Is there an easy way to clean the carbon out of your valves and piston top? I put in some hotter plugs thinking this may help. Has anyone ever added some treatment to your gas to fix this?

Thanks,

 

First what leeds you to belive you have a severe carbon problem in your engine ?

 

I'm thinking this because of the power difference I've seen in the bike lately and by the looks of the pistons being carboned up when I remove the plugs. I also see a little oil on the plug outer rim and sticky stuff on the threads. Possibly valve seals? But why all of a sudden?
I did put some diiferent carbs on, but only for about a week and may have had the air/fuel mixture screws out a little too much. When I pulled the plugs out the were a bit carboned up. The bike starts and idles up perfect, but it seems possibly that the valves need adjusting, a little noisy, and riding without a helmet it's more noticable. I replaced the cam chain tensioner and it did seem to quiet down a little.

I was origionally thinking a valve adjustment may be needed, but if it's from carbon, I thought maybe something else could be done before I tackle that.

Thanks!

 

Not really unless your taking the head off, then you could use a wire wheel attached to a electric drill. Be carefull though so that ya dont scratch the head or the deck of the block. All it takes is a scratch the size of a hair, and the head wont seal right. How bad is the build up? I would say it cant be bad enough to take the head off, or is it? Also if you do take the head off buy a new head gasket, never reuse the old one. The valve adjusting seems more in order then the carbon build up, The oil you see in the plug holes is from the spark plug tube seals being bad. Sorry my reply jumps around. After I posted it I saw this thread twice and read more into it, and me being lazy I just cut n pasted it and added to it. So if ya have any more questions feel free to pm me I'll gladly give any advice helpfull or not.....

 

Just don't do it like I do and check the expensive hard stuff first. Check all the simple little things first. It might save you some time and frustration!

 

First of all it is normal to see some carbon on the tops of the pistons . Second your plugs and oil on the threads . Your valve cover gasket is more likely leaking into the plug holes . E****aly if you are on you OE valve cover gasket . I replace the valvecover gasket
and inner gaskets ( 4 of them ) on the ZRX s I tune and maintain every 3rd valve adjustment that is 21,000 miles total .

If you are not following the recomended service intervials then you ARE GOING TO LOSE PERFORMANCE . When was the last valve adjustment ? Zrx's are every 7500 miles but I always find a couple off when I do my ZRX every 3500 miles . So if you have
some crazy milage amount and no service done there is your problem .

 

Hmmm, maybe it isn't as bad as I think? Maybe it just needs the valves adjusted, I'm not sure when the last time it's been done. I bought it 1 year ago and I've put 7,000 miles on it since, so maybe it's time.

Actually the bike seems to run OK, but noisy with the helmet off. With it on it sounds about like it always has.

I had also turned the air/fuel screws to 1.75 turns out. It seems better, but haven't check the pugs yet.

When decelerating, is it supposed to pop a little. I'll take it up to about 6 grand and let off the throttle. Am I supposed to here some popping or not? I'm not getting any popping, is this a good thing or do I possibly need to turn them out more?

Thanks,

 

turn them out more to decrease popping on deceleration . Do not go past 3.5 turns as spring tension is nolonger present and the may vibrate out . Around 4 turns out they will come out of the carb body completly .

 

I'm gettting no popping on deceleration, does this mean I may be too lean yet on the mixture screws? I'll bet you're right with the oil on the plugs, I will change the gasket's when I do the valve adjustment. I think that will fix it all.

Thanks for all the help!

 

Look the real and only WAYS to know if your to lean or rich WITH OUT years of experince is from a wide band O2 sensor installed on your bike that records your fuel curve data . Or some Dyno time that has a Air / fuel sniffer . From the dyno you can see on the chart
were you are lean or rich and if its a down low needle problem or up high main jet change needed .

Most Jet Kits on the market a very close to being spot on but very RARE is it perfect out of the box . So that is were tunning comes into play and making the most of what you have . Dont be affraid to try something OUT OF THE BOX and just because a tech says it worked for them does not mean it will or won't work in your application .