Dammit, another stall...

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

I rode out to Meijer tonight (~20mi) like a bat out of hell (mostly a freeway ride). When I get out of the store, the kick didn't seem to engage. Basically I figured "I'll check it when I get home" because the e-start worked fine. I forgot about it and kept on riding hard, until it slowly died about 100m from home. The throttle did respond while it was dying. I put it in the garage and first I check oil: still have it, maybe a little too much though. The crankcase was HOT (at least 75C, just by feel). Then I noticed the odometer was at 216mi (I reset it at each fill-up), so just for shiggles I put it on prime and hit the e-start: it ran, but shutoff a few seconds later. I'm guessing that the low fuel caused it to run hotter (like it's lean)?

 

[dO-bOy]

Oil might be thinned out by fuel causing more friction and also explains your high oil level. What's the oil look like?

I don't think I'd attribute this to the stall though, unless your oil was Extremely high and smacking the bottom of the cylinders

 

[jmd_forest]

A common problem resulting in high oil level is fuel leakage into the crankcase due to a bad petcock. It would also help explain the low fuel level. I once died by the side of the road and was scratching my head because it seemed to be acting like I had run out of gas but I knew I had filled up only a day or so before. When I finally got the bike trailered home and started diagnosing the problem it had an empty tank and a crankcase full of gas.

 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

The oil doesn't seem to smell of fuel, and it was recently changed so it doesn't look/feel like its been diluted with fuel. I refilled the fuel tank and it ran fine today, :doh!: but it still seems to be running really hot so I'm not sure what the issue is. Maybe I'm imagining it, but I don't remember it ever running this hot before.

 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

So I've been reading up, since I'm afraid to ride the bike: running lean is usually what makes the bike run hot. The petcock looks good, as it doesn't leak with the line pulled while, but the carbs overflow when set to prime. Since you mention fuel in the oil, I'm sure that the overflow ends up going into the crankcase through the breather when I'm riding (if only while at idle). I'm not really surprised that my intake setup (swapped airbox with 4" length of pipe and pods) is making it lean. Since I need to open the carbs to set the float, I guess I should rejet too. And as long as I'm doing that, I may as well go for straight pods. Soooo, my research tells me that floats should be 26mm and the stock jets are 42.5 pilot and 135 main. The advice I've read is to start 1 up on each, and keep going up on the main until no stumble at top end, so I'm looking at having to buy a 45 pilot and mains from 137.5 to 145. Please let me know if I am mistaken.

Now for the kicker: I do not feel any lack of power now (with it being lean) so how can I be sure as to the correct jetting? What symptoms am I looking for? I've thought about colortune, but I cannot see a difference between the blues in the lean area and the good area.

 

[bcware]

What do the plugs look like?

 

[DanMach]

Yup tell us about the plug coloring and also how does it idle?? Does it surge? (IE climbing idle?) If you rev it, from idle, to say 4k and let off the throttle sharply what it does do??

 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

Pics of plugs attached, looks to me somewhere between the "too hot" and "normal" examples of the back of my Haynes manual. The throttle responds quite well when I flick it up, but I will occasionally hear a backfire when I quickly let off from WOT.

 

[bcware]

Harrumph, those look ashy to me. How old are these plugs? They get ashy when you're burning oil. Oil can come from a head gasket or just really old valve stem seals.

What is the gap on those plugs?

I would put in new plugs, run the bike for a short-ish distance and THEN give me more photos

 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

Plugs are only a few months old (including winter storage), around when I did the rebuild. Unknown condition of valve seals. I think gap is 0.060", but I'll double-check tomorrow. These are BPR8ES, by the way, I'm not sure if I should go back to the 7's or not.

 

[bcware]

Yar, you went one step colder? I would try the 7s! If it's too cold you'll get the crud buildup as well.

 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

finally got the pics off my phone; there's always something annoying that pops up. I had went down to the 6's since I was riding ~3hrs at a time on the weekends, probably going back to 7's now. Before and after pics of the 7's I had on a half hour ride (copper-color stuff is anti-seize grease). Plugs were as hot as the engine, my thermocouple read 60 centigrade above ambient (25 C or so).

 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

Well, today I was able to smell fuel in the oil. I went over to MikesXS and grabbed a pair of float seats&needles, gaskets, and #140 mains. There do not seem to carry the pilot jets for the BS34's Oh well, I'll give this a shot and see what happens.