white plugs bluing pipes

ok, so i busted some butt and skipped a couple breaks and made some time to dig into my carbs at work. i blew out every orifice (no jokes, please) and all seems well and consistent.

also re-checked my float heights with a digital caliper and some of them are off a bit, so will be setting that right.

however, i can't seem to figure out what this hole in the top of my carbs is, or what it does, or where it goes. anybody fill me in?

 

hmm - i hope i haven't used up all my credits . . .

so, i now have blasted some real compressed air through all passageways.

i polished my piston bores (using rickomatic's fine grit paper + WD40 method).

i set all my floats to 17.5mm (ok, so some were 17.3, some might be 17.8) using the digital caliper at work.

verified all the jets are correct and installed in the correct location.

put my pilot screws back in and set 'em all to 2.75 turns out.

using a torch and an impact driver i was able to get all my drain screws out, so i checked my float levels with a tube.

they all look like this:


this look right to everyone (anyone?).

i still need to coat my intake boots with RTV, but after that, i think i'm done with carbs - unless anyone has any suggestions for me before i put them back on. . .

now it is nap time.

 

I used a bicycle tube and stretched it over the intake manifolds....workrd like a charm,doesn'tlook too bad either!!

 

Polish those Bores.
Use Rubbing Compound or Polishing Compound, ...
I use Jewelers Rouge #5 & #6.
Put a Mirror Finish on the Bores ... if you haven't already.

 

i used 2000 grit paper. (don't have any rubbing compound). i can def see my reflection. also, when i clunk tested, i dropped pairs of pistons to listen to see if they land at the same time.


edit:
oh yeah, so, like, is my fuel level/float height correct?

 

so, i put some RTV on those boots this morning after work and luckily it says on the tube "1 hour to dry, 24 hrs to completely set up" - that motivated me to check my fuel level one more time. i decided they were all about 1mm too low, so off come the bowls.

unfortunately (which turned out to be luckily) i no longer had access to any calipers for measuring adjustments. this caused me to come up with, what i feel is a pretty rock solid way to eye-ball the float height adjustment.

i noticed that, (with my floats all set to 17.5mm), with the needle valve side of the carbs closest to me, the float hinge pin, the top of the float, and the top enrichment tube all fall in a straight line. i used this as a reference and set everything it so when the float hinge pin and the top of the float are lined up, the enrichment tube sticks up about the thickness of a dime on all the carbs.

put the bowls back on and the fuel levels were dead on.

if the description of what i did is confusing, i'd be happy to draw a diagram and post it up here (if anyone wants to see it).

 

well, i decided my carbs were clean and my floats were set correctly so i put the carbs back in and took a test ride today. i did notice that engine braking seems much more pronounced and it seems to like running at 5k to 6k rpms more than it used to. so i think the float adj and slide bore polishing did something,

but, much to my chagrin, plugs are the same.

i took the bike over local mechanical wizard's house and asked for any ideas.

we figured maybe the petrock was the culprit.

so i went home and took it apart, and other than the diaphragms looking pretty flimsy and dog-eared around the edges, they looked ok.

so i put it back together and yanked off the vacuum line and put a clear line on and sure enough i could see gas getting sucked through that clear vacuum line.

sent chacal a PM - i hope he carries rebuild kits.

---------

also - my colortune and manometer arrived today, so i was messing around with that. is it easier to do at night? seems like i can either get it to be a light blue or an extreme orange - but in between it looks like its 1 fire is orange, 1 fire is blue - kinda averages out to be purple, but it's not a solid color - always one or the other.

also - it seems like as soon as i take the throttle up off of idle it immediately gets more blue. is this normal?

 

ok - so, i blocked off my vacuum port on #3 and have been running in PRI.

still gets lean above 3000 rpms.

can someone tell me if the PRI setting will allow enough fuel to flow for normal operation?

thought maybe i had a hole in my air filter, checked it and no luck.

stuffed a rag in the hole to try to starve the bike for air.

plug is still white.

i can get a very strong orange on the color tune at idle - as soon as i touch the throttle, the color turns blue.

i know that my slides must be working because when i hooked up the vacuum gauge and synced the carbs - if i give it throttle the vacuum level on all carbs changes the same way (a stuck slide would cause them to be different, right?)

do i need to shim my needle or re-jet? i know the jets i have now are stock.

i'm about to just say f*ck it and ride it as it is until the engine is toast - i've already sunk more time and money into this bike than it is worth and it's already august, which means for me i've got about 6 weeks of riding season left.

 

ok so did some reading and stumbled across a thread that says you need to go up 4 main fuel jet sizes if you have 4-into-1 exhaust. so, ordered some jets from chacal.

if that don't work, invest heavily in ruger and smith and wesson, cuz i'll be pumping a lot of ammo through that seca.

 

update: well, i got my larger (124's) jets in, and there was a little bit of tan showing up on the formerly all-white plug. so i figured i was getting somewhere, decided to shim my needles.

definitely an improvement with the shims. i'm thinking i will shim them up a little bit higher and see what happens. at least to shim needles, you don't have to pull the carbs off - so it's not such a P.I.T.A. to do.

 

Really?
Maybe that's my problem too......

 

i finding out it's quite the "black art" - some folks haven't had to re-jet at all. after i ordered my 124's i read a little more closely and thought i went too big, but i put them in and was still running on the lean side, then i shimmed my needles and noticed quite an improvement - but still a tad lean.

scroll about halfway down this page to see chacal's rejetting advice.

also, check this site out for more info:

factorypro.com

click the "product technical support" link at the top, then click "CV Carb Tuning, " then click "High RPM Engines"

also, i read a tip - if you are messing around with rejetting, it's a good idea to replace your bowl screws with allen heads, so you can remove the bowls and change jets without removing your carbs.

for shimming needles, i was able to remove the hats without pulling the carbs, but i had to pry back the air boot on a couple carbs so i could prod with my finger and get the needle to drop back into the emulsion tube - still better than removing the rack completely.

 

set your needle valves too 3 1/2 out and see if that helps