I'm thinking too rich? All 4 plugs look the same. Any other opinions? The motor is a 1600TP with an EMPI (Weber) 32/36 carb.

http://www.procharge.com.au/images/stories/images/faults/spark_plug_test.jpg 

follow the link, usually a good place too start.

It looks rich, but also could be weak ignition

Yea get a single new plug and connect to a lead and crank her over holding the plug to an earth point. If the spark is good thick blue you are good. If weak and yellow then either coil feed issue or coil is on it's last legs.

Also, the 32/36 webber isn't a very good carb on a VW as fuel easily falls out of suspension. These need an experienced rolling roader with good carb knowledge to jet correctly as he will have to mess around with the emulsion tube to get optimum fuelling.

good call on the carb, those single webers whether a progressive or IDF usually are tuned REAL rich to make them run; you'll need to see if your getting manifold heat as psimitar said the fuel does fall out of suspension if there isn't enough manifold heat.

Thanks guys. I had the carb jetted and dyno tuned at Leon Motors a year ago and it was phenomenal. It ran beautifully and made really good power. I feel like I've been chasing that perfect tune ever since. Sure I could just take it back to Leons for another go on the dyno, but where's the fun in that!

Good point regarding possible weak ignition. I'll check that as soon as I can.

I leaned out the mix slightly on the weekend and adjusted the spark gap whilst I was there. She seems to be running a bit better today, but perhaps that's just a placebo effect.

yea if it was properly dyno'd then apart from cleaning out the jets it'll be ignition related

I tested the coil as per the instructions in the idiot book and videoed for posterity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0hqPhq9ar4&feature=youtu.be

What do you think? Is the coil dodgy? The spark doesn't seem terribly impressive to me.

So I saw 2 sparks then. Yellow in colour and looked thickish but hard to tell from pixilation in the video.

Should be nice thick and blue. Try powering the coil direct from the battery thro a 10amp switch to rule out voltage drop thro old wiring and ign switch. If still weak looking and yellow then try to borrow a new or good coil as the quality of the coils these days ain't great as even Bosch get there stuff made in China.

Do your spark test but cranking the engine over with the key. You will not only get more sparks to see, but also under actual starting voltages/conditions. Looked weak but enough in the vid, should get close to 10mm on a GOOD coil, more for a mega set-up.

Quote:

Originally posted by btc-er Thanks guys. I had the carb jetted and dyno tuned at Leon Motors a year ago and it was phenomenal. It ran beautifully and made really good power. I feel like I've been chasing that perfect tune ever since. Sure I could just take it back to Leons for another go on the dyno, but where's the fun in that! Good point regarding possible weak ignition. I'll check that as soon as I can. I leaned out the mix slightly on the weekend and adjusted the spark gap whilst I was there. She seems to be running a bit better today, but perhaps that's just a placebo effect.