Rate my Idle / Offidle

So I went out and tried my hand at tuning by ear.

** This is best listened to on a system with some sort of sub, or good low end, NOT laptop speakers**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJevNagvozY



Seems to sound ok to me, but i'd love to hear what Fitz and Rick think.

Also, Fitz you'd be the man if you could shoot a vid of one of your bikes idling away, so I have a reference point of what it SHOULD sound like I've never found a good youtube vid of a correct idle, always lumpy.

I did this mostly as follows:

Adjusted each pilot OUT till i had popping in the exhaust and idle drop. Backed it back in till it evened out and popping went away (usually within half a turn)

Adjusted sync MANUALLY (no vac sync tool) so as it sounded like an even idle across all 4.

I know my ear isn't as good as a vac sync tool, but I've had issues getting a good sync using my bottles. In the respect that my water doesn't move from one bottle to the other, but it doesn't respond/sound like it's in sync.

I did NOT use my YICS blocker.

Thoughts?

She seems to run fine. nice and smooth around and out of town EXCEPT taking off in 1st gear. Takes a little more throttle than it used to. I'm assuming this is either because I'm off on my sync, or because it's running richer than I had it before (I could pretty much take off in 1st with no throttle)

OH! and my idle adjust screw is completely off the throttles. (don't know if that's good or bad, it doesn't idle above what in the vid)

 

trust the sync bottles, they can't be wrong.
turn the idle mixture in until the rpm's stop going up then turn them out until the off idle response is smooth.
you have to ride the bike to do this, a static adjustment in the garage isn't going to be right after you ride it 15 minutes

 

It sounds like at least ONE cylinder is way out of sync. Almost sounds like a 3-cylinder except all 4 are running.

Were the valves in spec first? And the bike fully warmed up, as Polock suggested?

Do the vacuum sync again with the YICS blocked. You can mixture-tune by ear; but you need some form of manometer for the sync.

I'll see what I can get from my 16-Y/O's goofy little video camera; but it's gonna be a couple days.

If not, maybe I'll just take a ride over there some sunny Sunday. You're only about 130 miles away. Come to think of it, I might be making a run to Kitchener within the next month.

 

Valve clearance is in spec, I had gone for a 30 minute ride before attempting this. Luckily I've got a good procedure down (seat prop, side panels stay off, tank prop) for adjusting then taking a ride down the street to see how she responds.

I'll check my plugs, go for another 30 min ride, and adjust as Pol suggests, then sync with my bottles and yics blocked.

I'll report back later on. Thanx guys! I really want to get this girl purring like new if I can.

I'm always off Sunday/Monday Fitz, you're always more than welcome!

OH and should i be trying to get the same vac reading ON idle AND just OFF idle?

I've always assumed it should be an ON idle adjustment only. (like colortuning)

 

Went for a 30+ min ride, came back, did a sync first thing, it was a bit off, but when the bottles say it's in sync, it's got quite the rumrumrum idle to it.

Tried the pilots after that, my #1 doesn't start to miss till 6+ turns out, it was a good colour at 4. If i set them all to the highest idle each, it idles fairly nice, but a drive test misses on a cylinder (too rich i'm thinkin).

Seems after I set it like i'm supposed to it runs worse

Had to stop for today cause of rain, i'll do more testing from my original good colour settings tomorrow :/

I'm determined to get it right tho, I plan on riding this bike for quite a few years. All of your input is appreciated guys!

 

Do you have some kind of restrictor in your sync bottles. I remember when I used the bottle sync tool I made that until I restricted the tubing I couldn't get a decent sync in all cylinders. If necessary just use a clothes pin or something to take a bit of the "flutter" out of the fluid in the bottles. It makes a HUGE difference.

 

My bottles never had a bad flutter to it. I don't think they were that accurate either.

Went to crappy tire and bought everything i needed to make the 4 clear tube sync tool on a board.

What an exercise in frustration this thing is lol. I grabbed 2 stroke oil for fluid because i've read it works good for this application. Well i'm thinking it's a bit thin lol. BUT When i first put it on, it was WAY out. Could only let it start for a second and adjust, start stop, adjust, till i could get it to a point were i could leave it running without suckin fluid into the intakes.

i think i've got it pretty good, but it's fluctuating alot. Yics block or not, it just won't get all 4 even. It's so bad, i just try to get my screwdriver on the sync screw and it goes all to h3ll.

Plus, changing say 4 to 3 will make 1 and 2 go all funky.

I built it with all 4 tubes connected at the bottom so each tube can affect the other 3. I read it was a better way than doing 2 U's of tube, one for 1-2 and one for 3-4.

Battery died i was starting and stopping so much, so it's on the charger right now, i'll try again when it's fully charged.

 

Tell ya what, I was able to get my bike sync'd with the two bottle method but I picked up a "Barracuda" manometer off of ebay for about $50 and man! What a breeze! Now mind you, I'm not sayin' there's anything wrong with old school but the manometer is definitely another level higher in ease and accuracy in my opinion.

After I did my bike with the manometer I hooked them up to my son's Katana (which he had been having trouble smoothing out) and in a matter of about 1 1/2 minutes we had the thing running smoother than it has in the three years he has owned the bike. And that was after he had the bike in to two shops because he was too busy to mess with it.

Did you ever watch the Morgan Carb Tune video? Well, using my cheapo manometer my carb tuning was truly about that easy. Not only easy, but kind of fun too. No kidding!

Fitz said he's heading that way in the not too distant future. Not a bad idea to bribe him with a steak dinner or a couple of beers to have a look at it if you're still having trouble by then.

 

Yee, i didn't get anything for restrictors, kinda wished i had now. The clothes pins we have aren't string enough to collapse the tubing i've got lol.

Maybe i'll find something else laying around. A good charge on the battery will help i'm sure too. My BATT light was coming on and off when i did my 30 min warmup run today, so i knew it was low from yesterdays efforts.

 

Got the sync as close as I could. Went for a long drive, it's nice taking off from a stop, but she feels very buzzy now at 80km/h. 90km/h she smooths out nicely.

I'm thinking I may grab the supertrapp and put it on the new headers, just to see how it sounds. I really hate the sound of the MAC. (Bassy/Loud under 3k, buzzy over 4k)

I'm going to leave it as is, and check the plug colour over the next week. I don't feel like spending $50 and a weekend to go backwards again.