Do you know what I hate?

[foreda]

Ethanol

I am lucky we have ethanol free gas available here in Louisiana.. Along with all the reality shows on tv now!! People think we all live in the swamp.. You gotta love it!!

[motoman]

Clean the float needle SEATS with q-tips and drill! Worked WONDERS on my 78!

I took plain old Q-Tips, cut them in half, chucked it into my cheap cordless drill and dipped the cotton end *lightly* in plain old paste car wax. Shove into the brass seat and let her rip for a bit. Rinse and repeat.

Your needle seats will be UNBELIEVABLY shiny after doing this procedure. It will remove any scale and corrosion that is present on them. The Q-Tip ends will come out Black, then green then grey. Usually 3-4 per seat. Alternate polish and clean tips.

Protip: Toothpaste will also work.

Can polish up the needles the same way too. Q-Tip, drill and compound. Just hang on to the needle tightly.

The viton tips can have the shiny ring removed by chucking in a drill and VERY lightly spun against a piece of fine wet or dry sand paper. Was a trick on our muscle cars back in the day when we were actually too broke to pay attention. This would be a temp. fix till you got new needles.

[motoman]

I am lucky we have ethanol free gas available here in Louisiana.. Along with all the reality shows on tv now!! People think we all live in the swamp.. You gotta love it!!

.......lol.....

[donebysunday]

I used Sea Foam for years once I had problem with the ethanol fuel, little water bubbles (?) in the bottom of the bowls. When I first started working on this 1100 I kept having these little bubbles in the bowls, even with the Sea Foam. A customer swears by Marine Stabil ( blue stuff ), tried it and no problem since. It's actually cheaper in the long run than any other. YMMV but it's working for me.

[motoman]

I used Sea Foam for years once I had problem with the ethanol fuel, little water bubbles (?) in the bottom of the bowls. When I first started working on this 1100 I kept having these little bubbles in the bowls, even with the Sea Foam. A customer swears by Marine Stabil ( blue stuff ), tried it and no problem since. It's actually cheaper in the long run than any other. YMMV but it's working for me.

Interesting.........the blue Stabil, by a different name than Marine Stabil is at most ALL bike shops and has been for the past year now. I have no interest in using any of Stabil products as I have read and seen pics of a couple intake ports on ST11's where the owners have had their bike man-cave resting for the winter, went to start it for spring riding and had a valve stay hung open from a gummy gel substance created around the valve stem after running a bit before storage with Stabil in fuel. Alot of other variables may have been involved, but that is an expense on an ST that would pay for the puchase of a nicely restored XS11.......and then some. Still not worth the risk for me, and I've never had a running issue after not riding one or the other of my bikes for several months, and never have added anything to my tanks if setting for extended periods. The occassional SeaFoam added once a year, if I happen to think of it.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey again Skippy,

I rebuilt my 81 carbs in 2000, the needle valves lasted about 8 years. But they did finally get hardened and started leaking. Replaced them and all was fine again. One thing folks have forgotten to mention as to another reason/cause for your flooding on your 80 Sg carbs could be the O-ring around the valve seat...the ethanol can harden them also, and allow fuel to leak past them even though the float needles may be sealing. But yeah, sounds like you need to do some work on your Octy as well.

Hey Lon, I've had a flooding carb that definitely interfered with my low throttle response a few years ago...but it was flooding because of a re-broken float post....J-B weld disolved. So..yes a flooding carb can occur on a running bike, vibration doesn't always unstick a stuck float.

I, too, am a proponent of SeaFoam....use it all the time.

T.C.

[donebysunday]

After using the Marine Stabil last year and topping off the tank for winter last fall, this spring my old sealed battery turned the 1100 over a few times, then I put the enrichener on full and V-ROOOOM. Took it out today to take pics before I switch the 4-1 exhaust to SH stock headpipes and Dunstall reps, it's power freaked me out. This is unlike the regular Stabil ( Red ) that I tried years ago in one of my 650s and it had no power until I had run enough fuel through it to dilute the red Stabil that seemed to take the combustion/compression under accel away.

[Dragon Tamer]

The Fire Dragon @ almost 200,000 miles still has the OEM carbs on it and other than one cleaning (caused by the red Stabil) have never been touched. She has run on ethanol for about half of her life and I have never had but one problem that may have been caused by it. I did have to replace the fuel lines due to the breakdown of the inner liner causing the float valves to leak. New Tygon fuel lines and in line filters solved that problem nicely.

I use now ONLY Seafoam a couple times a year, mostly in the fall before she has to go into hibernation for three or four months. Went out to the shed a couple of weeks ago and she started right up with absolutely NO trouble. Not bad considering that she has been sitting there patiently since the first week of November last year and the temp when I started her was only in the low thirties.

I did have to install a new battery this spring but cannot blame that on the ethanol. Operator error only there, club footed the extension cord going to the battery maintainer and it froze.

I do run the 100% gas when and where I can find it but cannot claim to have seen any difference when I do.

[kwats]

One thing for sure is these old bikes require upkeep and patience. I work on a variety of 70's bikes in my shop, and the most common problems I see happen between the gas cap and the float valve in the carb. If ever there was a weakness on Japanese bikes it was, in my opinion, the fuel system.

It seems the enjoyment factor is about equal to the amount of effort we put into these machines.

I am currently installing a refurbished (by me) Standard gas tank on my '79 Special. I soda blasted the interior of the tank, resurfaced with POR 15, and built new petcock mounts so I can use new ball valve petcocks instead of the stock units. The octy went as far as I cold throw it.
The restoration guys will call this blasphemy, but this bike is a rider....

[skids]

Kwats said, "The octy went as far as I cold throw it. "

That is exactly what I would do. You get used to doing things after a while. For example, I manually cancel turn signals on the bikes that need me to do that. I just gets to be a routine. It seems that the automatic function of the standards is easier to deal with than the specials. Octo is kind of ridiculous.

[Cobia]

No additional stuff

Skippy,
My G will sometimes sit idle for 3 to 6 weeks, much to my frustration. But it'll fire right up when asked to. Sometimes, when it's going to sit for a longer time I'll run some Seafam through it before I set it up. But I put nothing but regular 87 octane w/ethanol because that's what's at all the gas stations. I do have inline filters installed and do monitor them.
I tried a few thankfulls of pure gasoline from my local marina and frankly didn't notice a difference in performance or MPG so I opted out of the higher prices.
Save your money and just run the p^ss out of it.....