Colder is wetter/richer. If anything, the pilot wouldn't have been clogged, its spitting more fuel than the rest. OR, there is more air restriction on that plate or whatever.. you could always lean out the idle on that 1 carb just to see what happens if you like to tinker. Or use the syncing screws to open up that plate a bit.

Personally I would leave it be, but sometimes tinkering can be fun, especially in the winter. I'm so bored. I'll be buying a wrecked 06 600rr soon for a winter project and my first step into the fuel injected cycle world. :P

 

I would love some fuel injection.... these carbs can

I'm running 145 mains and I'm pretty sure they are too big.
Can you recommend what I SHOULD be running?

40k ish miles, f2. Manual chain tensioner, k&n, Full headers/mid/pipe kerker, New carb boots. -1 front +2 rear.

I live in north central Fl where temps will be 90-100 during the summer with lots and lots of humidity.

How important is it to run smaller jets on 2 and 3 than 1 and 4?

 

Hard for me to say what you should be running because I never had full headers on my bike.

In FL I would definitely go slightly leaner.

Not sure, I never did that to my bike and my spark plugs are pretty uniform as is... I jet purely off of power and spark plug readings.

Check the carb tuning guide I wrote that is stickied, I just posted a picture of my spark plug. If you want max power, get your plug to look like that.

If you think you will lean her out for power, then focus on getting your mains correct first, then mid range, then pilots. Probably 1 down in mains, 1-1.5 down on the needles and .5-1 turn in on your pilots. That's just ballpark and most assuredly you will need more fine tuning. Honestly you are good where you are at, and you wont get more than 1-2hp from leaning out. Nothing more noticeable than slightly smoother powerband. And you will get more backfiring for sure. Just make sure you don't run too hot. If you start seeing white or black spots on your porcelain then you are doing bad things to your engine.

 

are you headed to Fl any time soon ?

I re-read your sticky and the link to how to read plugs which I overlooked the first time. What a great description. I looked back at the pictures in my first post and can clearly tell that the heat range is perfect but it is DEFINITELY running rich.

For giggles I'm going to swap in the next smallest jets i have, IIRC 138's that came with the Factory pro kit I installed and see what happens.

Also, what plugs are you running? I'm running the factory spec NGK's.

 

I WISH I was heading to FL, it is so damn cold up here in pittsburgh!!!

I am running the NGK Iridium plugs.. Just wanted to try them and I never noticed a difference though.

 

ok, so I messed with the bike some more today. took it apart several times. I was bound and determined to figure out why #3 was colder. I warmed it up, checked the compression. All around 165 or so.... next... pulled the carbs and focused on #3. I believe there was some crud in the idle circuit on 3. So I cleaned everything again, lowered the needles one notch (i had 145 mains). Resynced carbs and took it for a spin. Came back, pulled plugs and they were still rich. BUT #3 was as warm if not slightly warmer than the rest

So, for giggles I swapped in the 138 mains and raise the needles 2 notches.... so now the clips are on second notch from top with a shim underneath them.

Took it for a ride and it seems better than ever. I haven't pulled the plugs yet to inspect for richness because the GF had dinner ready when i got back from the ride. Only spot i noticed was a delay in 8k roll to WOT. from 8-9.5k it seemed sluggish but at 10k it was flying. Next I'll try lowering the needle one notch and see what happens but mid throttle response and power seems good. I didn't reshoot exhaust temps yet either...will do that tomorrow as well as pulling some plugs!

Later,
Adam

 

Using plug readings between tests is not very accurate because they are already dirty from the last test/s. Go by feel for now. Once it feels good, put a new set of plugs in and read those.

Hesitation on roll on is usually lean. Sluggish while throttle is open is usually rich. I suck at testing by those means though. I always just did the hot/cold engine tests WOT and went by feel there.

 

Oh and when you say "raise" the needles that confuses me. Make sure you are moving the clip closer to the fat end of the needle to lean out.

 

These carbs drive me nuts! Bike has been running ok but certainly not a perfect as what I believe it should. I did check compression a couple weeks ago and All cylinders were within 5psi of each other.

I put new sprockets and chain on yesterday. I went form a 14/50 to 15/48.
While I was at it I put some new plugs in because I was going on a 200mi round trip last night.

I pulled them today:

# 3 is still rich.... booooo



I left at 5:15pm At about 70 degrees, was back at my house about 10:30pm at 55-60.

Symptoms.... on the interstate at 70ish mph at 8k rpms roll on or snap too WOT was very sluggish. There was a good 1-2 second delay then slightly flat acceleration, then it would seem to clear up around 10k and take off. I can't tell if i'm lean or rich. From the plugs I'd say lean, but if I pull the choke and then hammer down the problem is the same if not worse. It does run better in cooler air which would indicate rich. 138 mains

Cruising at 5-6k rpm resulted in slight surging. roll on from these RPMS seems good as well as snap to WOT.

I have to keep the Idle up around 1500-1700rpms to make sure it won't quite. If it idles for more than a couple mins it will usually die even at those higher RPMS and it takes choke to start it back up. So i'm assuming that the Idle mix is lean. I have factory 38's and about 2.5 turns out.

 

Throttle hesitation plus surging are signs of lean, on top of the fact that its obvious visually that plug 3 looks good while 1,2,4 look lean.

I am still curious as to why your 3rd cylinder is running richer (not rich cuz it looks good). Short of cleaning the crap out of the jets and making sure the float is working the same in that carb, I am lost. Check again for any air leaks, look at the vacuum ports for carb syncing and check your headers 1,2,4 and make sure they are tight. You said you cleaned the carbs a bunch so double check the float height compared to the other carbs. If that carb is just going to keep running rich you may want to leave it where it is and adjust the other ones. That is kind of goofy but if it works, it works...

I just find it very strange that 3 of your cylinders run hotter and equally hotter at that. those 3 plugs are practically identical. Have you synced your carbs either? there is a long shot that it may help

Oh and try not to pay much attention to the weather when jetting. The engine temp has a far more drastic difference, so do your pulls cold vs hot engine. Weather does make a difference, but its so minimal that it can be hard to tell.