VTRBandit

Hey guys, with the entire carbs set up off of the bike, how do you guys suggest to clean the entire thing? I wasn't sure if there is a method to go about spraying it down and scrubbing it or is there a certain chemical out there that I need to use? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

joshn569

macs carb cleaner from napa i think

JamieDaugherty

The coolant through the carbs does not prevent icing. It's to help with rideability when the engine is first started. The thermostat is supposed to stop the flow of the coolant once the temp starts to rise.

That said I've bypassed mine. In fact I've pulled the hose setup from the carbs all together.

joshn569

taking it off does not effect ridability?

Dave Wicks

Hey Jamie;

You lost me there a bit..Icing maybe a strong word..frosting perhaps..Is the coolant in there not to warm the carbs? I'm thinking it is. Unless there is another thermostat to do what you say..The thermostat would only control temperature of entire cooling system. In cooler climates or days or mornings it could affect rideability I'm thinking. Some older Dodge v/8's had a heck of time with frosting if the heatriser valve in the intake stuck closed...this would happen on a high humidity summer day not just colder days.. Anybody else got thoughts on this??

Dave

JamieDaugherty

Josh - I have not noticed a single difference. I ride down to the mid-30's and have seen no issues at all.

Dave - I really don't think it's an issue. The carbs should not be 'heated' on these engines anyway. It's supposed to help cold performance by making the intake charge a little warmer and therefore simulating the condition that the bike was jetted for. I hope that makes sense. As I mentioned before, the thermostat is supposed to stop flow once the engine is up to temperature. I just don't trust this system and would rather err to the side of power, that's why I disabled mine. There are no performance gains to be had, it's one of those 'just in case' kind of things.

firestorm'n

I've had an '04 for a year with K&N and D&D. As far as i can tell it's all good.
Just a little backfire,but I kind of like it.

azhawk1

mine is setup with dynojets , k&n and tbr pipes. it was like this when I bought it so cannot speak for any needle info. as far as I know the bike was jetted in cali and I am at a much higher elev here(6700) but the only complaint??: I have is the occasional carb "hiccup". Ive only ridden it in vegas besides here and the power gain did not seem to be much ?

joshn569

with the setup im gonna do i saw a dyno report of +7hp mid range

cb21983

I use carb cleaner when I have the carbs off the bike which has only been once since I got it. I do however once a year run gumout carb cleaner fuel additive and that seems to do the trick.

Hawkrider

AS for the carb heating, looking at the diagram on the first page of the cooling system in the Service Manual, it shows that it is attached to the thermostat housing, but shows that it has flow through it all the time. I've always heard it's to prevent icing/frosting on humid days where the dew point temp is low. The venturi in the carbs can lower temps to the point that the humidity in the air will start to build up as ice on the throats. I guess the carb heating prevents this.

Way back in the day when I was tuning my bike I hooked up a shutoff valve on my carb heating supply hose and dyno'd back-to-back with it on and off. Results were interesting: Bike actually made more power with the carb heating turned on than it did with it off. Possible errors in this are the fact that I did the "off" run last. Bikes typically make their best power after you blow all the crap out and the oil is thinner, though it only makes a small difference by 0.5 - 1.0 hp. That was the same amount the two dyno runs were off by. I concluded that the carb heating does not affect performance at all, and other than the hoses being a PITA to hook/unhook when working on it, they harm nothing.