How hot does a carburetor get?

I found these great rubber fittings (Home Depot $3.00/boot) to replace my old intake boots. They are heat-rated for only 140F. I have to find an operating temperature of the carbs before i install and melt them to the bike. Does anyone have a clue how hot XJ Hitachi carbs get - normal operating temp?

 

They should stay cooler than the melting point of rubber.
There are rubber hoses connected to the carbs.

 

Carbs themselves stay quite cool. The heat carried away by all that fuel evaporating makes airplane carbs actually ice up in some situations, so most are equipped with electric and/or engine coolant heaters. You should be fine.

 

3$ replacements for the carb boots????? They actually work and dont let air in???? This intrests me as i need new boots and the lowest price i can find them is 125$ for a set of 4

 

old car carbs would freeze up as well. very vague figures, but at 100*F gasoline could start to boil, so the carbs must stay rather cool while running. i would say you are safe.

 

Can we get a pic, or a part number? I'd Love to see these things!

 

do they say fernco by chance found in plumbing department

 

Here is a shot of it stuffed into the airbox. It's a Fernco 1 1/2" to 1 1/2" flexible coupler P1056-150. Rated to 140 degrees F. Very pliable and easy to trim to an exact fit.

I hope the pics work as this is my first pic post!

 

Here it is attached handsomely to the carb!

 

They are a bit longer then the original boots- by 1", however with a little trimming/shaving (on the airbox side) I'm sure I could get them to fit with absolute precision. And i saved $$$!

 

How "precision?" The originals have a raised lip with a groove and seal pretty thoroughly to the airbox; will you have leakage at the boot/airbox junction?

 

I have to agree with Fitz. Unless you have a good way to seal them you will be drawing air around them and possibly dust/dirt behind your air filter directly into your carbs

 

Not likely to leak. They are as snug as a bug. But since you're trimming off 1" of rubber to make them fit, you can add the little seal groove if you're feeling ambitious. I'm telling you though, they are in the box good! Much better then the shrunken originals that were barely hanging on for the 3 years we cruised all over Jersey! I don't even think the #2 and #3 original intake boots reached the warped holes in the box.

 

I did this and i've put close to a thousand miles on my bike without issue. On my 82 seca the inside diamater of the hose fit the carb mouth perfectly and the outside diameter was slightly too large for the airbox hole. Once I sanded down the hose to fit it was like a custom made boot. Saved a good chunk of change too. When you think about it, in theory this should work better than the stock boots since you end up with a custom sized boot.

 

if they are real snug into the air box manifold, I think it's a great get out, there was another guy here using plumbing fittings on his carbs.
(might have been Joe the plumber)

 

I dunno. New boots for the 550 are only like $15 each from Yamaha and I bet you-know-who has 'em for less. I'd still be worried about sucking some sort of FOD since there's no "mechanical lock" to the joint. Hope they work for you.

 

At first I thought you were talking about the boots from the carb to the head 8O And I was thinking 140F??? Is he nuts???

I think this option would be better than old hard stock rubbers - but if the OEM parts are cheap, I'd probably go original.

 

Hey Nixon, you're way too up on what's going on in the states. :wink:

Isn't there anything interesting in your hemisphere?

 

Just Sun, Sea & Sand. 8)

 

great find! my oe one's don't seal up properly anymore so this would be great

 

YES!!! finally, something i can jury-rig and feel safe about!! maybe these will miraculously fix my starting problem.

edit:: do these make it easier or harder to put the rack back on the bike?

when putting the rack on, do you put the "boots" in the box first then connect carbs, or vice cersa (Boots to carbs, put carbs in intake manifold boots, then stuff plumbing boots in box)?

 

To go into the airbox, the boots (Home Depot or Lowes ones) need to be shaved down to the diameter of where the hose clamps rest.

Shaving procedure:
I fixed a dremel into my vice cushioned with paint stirrers. Make sure it's level so it cuts evenly. Then I used a piece of glass which acted as a perfectly flat/level surface to roll the rubber coupling fitted on a PVC pipe. (See Photo for my setup using a small piece of PVC with two flared out ends to fix the rubber coupling on.) I fit the secured dremel with a wide sanding bit, to shave off the unwanted rubber. Shave it down all the way around to the diameter where the clamp rests. Then cut off the lip on one of the ends - about 3/8" is perfect. Then twist the suckers into the box, bring in carbs, attach them to the carb boots and twist out your newly fabbed intake boots to meet carbs. They fit nicely on mine! I'm sure there are better ways, but this was the cheapest for me.

 

I can't believe they work so well! I actually almost didn't do it, thinking it wouldn't work in a million years.

 

Here's an underneath shot. I still can't believe these worked!

 

Yeah that and what like 6 or 8 years' worth of XJ900s that WE never got to see...

 

Frankly, I am quite impressed as well, and hereby retract any less than positive comments I may have made earlier. They look like they're MORE THAN snug, which is great and will probably compensate for the probably still somewhat warped airbox. Good job!

 

Here is the posting for the Home Depot carb boots. Sorry I wasn't able to just post the link in the current thread. Oh well......

 

WOW
That is for sure the easiest and cheapest way to go. If my boots give me any more problems I'm going to go this route. Thanks guys for the great tips. Now that's the way to improvise! Keep them coming.
Mac

 

Instead of shaving the boots down with the dremel, why not just enlarge the 4 holes a little?? 8O 8)

 

Sure Wiz, rub it in man.
:cry:

 

Nice pic Wesley, my buddy from down the street!

TimeToRide...Shaving the holes in the airbox sounds do-able, but how would you ensure a nice round and even shave? It's also hard to work in that cramped area. I still can't figure out how to get that airbox out of there without cutting it apart or dismantling half the bike. Is there a write-up on that?

I also think doing permanent alterations to the airbox is probably not a wise decision but what do I know.

 

Pull the motor to get the air box out.
Unless it's a 550 IIRC.

 

I agree. I would not reccomend changing the airbox from stock. What if next Thursday you all of a sudden wanted to go back to stock. Made the holes larger? Too late!

Shave down the rubber part.

 

Bump. What was the long term consensus on this cheap fix?

 

They will probably outlast the bike. Takes rubber a very long time to deteriorate as long as oil does not flow thru it or gas fumes should not hurt it

 

Long term, in this thread it was found by two members that after a year...

...they were still pliable and good-sealing, perfectly functioning.