So after taking my carbs off the bike and going through them for two days cleaning every nook and cranny i got them back on the bike. First thing, took me about 40 minutes to actually get it started. It would turn over and sound like it wanted to run, almost start and it just wouldn't catch. Finally it turned over. Not sure if its related to the hard start but when it finally turned over it spit out greyish smoke for about the first 5 minutes or so and still lingered until the bike warmed up. I took it for a quick spin down the street and all was good maybe 6-700 feet or so. Turned it around and it wouldn't climb past 5k rpms. if i ripped the throttle it would just bog down and die or get extremely low in rpms. It was jerky and kind of surged a few times almost tossed me off at one point as it jumped from 5k up to 9-10 very quickly while giving it some throttle. I also noticed it was running very hot. Coolant was making its way past the hose clamp on one side dripping out a little and was steaming, must have reached its boiling point cuzz it sure was hot. The fan also kept kicking on after about 15 min of the bike being started turning on about every 2 minutes. So to prevent damage i shut it down and haven't started it since. By the time the headers cooled down the engine was still to hot to touch. When i had the carbs off i messed with one pilot screw(curiosity got the best of me) but it went back in just the way it came out. I counted the number of turns when i seated it (which was about 3 and a hair more of a turn out). I set it back to that just to not mess with anything. The jets are all stock size, i forget the actual size, but its cali spec so there all 135 or 138. I smelled the exhaust when it was running and it deff wasn't rich. It was very unpleasant though. I took out the plugs to see if what I'm expecting is true but i can't really tell. Plugs just got put in, second time its been ran on these plugs and the first time was for about 5 minutes just to make sure they were firing. I guess what I'm asking is am i running to lean? Or should i be looking for another problem? Only mod is a V&H Slip On.

 

I would say your rich if anything, 3 turns out for the pilots is on the rich side. 2.5 is stock, try that. You can also try and run without a n air filter in it for a few minutes, if it runs better it would indicate rich. Did everything go back together exactly as it came apart? Did you mess with the jets or needles?

 

EVERYTHING, went back together exactly how it came out. And yes I took apart and cleaned everything but the pilot screws. It sure doesn't smell or look like I'm running rich. What scared me is how hot the engine got after such a short period of time. I will set the needless to stock. What I did notice this morning also is that the hose that runs from the top of the case were the spark plugs go to what I believe is the bottom of the air filter case was left disconnected. Maybe that's leaning me out?

 

Quickly I just l looked at the manual and it's the cylinder head cover breather tube that' got left disconnected.

 

Well from my understanding running lean will cause overheating in some circumstances but I couldn't imagine your lean at 3 turns out, did reconnecting the breather hose do anything for you?

 

No did nothing. Bike was running perfect before I got some water in the tank. I flushed the system though so it shouldn't be affecting it at all. That's half the reason I pulled the carbs because of the bad gas, plus it needed to be done. I thought the engine was going to melt off the bike it was so hot. My plugs look more lean than rich to me also.

 

sounds to me like your carb boots or carbs arent sealing correctly make sure you have the carb boots on correctly then that the airbox is all on correctly

its certainly running lean if your carb boots are on correctly open your drain holes see how much fuel comes out it, then get back to us

 

Will do, it's been raining here in Massachusetts for a lifetime it seems but it's letting up today so I'm going to check it out. I'll get back tonight probably and let you know the results.

 

Ok so i took the carbs off when i got home from work today and went through them just to make sure i didn't miss anything. I also went into the service manual and made sure all hoses were connected where they should be. I drained out the float bowls and fuel came out each one the same amount. I unscrewed it to allow the fastest flow out and counted about 15 sec on each one, id say the amount of fuel was about how much the bowl can hold maybe a little less. Anyways, put everything back together to specs. I also readjust the pilot screw to 2 1/2 turns out from seated. SAME RESULT!! I had to push the bike up my driveway because i could get enough throttle to drive it w/out stalling. If i slowly pull the throttle it will rev up to about 8-9k if i rip the throttle it hits about 2-3 and dies. If its under load, it dies. Could the water maybe have fouled my plugs from the bad gas? if so would that cause it to run so hot? It will idle in choke on ALMOST the same as it being off.

Here is video of what its doing. Its short but its something.

 

I also ran the bike without the air filter and it was worse. Would barley hold its idle let alone allow me to throttle it.