Possibly getting too much fuel?

Cprisco13

CB750 Enthusiast
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So I just checked my coils and spark plugs after having some issues and everything is fine. Now for some reason when I start he bike it only runs on cylinders 1 and 4. I have to turn the idle up just so it can idle. After trying a few things I turned off the fuel at the petcock. A few seconds later the idle shot up and was firing on all cylinders and sounding great. But then as soon as I turned the fuel back on it went back to 2 cylinders again. I also synched the carbs and they are in synch. Is it getting too much fuel?
 
ya they are pretty black. The other two are a lil black too. im ordering new ones but is that whats causing the problem?
 
I thought post #2 was pretty clear. Carbs or again ignition since you have lost both plugs of a single coil. Everything is NOT fine, if so, the thing would be running.

Anybody ever done a compression test on the motor? That being bad could fake those problems as well.
 
Ya I did a compression test a while back it they were all really low. One person said that the bike shouldn't even run that low and some others said that old CBs can be really low. So I don't know what to believe.
 
You have to have compression to make enough engine heat so that the plugs stay running clean, if not give up, it won't be happening. They black out even with correct fuel and then that cylinder quits once they hit a dry or wet foul. The carbon on plug shorts the spark down the side of electrode instead of the spark jumping the gap.

100 PSI or less is a dead cylinder that spins a piston but doing nothing. 120 and under won't do that well either, you will be way down on power.

These bikes often have low compression due to the age. You previously posted 70-90 psi which is pretty much an engine that should not be running well any way you go about it.
 
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The only thing that links cylinder 2 and 3 is the ignition coil. Fuel problems would not be shared by those two cylinders. Switch the coils and see if the bike isn't firing on 1 and 4, that would be my first step.
 
While it could easily be ignition like I said too (post #4), it can be other things as well, the number of fours with zero compression on two cylinders due to head gasket failure, or flooding in those two particular carbs only? I can't count them.

When you turn petcock on/off to lose and gain cylinders that screams a fuel issue. True; it could be mitigated somewhat by ignition but STILL could be fuel and fuel only too. Low compression in those two cylinders could let the plug wet out quicker as well, thus making one think it's the coil.

The real world is nowhere near that simple. I've personally picked up trash to flood both the middle carbs to drip fuel out of the overflows, the middle two cylinders then quit running. Faced with home being 60 miles away I slowly turned the petcock little by little until I found the exact position that gave just enough fuel dribbling into carbs that the flooding pretty much stopped when I was at 65 mph. And then drove the bike on freeway with no issues until I got home to fix the carbs.

Yes, coil swapping is normally the first thing to try but the fuel petcock thing tilted the situation away from the norm. OP is dead on compression too. And, if two plugs black and the other two almost like said, swapping coils if one is bad will likely foul the other two plugs to get OP lost even more. Then it won't even start.
 
How? It could be coil or flooding when the plugs wet out. Luck of the draw with that. Not starting is evidence of about 500 other things too. In and of itself proof of nothing except that it won't start.

From OP in another thread...............

'Just did a compression test and all four are pretty low. Like 70-90psi.'

If true and those pressures are real he's lucky it will start at all. My post #6 here again. The motor is dead. Actually wasting time working on it.
 
How? It could be coil or flooding when the plugs wet out. Luck of the draw with that. Not starting is evidence of about 500 other things too. In and of itself proof of nothing except that it won't start.

From OP in another thread...............

'Just did a compression test and all four are pretty low. Like 70-90psi.'

If true and those pressures are real he's lucky it will start at all. My post #6 here again. The motor is dead. Actually wasting time working on it.

Well I just figured that you've heard of this stuff called "Restore" that literally restores lost compression in engines. You can pick some up at any local parts store. Everytime I use it, my compression doubles! Shit really works, and it's so cheap compared to cost of a rebuild.
 
ya just did a compression test again and I'm getting 85-90 on all 4. Maybe I'll try to get some of that Restore stuff. I really dont get how if my compression has been that low how my bike sometimes runs amazing for weeks when "I'm really lucky that it even starts." I'm pretty sure I'm doing the test right, full open throttle ect. Maybe its time to take it in to get a full check up, hopefully wont cost too much. I really love this bike and it only has 11k on it so I hope I can figure this whole thing out.
 
Gonna try to be as objective as I can here and not piss people off. But if it happens..............well................I apologize.

'Restore' is garbage. I used to sell it when I was in car parts. I conned people to do that and my bad. You can run compression numbers way up by simply adding a teaspoon of oil into the chamber and voila, instant motor rebuild. For about a minute. The Restore lasts maybe an hour. There is NO SUCH THING as an instant engine restoration chemical, and I sold more than just that brand alone. Some which 100% guaranteed and $80+ a bottle, they didn't work either. It's a SCAM, one either is smart enough to get that or they aren't. I saw people try to get their money back but it never happened. Between point A and point B there EVERYBODY tells you how well it works, give it a couple weeks or a month and that all changes. To sort things out to myself I would often pay a customer I thought to not be a self-bullsh-tter $5 if he would quietly tell me the truth about this or that 'miracle cure in a bottle', did it really work for him and they then tell you the truth. People do not like to admit that stuff as it reflects on their personal judgement and the chemical companies make MILLIONS off that personal flaw. I even got certain salespeople that represented product lines to admit their own stuff was crap, crap that desperate people scream to get. Of course that was not to be released to the public. Think Trump taxes.

Some of us have rebuilt a lot of engines like me. 2 stroke. 4 stroke. OEM cars of all brands and drag cars up to 1500 hp. and ran over 200 mph 1/4 miles. These bike engines are tinker toys really.

There's a reason why 100 psi compression is pretty much universally looked at as being an engine that is not worth running until you fix it or junk it. Compression does one thing only and that is create HEAT, the heat needed to keep plugs burning clean, without it they then foul black and motor goes down.

The compression test could easily be flawed, one of the most common things that happens. The gauges are commonly crap. The user skills are commonly crap. Tool if a rental is highly suspect, there is a relief valve in there that commonly gets changed and the wrong one off a tire is used, it then reads way low. If the kind that simply presses against the hole to seal, a 100% waste of time, the numbers are NEVER right. Even the length of hose there can tilt the numbers and worse on bikes as they have no big displacement like on a car. I use a best of the best screw-in gauge and even then I pull at least 4 readings from every single cylinder, the more, the better accuracy you have there. A low battery will ruin the numbers, leaving some plugs in will ruin the numbers. Etc., etc. On a bike you use a car battery, the bike one generally slows down by the end of testing and the numbers go off.

Bike runs amazing? No insult intended at all but I ran into that all day long when I was in parts, somebody tells me that and I'm leaning against the car to clearly hear that one or two cylinder are not even running, it has a dead lopsided miss. I got my 750 three cylinder Kawasaki by listening to the next door neighbor brag about how utterly fast it was, like a bullet. Then I offered to tune it up for him. Of course I knew already one cylinder out of three was not even working, I raced Kaw 3s there for a bit. Tuned it up and he took it around the block and came back utterly terrified then, he drove it a couple more times and then I got him to sell it to me as it was simply 'too fast', he had no idea it could run like that. Scared sh-tless, he was.

When people tell me how well their stuff runs I let that go in one ear and out the other. Rarely does it turn out to be so, butt dynos being the most flawed machines in the universe. 11K if on a supposedly new engine, there's something wrong with that with compression that low.

No insult intended or pointed at anyone at all but certain things on the planet don't change just because we want them to. The physics will not be denied.
 
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haha your cat picture is perfect for you. But ya, maybe not amazing but it ran good for a 40 year old bike, and im just comparing it to other bikes I have been on both old and new. Never felt like i was getting the full potential though thats for sure. But Im just gonna have to take it in. I recently had a baby so my time is very limited these days.
 
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