GLOWING RED PIPES

[TLB08K9]

Ok so I am pretty sure I know what the problem is here but figured I might ask a few experts/smartasses for clarification for something I might be missing.

So I decided to go for a ride this afternoon, havent ridden in a week or so, my scoot is running great no missing, stuttering, pulls fine. I warm the scoot up for about 10 min before I decide to take off. Shit into gear and take off, well less than a 1/4 mile down the road I get caught at a red light and notice the back of my leg I can feel some major heat, not uncommon when riding all day in the summer but its 72 outside and I havent been running more than 15 min. I look down and both front and rear pipes are glowing BRIGHT RED almost down to where they both meet under the breather. Just for reference I have the stainless creation disorder pipes, thick stainless as all of you know that have any of Clints creations. Keep in mind running like a champ! So since I have the triple x carb I go to cranking down to richen this baby up some, figuring I am sucking air, pretty much a full turn in and it goes to just up at the flanges, by this time I am back home and shutting her down.

Now what I am wondering is why did this all of a sudden show up? I rode all around thunder beach and never had this problem nor the last time I was out ......... Could my carb adjustment gotten out that bad( I know it is screwed up now for sure) or when it was cooling the last time blow a gasket behind the carb? I am assuming it is in the intake somewhere since it was both front and rear pipes.

Is there anything I should look into other than air leaks? Potential damage in anyway to the oil or motor in the short time it was running?

Thanks for your responses!

Here is a pic to get an idea of just how far down they got nice and red (sorry I didnt take one while hot all I was worried about was shutting it off)

 

[nine lives]

Did you pull you plugs? If so, were the bone white? Did the motor start making any loud noises, hammering, ticking? If it didn't start smoking or making these bad sounds, you may have caught it soon enough before any damage occurred. Now you need to fine out why this happened, first guess intake leak.

 

[REMorris]

That is some major lean burn to do that. Did you just fill it up with gas (maybe some weird gas blend)? Heat like that can start burning holes in the pistons pretty quick. I am suprised that you said it was running okay. I guess if it was running okay when you shut it off, there probably isn't any damage. Those are really short pipes, you might call the maker of the pipes and see if they have heard this before.

 

[TLB08K9]

Did you pull you plugs? If so, were the bone white? Did the motor start making any loud noises, hammering, ticking? If it didn't start smoking or making these bad sounds, you may have caught it soon enough before any damage occurred. Now you need to fine out why this happened, first guess intake leak.

I didn't have any noise or tapping orher than the usual top end! I didn't pull the plugs but will before I go to checking for intake leaks.

 

[TLB08K9]

That is some major lean burn to do that. Did you just fill it up with gas (maybe some weird gas blend)? Heat like that can start burning holes in the pistons pretty quick. I am suprised that you said it was running okay. I guess if it was running okay when you shut it off, there probably isn't any damage. Those are really short pipes, you might call the maker of the pipes and see if they have heard this before.

I filled up about 20 miles ago, I have almost 7k miles with these pipes on with a little over 12k total miles. I will look for intake leak and fire it back up and hope for the best! Thanks for the response.

 

[Five Five]

post a picture of front & rear plugs like to see what they look like...

 

[Raywood]

Just for reference I have the stainless creation disorder pipes, thick stainless as all of you know that have any of Clints creations. Keep in mind running like a champ! So since I have the triple x carb I go to cranking down to richen this baby up some, figuring I am sucking air, pretty much a full turn in and it goes to just up at the flanges, by this time I am back home and shutting her down.

Thanks for your responses!

Henry, I've had this issue before and it's your fuel/air adjustment. Note that turning the screw in leans it out even more so you were making it worse.
Readjust it to 1 1/2 turns out then start it up and adjust it when it warmed up IAW the instructions.

 

[Daddycool]

Maybe an ethanol blend in your gas? Just guessing.

 

[PA Chopper]

Them pipes are nasty looking!! Love them! How do you keep your foot from catching fire?
I have heard the ethanol in gas is added at the time the tanks are filled at the stations and some guys are adding more than the 10% required. Not sure if it's true or not?? I predict ethanol content will eventually be higher in the future and bring all kinds of trouble to high performance engines as well as small engines such as found in lawnmower. It will burn too hot and destroy everything.

 

[Splitlog]

I heard yesterday that Murpheys is aloud to put 15% in now. I am not sure if this is
true or not...Wal-Mart Murpheys gas.

 

[RCAdd1ct]

Might be trash in the carb...tank liner, anything.

If it is partially blocking jets it would lean it out and get those pipes red hot

 

[05chop]

If you have an infrared heat gun or if you can borrow one shoot the exhaust pipe near the cylinder heads.If the pipes are chrome some heat guns have trouble reading shinny surface. Most pipes will glow red under a hard pull sometimes difficult to see while riding but on a dyno you can see them glow. This gun should tell normal exhaust temp and eliminate some guess work.

 

[TexasRaider]

Them pipes are nasty looking!! Love them! How do you keep your foot from catching fire?
I have heard the ethanol in gas is added at the time the tanks are filled at the stations and some guys are adding more than the 10% required. Not sure if it's true or not?? I predict ethanol content will eventually be higher in the future and bring all kinds of trouble to high performance engines as well as small engines such as found in lawnmower. It will burn too hot and destroy everything.

No idea on the cause, but as far as the fuel, by law there is not supposed to be more than 10% ethanol in any fuel unless you buy some E85 or something like that, but it won't be labeled as unleaded, it will have special markings on the pump, or it SHOULD. Don't see them putting more than 10% as that is causing enough problems as it is. Supposedly, only engines designed and labeled to use E85 should use that. This ethanol CRAP is one of the biggest scams to ever hit us. It is truly pointless. Government subsidizes farmers as it is, now they are encouraging them to produce more corn to use as ethanol under this so called "emissions reduction" umbrella. Only problem is that you now actually use more fuel, since your fuel economy is reduced by up to 20%. So you use 10% less conventional gasoline, but give up 20%, so in effect you actually are using MORE gas than before. On top of that, the government gives a federal tax break on the ethanol, reducing income to the Feds. So they pay the farmers more, collect less in tax, and they wonder why we have such a huge deficit. Corn should be used for food production, not fuel. We have PLENTY of natural fuels right here under our own soil, yet they restrict us from acquiring it and we keep pumping money overseas to the MF's that want to kill us all anyway.

Ok, so I got way off the subject on this thread, but it really pisses me off just thinking about this $#it!!!

 

[barhopper]

TexasRaider, you could not be more right. Our Fed Gov has lost all accountability. They are now working for themselves, not you and I. It's one big ego trip for all of people in power. Our founding fathers would be disgusted.

 

[TLB08K9]

Thanks for the responses everybody, Raywood I was going counter-clock wise so I was getting it richer, sorry I mistyped that last night.

Well I pulled my plugs and here is what they look like;

Hopefully the black isn't a big concern.

Now one thing I did notice that both of my plugs were loose :bang:, They were changed at about 9k. I cleaned my plugs re-torqued them and started over with my adjustment. Bike started up and ran fine at 1 and 1/2 turns out but started heating up before the bike even got warm really so another full turn out and they started to cool down. :bang: Finished warming up and :bang:went another full turn out and slight adjustment on idle and running fine. Took a short run around my block and pulls fine, no engine noise(other than the usual top end ticking). When I got back inside my trailer I noticed a small puff of "blackish" so I went a quarter turn back in on the fuel/air and this seemed to disappear, so I hope that I didnt cause any damage to my motor.

Thanks for the reply's and well I guess every so often I need to check to make sure my spark plugs are full torqued down

 

[nine lives]

"Blackish" smoke is ok just a bit rich. It's the white smoke that means trouble. Let me ask you this, if you continue to turn your screw out will the motor start to die. It should, if it doesn't, you need to adjust your jets to a bigger size. If you bike was running fine before the fill up, I would say you have some dirt in the carb. You should atleast pull the bowl and jets and clean them out, better yet remove the whole carb and clean that. Also remember to clean the petcock screen.

 

[TLB08K9]

Yeah it dies if you run it about 4-5 full turns out, I had to drop jets size so unless something major changed I run way to rich if I go above what I have now, 32 in 76 main. I am going to do a complete tear down and cleaning when I leave FL in the next 2 weeks!

Thanks for replies!

 

[Raywood]

Yeah it dies if you run it about 4-5 full turns out, I had to drop jets size so unless something major changed I run way to rich if I go above what I have now, 32 in 76 main. I am going to do a complete tear down and cleaning when I leave FL in the next 2 weeks!

Thanks for replies!

Sounds like your carb may be in for a good cleaning. I do mine a couple times a year due to the dirty gas we get. Some carb cleaner and high pressure air will clean it out pretty good.
But you shouldn't be much more than 1 1/2 turns out on the needle or something is clogged in there. Your jets are in the ball park too.

 

[RazzBarlow]

Depending on how loose the plugs were, that could be your entire problem. Just like an intake leak, you could have been getting too much air into the combustion chambers via the spark plug holes, causing a lean condition. They would have to be pretty loose though, probably about "finger-tight".

 

[Mangy Mutt]

I heard yesterday that Murpheys is aloud to put 15% in now. I am not sure if this is
true or not...Wal-Mart Murpheys gas.

Yea those EPA basterds will screws us all.
15% is here.
EPA allows 15% ethanol in gasoline, but only for late-model cars - Drive On: A conversation about the cars and trucks we drive - USATODAY.com