Carb Cleaner

[Nurse Julie]

A friend of mine has a 2001 Yamaha R1 (one of many bikes he has but sorry, no Hondas, idiot !!!)which runs like a bag of S**T at idling speed. Before he rips the carbs off have any of you ever used something like Seafoam, or similar and if you have which product was it and was it any good.
Ta in advance
Julie
 

[Trigger]

Strip the carbs off, strip them down and in to a ultrasonic machine. That will then eliminate a fuel problem. The trouble with all this modern stuff is it could be anything. They want aircraft technology at budget price. It is a nightmare when you have to plug a bike into a computer to find the problem. Sometimes the program lies.     

[Bitsa (Ralph Wright - RIP)]

Hi Julie
Yeah agree with Trig but on the sister site USA they do give seafoam a good rating.Cant say I have seen it or heard of it but like I said they seem to love it.
Maybe that's one of the ways of doing it.Will be intrigued to hear the outcome.
Cheers
Bitsa

[Nurse Julie]

Thanks Guys. I have found Seafoam and 2 other products on Amazon. BG4KK and Profi Fuel Max. He will probably try one of these as a quick fix and then a complete carb clean and overhaul in the winter. Even though the bike is 14 years old it's only done 4200 miles (and he brought it from new) so it does sit around doing not much an awful lot of the time. He's in to his 1950/60 British classics  but likes a scream around on the R1 every now and then.
 

[Trigger]

Nurse, if it is that low mileage it will be the fuel that has gone off. Put your nose over the filler cab and you should be able to smell it. He will need to drain the tank to get rid of any old fuel.

[Nurse Julie]

He's put new fuel in it and also filled up with the higher octane fuel as well, made no difference. But, if it sits there not being ridden from say September to April each year and then only does 300-400 miles per year, would the fuel somehow cause gunge or similar to build up in the carbs ?. The bike has always run great,  I take it out sometimes as well, but from the first ride out this year it wouldn't idle.
 

[Green1]

Has the tank been off? My dads Trophy wouldn't idle it turned out to be a kinked breather.

Mick

[Trigger]

I get this every April when people bring there bikes out. As i said, i would strip and clean the carbs first. If it still has a problem then its on to spark plugs,caps and so on.

[K2-K6]

If it is the carbs/idle jets getting partly blocked then it may improve by running it to get it hot on the new fuel but to store it he should be turning the fuel off and running the carbs dry to help prevent it.

There is problems of this sort with fuel containing ethanol as it seperates and starts to corrode some parts if left for long. I was talking to someone in Kent recently and he said he was using only Texaco supply there as it contained no ethanol to help him with problems like this.

[matthewmosse]

Had this on the wifes 250 nighthawk after a prolonged lay off using it, carb cleaner spray,mand a hefty dose of redexin the fuel. At the start of trying to get it going it wouldn't even start without easy start. I totally cured it by spraying about a 200ml can of carb cleaner into the airbox to start and run it, that dragged  enough fuel through to get it to start, a top up with fresh petrol and a half bottle of redex in the tank got the thing behaving as good as ever without the need to drain any more fuel than the bit in the float bowl, and only dismantling I did was remove said float bowl to check for crud, and spray a whole lot of carb cleaner into the bottom of the carb while I was in there. I cannot be doing with pulling carbs out when I can get away with a can of carb cleaner costing 99p and £3 on redex, then leave to soak. Well worth a try before pulling stuff appart. 

[Nurse Julie]

Simple fix for now, STP seems to have cleared whatever was causing the problem, at least he can ride it to Brands at the weekend for BSB. He will take the carbs to bits over the winter.
Thanks for your advice
 

[Bitsa (Ralph Wright - RIP)]

Nice one good for you and  them
Cheers
Bitsa

[K2-K6]

Julie, he may not have to do anything if it's now ok.

If he has got fuel with ethanol (E5 i think it's marked on the pump) then it really doesn't like sitting around as it seperates out to various parts with water being at the bottom and first to get to the carbs (small amount but obviously not good for running) just shaking it about to mix it up will help it. I heard that when they send it out from refinery/storage that they put the ethanol in just before despatch as it won't keep well.
There are some other people on here that have tried a addative/preservative to avoid deterioration when left for long periods so maybe worth a try.

At least he can get out and about on it now.

[Nurse Julie]

I think he plans to put the additive in it again after this weekend as bike will not be ridden till about April next year and then early next year see how it idles and if necessary strip carbs then. It will get a really good hard ride this weekend which will help as well I think (or it will f**k it totally !!)