Help for my winter project!+pictures

[Schming]

Well the highs have been about 30 degrees around Nashville so I haven't been able/wanting to get out and work on the bike. Not having a garage really sucks. Thats why I wanted to ask, would it be rather easy and helpful to just pull the engine so I could bring it inside and work on it? Probably not but I thought I would check...

Guess I could do it little by little and maybe get hand warmers...ha

It would be much easier to ROLL the whole bike into the livingroom or tarp off a section of your porch an use an electric heater when Your out there. By the time you struggle with pulling the engine How much work could you've accomplished?

[CA]

update on mancave

Well Schming your right and I followed your advice mostly. Last weekend my project was to build a mini-mancave in our back hallway/storage area which resulted in this (note the disassembled pieces of xs11):



Today my goal is to take of the exhaust and clean the engine and exhaust like never before. I will be preping it for the changing of CCT and valve job. Also prepping the exhaust to be wrapped because it is getting nasty looking.

After looking at the engine with the airbox and carbs out I began to wonder if I need to be worried about this oil spot on the back of the engine :



Now i also need advice concerning airflow and re-jetting. I currently have 4-1 kerker and stock airbox with normal foam filter and stock jetting. It runs fine but has a lot of exhaust popping. And as of late I haven't gotten that great of MPG, but I think that is due to bad floats.

Anyways I have been researching different mods to airflow, and wanted some advice. My main concern is not acceleration but MPG. This bike is plenty fast to smoke my friends, I just want to try and get close to their MPG. ( but speed is nice) I like the stock box look, but not married to it. Should I drill, K&N? and then re-jet? I am mainly concerned about health of bike and MPG.

Also will a centerstand work with 4-1 kerker?

You know its bad when you all of a sudden hate work and school simply because they get in the way of working on the bike.

[jmnjrpa]

Ca,

Make sure you have adequate ventilation. We have way too many people asphyxiated during the winter. Don't want to hear about another. A hallway/storage area sounds like a dead air space.

[dbeardslee]

That oil spot under the carb boots looks like it's coming through from the front. You might check the cam chain tensioner and see if it's the source of the leak. If it's not an obvious leak, you can clean the motor and then apply some talcum powder. If it's still leaking it will leave tracks in the talcum and point you to the leak. JAT

[cywelchjr]

Now i also need advice concerning airflow and re-jetting. I currently have 4-1 kerker and stock airbox with normal foam filter and stock jetting. It runs fine but has a lot of exhaust popping. And as of late I haven't gotten that great of MPG, but I think that is due to bad floats.

Anyways I have been researching different mods to airflow, and wanted some advice. My main concern is not acceleration but MPG. This bike is plenty fast to smoke my friends, I just want to try and get close to their MPG. ( but speed is nice) I like the stock box look, but not married to it. Should I drill, K&N? and then re-jet? I am mainly concerned about health of bike and MPG.

While these things will run good and keep up with many of the modern bikes out there, you will NOT get the kind of mileage they do without converting to fuel injection. These things were made to be fast, and fuel mileage was just not a concern. For their size, each of the XS's tended to be the fastest out there. My 400 is quite fast for it's size, and back on 85 when I got it I got 53 MPG. That's just not the case anymore (and yes it's still stock and all) as I am lucky to get 45 MPG now. I figure that these things got around 50 when they were new, but the crap they sell as gas these days requires much more sophisticated fuel systems to get good mileage out of it. This generally means a computer and injectors as the newer carb fueled bikes don't seem to do that much better than ours.

[DiverRay]

The center stand SHOULD fit with the Kerker. I went up two sizes on the main jets, and one on the pilot with a Kerker, stock air box, K&N filter, and 9 1/2" holes drilled in the center of the bottom air box(this is the dirty air, in the middle of the filter, NOT the out side). Once the carbs are synced, you should be up to about 36 to 38MPG. This is on REGULAR grade gas, NO PREMIUM!! These engines are NOT high compression, and Yamaha designed them to run on regular. The BRAND of gas WILL make a difference. I find 76 or Chevron both run well, but cheap gas I sometimes need to run the mid grade just to keep the bike close to running how I want it to.

[dbeardslee]

Riding style has a HUGE impact on mpg's. In my normal throttle-twisting mode I get around 30 mpg, but if I take it out on the highway and pretty much leave the throttle in one position I'm up around 42-44 mpg.

If you open up the exhaust, then you'll need to something on the other side of the motor to get the full benefit - drilled airbox or pods. If you drill the airbox make sure you put the holes in the correct location - on the inside of the filter element. I first drilled the airbox on mine, and it worked well with 145 mains and 45 pilots. I later opted for pods (primarily for ease of carb removal) and had to bump the mains one more size to 147.5.

[CA]

So many decisions!

Thanks jmnjrpa, I will be careful about that.

Yes, granted my bike won't be getting 50mpg with ME driving around town, although I did get about 50 on the Natchez Trace this past summer, just trying to be efficient, especially if I am going to keep this thing for a long time!

After reading more and more, I am actually now leaning more towards Pods mainly because they would not cost that much more than an K&N filter and have added benefits of ease of removal and extra growl. Having a Kerker I think something needs to be done, and if I need to rejet anyways...might as well go all the way! The partsnmore ones are the bad ones with the restrictive lip correct?

I need to go ahead and purchase a good carb synching tool. I built my own using the pvc pipe and aquarium valve this past summer only to realize the pvc pipe wasn't working properly and that aquarium valve wasn't worth crap. I have been looking around the forms and can't find a clear consensus. Will a colortune do the trick?

Also FYI my brother mentioned that he will be getting some stainless steel cut for work and offered to cut out some sidecovers for me, since I am missing my right side and can't get a reasonable replacement. Think it may be cool...can't seem to find the picture of other bikes I have seen do this. I will be getting the tank and sidecovers repainted and probably doing decals under a clearcoat on black paint.

[dbeardslee]

Colortune will allow you to properly set the mixtures on the carbs, but it isn't a synch tool. IMHO you need them both. Luckily the outfit that sells the carbtune (manometer type synch tool) sells them in a bundle with colortune. You can get them both for 90 english pounds. Should be around $150 american. Here's a link to the carbtune site

[CA]

Gloss/ Shiny exhaust?

dbeardslee, I took your advice, mostly and got the Carbtune, just didn't opt for the colortune. I am going to try and do it by ear.

I am ordering the pods from mikesxs along with 147.5 mains, but they are out out 45 pilots...does anyone have any lying around or know where else I could get some??

Also trying to figure out what to do with my exhaust. As you can see from the picture they are pretty rusty especially where the pipes come together. SO at first I thought I would just wrap them, and now I have a hundred feet of the stuff, but I am thinking that may not be the best option. After just painting my oil pan with VHT glossy engine paint I love the look. Is it possible to spraypaint the headers with something that will have a gloss or maybe a clear coat that will achieve it?? I tried looking for VHT, but all they have is flat and a clear coat. I am willing to spend about a hundred dollars on the headers..but don't think I could get them re-chromed for that. Still deciding on black or silver...
....just realized I have some Rust-o-leum semi-gloss bbq paint that says it "stops rust". Anyone tried this?

Any advice about what to do with these nasty things will be appreciated....

(The white is pretty nice rust with some cleaner stuff on it that doesn't touch it.)

[dbeardslee]

You'll like the carbtune - it's a nice tool. You might try Jets R Us for the pilots. They're a little more expensive than Mikes, though - $5.59 ea.

[Larrym]

Rust-MO-Leum

CA,

"Stops Rust" is on the label of the spray can and if the truth in labeling act has any teeth they couldn't make that claim. But I see it a little differently. Any coating on bare metal can stop rust before it starts: paint, oil, grease, etc. That's an easy task. But if you're thinking that painting it with rust-o-leum to halt the rust already present and growing will work....Nope!

I did the whole shebang to a metal outboard motor fuel tank: 2 years later the underlying rust bubbled up the paint. I didn't take any shortcuts in the prep work either. So my experience would lead me to believe that rust-o-leum may prevent rust but is an epic fail at halting existing rust.

I have learned from that experience and now use this as a prep treatment to halt the rust before painting:



It's available at most hardware stores. After wire brushing/sanding the rust I apply the product, wait 24 hours, sand again, apply the product again, wait 24 hours, then paint.

Also, the more paint you can get on the header pipes the happier you will be. I'd mist the pipes lightly, wait 15 minutes, mist them again, repeat until it's ridiculously thick. This process gets as much of the paint to chemically bond together as possible. Mechanical methods like sanding in between coats to provide some "tooth" for the next coat uses a mechanical bonding which isn't as strong.

The resulting finish is pretty tender because although it is dry to the touch, the paint hasn't actually cured. So install the pipes on the bike with extra care. After running the bike a few times the paint actually bakes on and the curing process is done: Lots of paint and hard as it'll ever be.

HTH.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there CA,

See Bike Bandit: http://www.bikebandit.com/mikuni-pilot-jet-bs30-96
Set of 4, but you may have to pay $7.00 or so for shipping.

You might first want to find someone that could sandblast the pipes to get the RUST off. Then get some good quality VHT type paint....a quick Google for VHT paint showed:

http://www.jegs.com/i/VHT/322/SP117/10002/-1
http://www.jegs.com/i/VHT/322/SP102/10002/-1

You can probably find others. Some folks have recommended ones with Ceramic base type paints! Your budget limits a more expensive option, JetHot Coating.

When I first got my bike in my ignorant youth and brought it back to the states from Japan, the first thing I did was put a 4-1 set of pipes on it. NEVER rejetted it, stock air box. These things can run fairly well even when they are lean....Yamaha sorta set them up that way for EPA in the later years! But stock carbs are what they are.

Several folks have reported good results with the Dyna-Jet kits in both throttle response and mileage, but these are high performance machines, and so consider yourself lucky to get over 30-35 mpg.

Another thing to help boost mpg is good quality high power ignition coils. The MikesXS black ones have gotten a bad rap on here this last year, and folks are promoting the GREEN ones at almost twice the price! I've still got and run the black ones I put on a few years ago..albeit I don't put the kind of miles that many daily riders do...and so who knows, mine may fail soon as well!? YMMV

The indy filters don't really get you any "better" performance than a K&N filter and drilled airbox, but you get more SOUND which you may like/want? They do help in R&R the carbs and also provide easier access to view the battery fluid levels! Since you may be making your own sidecovers, you can fashion them to extend forward IF YOU WANT to help cover the dead space between the Indy filters and the frame where the OEM airbox usually sits!

Happy Shopping, keep up the good work!
T.C.

[mrbisbob]

Using RTV sealants instead of gaskets

Hi CA, I am new to this forum and XS1100's but I have 16 years of experience building high performance motorcycle engines and porting heads. I have worked for Superbike Mike Engineering in Ft Lauderdale FL and more recently for Lee's Performance in Charlotte NC doing their machine work and head porting. I recently acquired a 79 XS1100SF like yours and upon inspection and research have come to appreciate its many excellent technical merits. For all of my career I worked on late model Suzuki and Kawasaki motors mainly but I am a lifelong Yamaha enthusiast and I have a serious 70's and 80's vintage bike obsession. I like the direction you are going with your bike.

Anyway, I was going to offer a little advice on using sealant from my experience. If you can, you want to use Yamabond or Suzukibond non hardening sealants that you can get from the local dealership. They may be a little pricier than their automotive counterparts but they are worth it because they are formulated for ease of removal and they don't harden. Regular RTV sealants like you might use on an American car engine do harden and more importantly they are extremely difficult to remove, whereas the sealants I mentioned can be dissolved with carb cleaner for ease of surface preparation when you inevitably have to service the engine again. The other thing I wanted to say is use only enough of the sealant to color the surfaces to be joined. Putting an excessive amount of sealant on the gsket surface only wastes the sealant and worse it can squeeze into the oil pan and cure then find its way into the oil pump strainer. I have seen more than a few engines killed like this. "Less is more" is the rule when using sealant. The reason this works is because Japanese production standards are some of the best in the world and consequently their parts fit together very accurately. I hope this helps. Take your time and use common sense and you will do fine. Like one of the previous posts said "we all started out with no experience" If you need more direct hands on help I live near Asheville NC and have a very flexible schedule so I might be able to do a weekend road trip to help you out. Sincerely, Mike

[CA]

Progress

Wow thanks Mr. Bisbob, I had no idea about the differences between liquid gaskets...I will most definitely take that into consideration and try and get my hands on some yamabond...if i can find some for decent $!

Well got my carbtune in the mail, the new jets, and pod filters, so feeling the need to get my carbs done, I chose to use the method I found on this forum of soda blasting the carbs, and while it feels like a science experiment it is actually kind of fun and incredibly effective as the picture only barely alludes to...


If anyone wants some pointers about soda blasting PM me, I definitely found some dos and donts the hard way. But now my carbs look brand new! I was thinking about painting my carb bodies black, and if anyone has done this successfully from a rattle can please fill me in, but now with them looking so clean I feel like I will just polish the tops and bowls and call it a day.

I called around trying to find sandblasting and found out there is a company here in Nville that will ceramic coat them (inside and out) in a chrome like finish for $115 which feels like a good deal for me. (I may talk him into $100!) So looks like I will be selling the exhaust wrap I bought.

After the carbs are put back together i will be polishing the valve cover and and sidecovers...and I keep putting off the valves and CCT...

Also still contemplating color/paint schemes...dont hate me but I am looking into a Startrek The next generation font for decals...haha