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XJ650RJ Seca Build

Discussion in 'XJ Modifications' started by Taylo105, Mar 28, 2017.

  1. Rowan Mickan

    Rowan Mickan New Member

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    Oh righto!!!

    Yea we only have Seca's here so it's just labeled as xj650. Anyways... looking forward to more of your build
     
  2. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    So after putting about 100 miles on the bike, I swapped out the spark plugs. looks like I need to richen up the mixture a little. After a few different rides on the bike, I've noticed that it takes a little bit of time to warm up. around 5 minutes to keep a strong idle. But after cruising on the freeway for a bit, it idles nice and strong.

    Hoping a little more fuel in the mixture will get me more dialed in.

    Plugs 1&2
    [​IMG]

    Plugs 3&4
    [​IMG]
     
  3. V_rex

    V_rex New Member

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    hey man. love the build. Just moved to san diego in july. i got an 82' xj550 with a 2006 r6 front end. its not even close to done but i think that eBay gauge might be the ticket. Any updates on how your bike is running?
     
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  4. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    Oh awesome. Another San Diego xj rider. What part of SD are you in?
    The eBay garage is worth the few bucks. No issues with that so far.

    I’m still having some issues tuning the bike. I need to find some time to re go through everything and find the cause.
     
  5. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    Finally jumping back into the build this weekend. I found a local shop in San Diego that is a community garage. For a monthly fee, I take in the bike and have full access to everything I could possibly need. Ultrasonic cleaner, vapor honing, welding, work bench setups. As well as a community of other enthusiasts to check in with. That combined, with this forum, I should be able to get this bike dialed in as perfectly as possible.

    So in preparation for this weekend, I ripped the carbs and front calipers off the bike and and doing a final rebuild on both. The carbs have not been able to be dialed in yet. Im suspecting an issues with the enrichment circuit, and possibly the air/fuel mixture screws. So i have broken the rack down to every component and will ultrasonically cleaning these tomorrow before a final rebuild. I've also taken the calipers off as I had slight drag on the front wheel. With a wheel stand on the front wheel, I could get 1/4 - 1/2 of a turn while trying to free-spin the front wheel. Those will also go in the ultrasonic cleaner.

    While I had the carbs off, I noticed this on the inside of my new carb manifolds. I bought the OEM spec manifolds from Chacal. (not the cheap eBay ones). Does this look "normal"? or is this due to a bad gasket and the manifolds are getting too hot and bubbling? Carbs 3 & 4 did not appear to have this issue.
    carb 1
    [​IMG]

    Carb 2
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2018
  6. chacal

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    Sure doesn't, in fact that looks like what the aftermarket manifolds do. Is that way just on that manifold? And does it appear to be "bubbled" or melted?
     
  7. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    I’ll take off the manifolds tomorrow and inspect closer. I recently installed them, so there shouldn’t be an issue with taking the bolts out.
    I’m hoping they are not toast as they are expensive.
     
  8. chacal

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    Once you get them off and inspect them, send me an e-mail and let's see what we can figure out!
     
  9. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    https://imgur.com/a/6plyA
    (sorry they are out of order)

    So after some inspection, it looks like only 1 & 2 have gone through some damage. I see cracks on the backside, and bubbles in the middle. I actually compared these to the cheap boots I had previously and the cheap ones look better.
     
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  10. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    So on a positive note, I got the carbs ultraonicslly cleaned today as well as cleaned my brake calipers and my second donor set. 1 piston was sticking so now I can reassemble everything and get it as good as new.
     
  11. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    Chacal has been great in helping to get me the correct parts to replace those busted carb boots. Hoping it was just a bad batch. I’m contributing it to my “luck”.

    I’ve got the carbs rebuild and floats set, and brake calipers rebuild. Unfortunately this weekend won’t contain any orogrsss as I’m out of town, but next week everything should go back on the bike.

    Fingers crossed that my hard work pays off. I’m also going to be replacing the exhaust / header gaskets at the motor as I realized these were overlooked during my rebuild.
     
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  12. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    So the weather in san diego started to get good, only to start raining again. I've managed to get a little work in. I'm still having some issues with the front tire bead holding air. I broke the bead seal to try to correct the issues the other day. after a few days i'm not noticing any loss of air pressure, so we will see how long it holds. Worst case, I will just have to put air in the tire twice a month.

    The good news is that after the final carb rebuild with an ultrasonic cleaner, the bike runs a lot better. I did a quick vacuum sync yesterday and got the bike in a manageable range. I plan to (weather permitting) to use the colortune to dial in the air fuel mixtures. I was at 2.5 turns and felt that it was a tad lean. So i turned each one around 1/8 of a turn and feel that i'm running a little rich now. I've noticed a little more of a gas smell from the exhaust.

    The main issue i'm trying to resolve now is a slight hanging idle after a rev. It takes about 3-5 seconds for the bike to return to idle after raving up to around 4-5K.
     
  13. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    You have a vacuum leak somewhere.
     
  14. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    I’ll take another look but my last few attempts to trace any source of a leak down have been unsuccessful. Every possible location or part failure to cause a leak has been replaced through Len
    • New oem manifold boots & plugs
    • Vacuum line to petcock
    • Rebuilt petcock
    • Throttle shaft seals with washers
    • Airbox to carb clamps (rubber sleeves are still good)
    I’ve tried with propane and all sorts of sprays. Any other recommendations or thoughts to check while I go over it all again?
     
  15. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    How did you attach the new manifolds?
    No gaskets?
    Just gaskets?
    Gaskets coated with a gasket sealer?
    (the latter is highly recommended)

    Vacuum leaks can sometimes be difficult to find. How are you checking?
     
  16. Polock

    Polock Well-Known Member

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    that ain't good enough, if it ain't right it's wrong
     
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  17. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    Just the manifold and gasket. I’m checking with propane and slowly moving the gas around in specific areas to see any increase. Focusing on throttle shaft, manifolds and airbox boots. I’ve also repeated this with sprays. The only area which I’ve gotten any result in was if I sprayed around the lip of the airbox lid. But you had previously mentioned that it isn’t the cause of a leak.
     
  18. Taylo105

    Taylo105 Active Member

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    So after a 15 minute ride to get the bike warmed up, this is my "benchmark" the idle is returning quicker than it was yesterday. Its not terrible, (its a lot better than it has been), but its not as perfect as it can be.



    I quickly hooked up my color tune. Unfortunately I wasn't able to actually adjust any air/fuel mixtures at this time. Simply a reading of what each plug / cylinder was doing. While having the color tune hooked up, cylinders 3 & 4 would get white burst while some slight backfiring was happening. This was not replicated when the colortune was removed. What does this correspond to?
     
  19. desmotom

    desmotom Active Member

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    sounds good, is the cable hanging up maybe?? cause its idling smooth.
     
  20. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    Vacuum leak. Could be that the copper crush washer on the colortune needs to be replaced. Could be that you have an intermittent vacuum leak elsewhere, which would explain why you haven't found it yet. If the leak was at the intake manifold flange it could be sealing up as the bike warms.
    Another possibility is the vacuum port caps. I think you got those from Len, but it's still possible that one or two aren't sealing properly. Did you get new clamps for them as well?

    Most of the times that I've run across this problem it was solved by using a gasket sealer on both sides of the intake manifold gaskets. Even though the mating surfaces were clean and flat, and the gaskets new, there were still enough small imperfections to allow leaks.

    Permatex makes a spray-on copper gasket sealer that has been good for me.
     

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