New issue ... Kind Of

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Since like early November the Fat Bottom Girl has not been out more than like 30-40 miles a ride. Couple of 60 something rides. Between weather and "Stay at Home", a longer ride just hasn't presented itself.

The trike is running great, good power, smooth acceleration, etc. So here's the "problem" .. I noticed this morning that the E Series end caps are building up "soot".

This morning is chilly, low 30's, so I'm waiting until like 11 or noon to take it out. Gonna put 4 oz of Sea Foam in the tank (about 3/4's now), and get it on the highway for 40-50 miles, maybe 60, to the Utah boarder and back. See if that blows it out.

I can only come up with a couple reasons for this:

1) O2 sensors going bad, man I hope not, really don't want to pull the head pipe again.

2) When I topped off the oil after installing the new filter, I did get it a tad full, maybe some got into the intake , but, not likely with the external breather. It's back to the correct level now.

3) Maybe over the winter with the short rides and the issue I had with the power vision, the ecm data got corrupt, or the ecm is going bad, but, would it run well?

4) Could be some bad gas from the last fill, been like 70 miles ago, so could soot form that fast, probably with short rides.

5) Maybe a bad plug? But, again, the trike wouldn't run well.

Today I plan refresh the ecm with the tune I always use, then I'm going to add the O2 sensor voltages to the gauges to see what's going on with them. That and the "blow out the carbon" ride with sea foam are my first steps. Guess I'll see what happens.

[Jack Klarich]

If you know how to read a spark plug pull em and have a look. If you are using oil that will show likewise if you are running rich that too will show KISS is always a good rule of thumb IMO Good Luck

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Welp, I did my highway speed ride today. A little over 60 miles. I did refresh the ECM with my tune and added 4 oz. of sea foam to like 3/4 of a tank.

First step, the O2 Sensor voltages were consistent with each other which its what you want.

The trike ran as well or better than it ever has. When I got to I 70, I "got on it", which is unusual for me, and I guess I've never really "got on it" that hard. Frankly, I was impressed. The Fat Bottom Girl can scoot when I let her. I never went over the 75 mph limit or the 80 mph limit ... but I got to it pretty dang quickly ... LOL ... kind of fun.

At the end of the ride, I filled up, just incase there was some bad gas (dilution is the solution to the world's pollution). I put 4.232 gallons in the tank for 135 miles = 31.89 mpg ... 72 of those miles were "around the valley", various speeds under 50 mph. So, 63 miles of it were at 70-80 mph. Couple that with the fact I did the Jack Rabbit Start thing twice, once getting on the highway, once in Utah were I turned around to head home. Pretty sure the trike is not running rich.

As a side note, it was 55*, the ET never got over 202*, that was at 80 mph, the head temp never got over 255* at 80 mph. After the high speed run, when I pulled into the gas station, I checked the oil temp in the tank with the digital temp gauge, 192*, oil pressure 34# at 80 mph. Good numbers, better than I had pre cool and clean.

One last good number, the Power Vision reported 32.0 mpg when I filled, so +0.11 mpg off, close enough. My work is done.

When I got home I looked at the end caps. To me they looked cleaner. Didn't get a before pic, but, here's were they are now, they were blacker, now, more like dark chocolate.

[DK Custom Products]

Welp, I did my highway speed ride today. A little over 60 miles. I did refresh the ECM with my tune and added 4 oz. of sea foam to like 3/4 of a tank.

First step, the O2 Sensor voltages were consistent with each other which its what you want.

The trike ran as well or better than it ever has. When I got to I 70, I "got on it", which is unusual for me, and I guess I've never really "got on it" that hard. Frankly, I was impressed. The Fat Bottom Girl can scoot when I let her. I never went over the 75 mph limit or the 80 mph limit ... but I got to it pretty dang quickly ... LOL ... kind of fun.

At the end of the ride, I filled up, just incase there was some bad gas (dilution is the solution to the world's pollution). I put 4.232 gallons in the tank for 135 miles = 31.89 mpg ... 72 of those miles were "around the valley", various speeds under 50 mph. So, 63 miles of it were at 70-80 mph. Couple that with the fact I did the Jack Rabbit Start thing twice, once getting on the highway, once in Utah were I turned around to head home. Pretty sure the trike is not running rich.

As a side note, it was 55*, the ET never got over 202*, that was at 80 mph, the head temp never got over 255* at 80 mph. After the high speed run, when I pulled into the gas station, I checked the oil temp in the tank with the digital temp gauge, 192*, oil pressure 34# at 80 mph. Good numbers, better than I had pre cool and clean.

One last good number, the Power Vision reported 32.0 mpg when I filled, so +0.11 mpg off, close enough. My work is done.

When I got home I looked at the end caps. To me they looked cleaner. Didn't get a before pic, but, here's were they are now, they were blacker, now, more like dark chocolate.

That's pretty much how Devin's Series E's look. He rides pretty aggressively, pretty much all the time. Just the nature of the design, they are going to be dirty.

If your's were blacker before, probably just from running lower RPM with a bit heavier throttle...this results in not quite as good of a burn, which would be a little blacker on the discs.

Sounds like you had a good ride, and are getting the FBG dialed in really good.

Kevin

[ultrafxr]

Fuzz you've got way too much time on your hands to invent problems, lol. Ride it like you stole it and forget it.

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Fuzz you've got way too much time on your hands to invent problems, lol. Ride it like you stole it and forget it.

You are beginning to see why I'm A.B. Normal Engineering.

[PosseRider]

Fuzz you've got way too much time on your hands to invent problems, lol. Ride it like you stole it and forget it.

Sounds right ^