If it backfires it will blow your butt right of the seat!

 

Well...the TM36 carb rules.

 

Just thought I would add my experiential 2 cents.

I have been running with my air box lid removed and the gas vent lines tee'd. The bike will still sputter and sometimes stall if you plow through enough consecutive or lengthy 2 foot deep puddles. It stalls just the same way if I give it a good power wash. It always restarts after a few cranks - quicker with the choke pulled. Still it would be better if it did not stall at all. It is gradual and you know about 5 seconds beforehand it is going to happen - depending how hard you are on the throttle.

I always wondered whether the water was coming up through the fender crack or up under the side panels. Consensus here seems to be through the fender crack so that will taped up very shortly. Is there any chance it is splashing up into the air box from another location as well?

I was also wondering if installing the KDX snorkel is 'almost' equivalent to running with the lid removed. I am happy with the way the bike runs - 330 / jetted / full Muzzy and do not want any degradation in performance. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

 

If you were getting water in I think it would be different than that. If your going full throttle then all of a sudden the power goes BLAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa.....then bogs down it sounds like you have a clogged air filter or something that's choking off the air supply?

 

Elvie, are you certain it's not something with the spark being affected by the water? Your mention of power-wash brought that idea to mind.

 

All good thoughts. Another symptom that may provide a clue is that once it occurs it seems to happen randomly a few times even post water running. For example last time I had travelled dry trail for about 10 minutes and then bogged and died one last time - started up immediately and ran strong from then on - 30 minutes of trail until home.

In this situation I am not sure it would be the plug. I tested to see if it was the gasoline vent tube plugging up with boggy material but removing the tube did not stop the problem. Is it possible water is gradually being drawn through the oiled air filter? Why am I always able to restart - does this mean that there is no water in the carb and that it is a breather problem?

I am confused for sure. I hate intermittent problems.

 

Sticky float

 

Removing the snorkle and or lid will make your EFI bike run a bit leaner. You will note deceleration popping and a bit of a backfire. The EFI bikes are supposed to be able to compensate for slight changes,such as an exhaust and filter, however the sellers of fuel controllers such as EJK and Powercommander recommend using their products to add more fuel when doing this.
I suggest you have a thorough reading of the Marcellino thread posted in the sticky threads. There is a ton of usefull information about EFI bikes.
I personally found little benefit in running with the lid off on my standard EFI. Just more noise. Removing just the snorkle, drilling a few holes in the lid, adding an aftermarket pipe and filter, as well as an EJK fuel controller gave me a mild performance increase. Most people have a much better performance increase by doing the Marcelino cam mod which allows more air in via the valves being retimed.
Me, I just threw in a big bore and hot cams eventually to get any real gains.

 

thanks graham, yeah definitely noticed the backfire/popping on decel more so when engine is cooler (first start up) however it does sound good but wasn't sure if i was hurtin the engine in anyway
I am currently running the bike with a powercore 4 and with snorkel removed.
Thanks for ease of mind I'll have a read of the marcelino thread

 

KDX snorkel or not, the air is still going thru a rectangular hole that's much smaller than no lid at all

My XR200 here had a different type of snorkel from the factory; it was just a piece of rubber about 2" wide that was installed vertically just inside and around the opening that previous held a standard type snorkel with a flange atop of the air box. A much better way to go than using the smallish snorkel that the XRs used to have. (and you'd promptly remove it if you wanted more power)

Giving you an open top air box, but the rubber insert around the periphery of the air box opening acts like a snorkel = adding a little height to the air box above any water you might run into.

Just don't get it too close to the seat base or you might restrict airflow into the air box.