fast but oh what sacrifices you will endure. I take mine to fat, where it has no get up and go, half a turn lean and she’s screamin’, smokin’, well lubricated and all that jazz.

Hurray for burning up engines learning the hard way.

Well..

I dont like the notion of "tuning by smoke".

IF you have large amounts of synthetic oil and no castor.. I dont think you will get any smoke at all.

On the other hand if you run large amounts of castor, your exhaust will "look rich" even if your running relatively lean.

Casey.. play nice!

ram

i run 20%trinity power blend i get smoke no matter how lean i go.

Just tune it for performance. If fuel is literally dumping out yer pipe than that is a clear sign that it is ritch. If the engine has a dry bogging sound and has vertually zero power than its too lean. If it keeps getting too hot, cut more holes in yer body or get a better head.

hey guys, the smoke issue does not apply to a 2-stoke engine. it is a blow-by power plant and the norm is to smoke. the popular fules that u get at ur lhs are very inconsistent. some fuels have as much as 22% ofoil and some are close to racing like 10%. the best thing to do is always use a temp gauge and know the sound of ur engine, lean is a screeming high pitch and rich is low pitched with reduced top speed. i have 4 vehicles all running on the same fuel and one in particular smokes alot no manor what, i guess it's the porting but it dosn't leave a lot of oil all over the place. if u can find a lhs that has a house brand fuel like s&w brand u'l find they are very consistently blended.

ay body know of a good cheap temp gauge.

try a auto parts store unless u have access to a tool vender i.e. Mac-Tools or Snap-on or Mattco, the easiest would be Sears auto, i bought mine for 70.$ from my tool guy about 2 yrs. ago but i have seen them in sears

i wouldnt trust what you are saying for the fact you are measuring at the heatsink. WHy dont you measure where you are supposed to? the heatsink can be very inconsistant, the temps on it can range by quite a bit depending on where you are taking the reading from.

My car doesnt have very much smoke coming out at all unless its in idle then it has some. and when i give it gas after its in idle then it smokes but when im running it there isnt much coming out. When i make the high speed needle more rich then it doesnt idle for very long at all and the temp seems about right.

To be perfectly honest, I going by what I’ve read about maximum heat sink temps but they do vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. I usually check my temp with my raytech almost touching the heat sink pointed directly down at the glow plug. I do it quickly so the heat radiating from the heat sink itself doesn’t exaggerate the temp numbers. From what I’ve read, this should give me a “head” temperature. Very similar to that of our Jr. Dragster engines that the temp probe is mounted underneath the sparkplug seat, thus giving “head temperature”.

I don’t see how trying to read the temps from the side would be remotely accurate and engine crankcase temps are definitely not accountable.

If I’m wrong, correct me. I love to learn new stuff. That’s what I’m here for, to learn.

Now gimme what you got.