Digital BW, The Print

I bought a new C86 after no luck with getting a C84 going again
after some lack of use.  (BTW, put the Epson C86 package inks
into the C84, did a head cleaning and now the old C84 prints color
like a charm.)

I put the MIS inks into the C86 upon install. Epson driver complained
about black (big "X" symbol in the driver), so I just replaced it with a
new cartridge (MIS Eboni matte).

Printed the Epson installer test image. Epson driver test print pattern
showed severe banding in cyan. I ran a nozzle check and all came out
well, except for cyan. So I just replaced cyan with a new cyan cartridge.
No cleaning cycles or anything. (Tired of futzing).

Repeated nozzle check. CMY do look ok. But now BLACK is very
screwed up. Letters smudged and barely legible, lines all broken up.
How can this be? 

I'm a software engineer, but futzing with printers and inks is so 
completely
opaque.  I can't see any deterministic diagnosis/prognosis course of action.

What should I do?  I'm sort of loathe to embark on more cleaning cycles.
Last time it did no good and just ate up carts of ink.

Isn't this supposed to be EZ?  Thanks all.

Scott

The C84 setup onced worked well for me