88' Fz600 Abandoned for 13 years, Roars to life

[uvangoey]

So i was out exploring one day and stumbled upon an old Yamaha Fz600 "Pure Sport". My hopes weren't high at first, but i wheeled it home, on flat tires nonetheless.

So i get it home and assessed the damage, it appeared as if the previous owner dumped and ditched it, the gauge and headlight bracket were beyond repair. but other than that, it looked good. I hooked it up to my Magna and surprisingly, it turned over, but of course it didn't start.
The inside of the tank was the only thing rusted, and the carbs were all varnished up, so i went ahead and ordered those. I wasn't getting good spark either, so after some new coils, and a can of starting fluid, this is what i got

88' Fz600 started after sitting for 13 years - YouTube

Now i just need to figure out how to tune the carbs, and what to do about the white smoke.
There's no oil on the plugs, and it doesn't really smell like that typical oil smell.
I've changed the oil 4 times with not even 2 minutes of running time between each change to make sure i had all the moisture out as well as running a full bottle of sea foam in the second oil change.

Any ideas on the next step for this project??

 

[Humperdinkel]

Thats FREAKIN' AWESOME dude , hope you are going to do some resto work on it :thumbup: She will look sweet


Old Yamaha's never die , they just get *cough* *cough* Smokey

 

[uvangoey]

Trust me, i plan on it.
My original plan was if it turned out to be stolen or anything, to use the engine to make a gocart, but i ran a vin check and shes clean

A friends going to put a mechanics lean on it, and then transfer the title to me

Now I just need the front farring, headlight, bracket, and some other odds and ends like the turn signals.
Im going to rebuild the forks though, and a few other things until its competely stock

 

[redoliander]

That's awesome! I'm picking up a 96 fzr 600. My son and I are going to work on it and try to bring it back to life.

 

[uvangoey]

Wow, and i thought my bike was a beauty, the 96 is just sexy ;D

I hope all goes well, for you and the bike Lol

 

[teeter]

Wow. That is an outstanding find. Congrats!

Was it on public land? Also, what's the thirteen year figure based on? Last inspection sticker?

I'd probably tear it down completely and rebuild it you have the time/inclination. It's generally advised to not turn over a motor that's been sitting that long without some cleaning and lubrication. And who knows what was pulled from the gas tank into the engine, but what the heck.. It was free!!

On the white smoke.. Did you check the air box and filter? If it was lying on its side at some point it likely has oil in there. Clean it out well and replace the filter. The smoke might just go away with time. I recently helped a friend who way overfilled the oil on his zx6r and after we corrected the level, changed the plugs, cleaned and lubed the filter, and wiped out the airbox it smoked for about twenty miles then ran clean.

Again.. Free, awesome bike!

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Very cool!!

I don't think I'd use an entire bottle of Seafoam in the crankcase (unless I read that wrong) but definitly run a heavy amount thru the fuel tank. If you had that much Seafoam in the tank, you could very likely be blowing out a bunch of old built up carbon, etc from the top end. Drain the carb bowls too (should be a drain screw on the bottom of each bowl) trying to catch what comes out (I use a clean tuna fish can) and check for any crap..

If you can, ride it some with the Sefoam, get it good and hot and go thru the gears. It'll blow alot of crap out of the top end and help with carbs. I'd also get some sort of air cleaner on it (besides keeping crap out) its going to run a little leaner with nothing on the carbs. And if the choke isn't working (need to spray it each time its cold), the choke orifices definitly need cleaning..

On a Yamaha marine forum I go to, I've heard Yamaha makes a carb cleaner dip (fluid) that's supposed to work very, very well. If your your not mechanically inclined, the dip may work for you...

Besides cleaning the carbs, tuning wise, you should really sync the carbs as I'm sure they'll be off due to the age. When syncing, inbetween each carb, you'll find a screw inside a small spring. Adjusting these THREE screws (usually phillips head) adjusts the butterflys and sync's them by using vacuum so one isn't pulling harder than another (3 screws inbetween 4 carbs). Adjust until you get you get an even level across the board. Don't mess with these unless you have a good tool for syncing. ***And, put a large fan in front of the engine when doing this so you don't overheat it**..

Congrates again!!

 

[uvangoey]

Ehh, not really public, i had to ramp it out of a factory window to get it out of a courtyard that the factory surrounded, and only had one gate for outside access that was locked.
So not the most legal, but ill put it to better use than they will.
Its being torn down this year :/

The plate on it was dated 99.
When i did the vin check, it only had 13000 miles, and i found it with 15k.


I didn't turn it over with the old tank, i knew the gas was old so i striped it down first, soaked the cylinders with PB blaster, and took the carbs off to clean them first, but they were too varnished up, so i went ahead and ordered new ones. All i did with those was clean out the bowl, and run 2 bottles of carb cleaner threw them. They weren't really that dirty, they had been sitting in a box for years.
I just turned it over with no carbs to see if it would ever do anything.
I've been running it without the airbox because its too much of a pain to get in and i need to start it with starting fluid, but once its started, it will run off the gas.

All 4 are firing, but it still doesn't want to idle, and runs rough at low rpm (under 2-3k).

I'm not using the fuel tank because of the rust, i rigged a water bottle you see in the video as my tank.
But hey it gets the job don't until i run clean out the tank.

I'm planning on going the electrolysis rout to save as much of the tank as i can. i don't know how thin it is in some spots.

I took the valve cover off too and all the internals look clean, even down threw the oil fill.

I didn't take the head off because i didn't know how to loosen the cam tensioner.

The tires are too dry rotted to ride, the front went flat last week :/

Im going to try and run a compression test today, and ill post back with the results on that.

Is there anyway to adjust the carb air/fuel mixture?

Im debating on getting new jets for it, but idk if it really need them.
The choke works, but I still have to spray it each time.

But I know it not old oil, maybe bad seals
Idk

I actually just discovered the bowl drain plugs right before hopping on here looking for the fuel adjustment. The gas came out pretty clean, so idk

 

[uvangoey]

What tool would i need, i know i need a vacuum gauge, but what kind would fit over the intakes?

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

What I invested in was a Morgan Carbtune : www.carbtune.com .

No fluids, extremly well made, very accurate, shipped to my place in Florida from England for about $85.00 a couple of years ago. For the Yamaha shop to sync it, plan on spending at least $125.00. Its paid for itself several times over...

As for syncing, you leave the carbs on, there should be a small nipple on each carb near the head or on the intake rubber boot. They'll be a cap closing those off. You remove the rubber caps, hook up the sync tool and crank her up. The slides move up and down in relationship to vacuum. The more vacuum, the lower the internal slide will be in the tool. You adjust the carb adjuster sync screws trying to get all of them dead even across the board...

I wouldn't mess with re-jetting until its running correctly unless you know someones got the wrong jets in the carb. If you look up a parts fisch on any Yamaha parts site, it'll show the break down of the carb and what jets are available for the bike from the factory.

BTW, I don't believe your choke is working. As long as you have to spray something down the throats to start it, the carbs are NOT ENRICHENING THE MIXTURE or you have a vacuum leak somewhere (that would explain poor low speed running too). Clogged idle jets are also not uncommon and would cause idle issues. Those and and the main jets MUST BE SPOTLESS. IMHO, pull them, make sure you can see thru them

Its not uncommon for older bikes with rubber intake boots to have the boots rot and cause leaks. You'll likely be able to see any cracking. Spraying the boots with carb cleaner while running the engine will also raise the idle if its leaking...

 

[uvangoey]

The boots are cracked, ill see how bad there leaking later when it cools off.
When its running, it starts to bog down the more choke you put on, so couldn't it just be to rich?

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

The boots are cracked, ill see how bad there leaking later when it cools off.
When its running, it starts to bog down the more choke you put on, so couldn't it just be to rich?

You should only need the choke when starting a COLD engine... And yes, once its running and semi warm, putting on the choke, the engine should be running rich/flood the engine (bog down). If its doing that, you shouldn't need to spray anything down the carb throats.. If the boots are real bad, the engine will be sucking air thru there, NOT THRU THE CARBS causing a lean condition (not good).

Start with the basic's first, fix/replace the boots a throttle sync if possible and go from there..

Good luck.

 

[uvangoey]

Is there a way to tell if its to lean or rich?

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

If black smoke is coming out the mufflers its RICH, your spark plugs will be have black soot on them/carbon build up. If the plugs are white, its likely running lean. Blue smoke is oil burning. Looking at the spark plugs will give you a real good idea... (See below pic).

To check the main jet, the bike should be running optimally. Then run the bike to red line, thru the gears and immediatly turn off, then check the plugs(after it cools down).

I would not make any major jet changes (from factory installed jets) UNTIL you know everything else is working properly. IE, if you have a clogged up carb (cracked boots) and replace all the main jets with super rich one's, your masking the problem and going to carbon up the other cylinders.

Its best to put NEW PLUGS in (the correct heat range) and do yor tests when fine tuning.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Some other spark plug pic's:

 

[uvangoey]

So I ran the compression test. Here's the results.
Cylinder 1: 120
C2: 120
C3:125
C4:130

I'm still looking for an explanation as to why she's blowing white smoke, and I'm still having problems getting her to idle under 2k. Anything over 2k brings a clicking sound.

I took it out for its first ride too, the clutch cable could be loosened up a little bit more, but other than the flat front tire she ran great
Not as much power as i wanted, i can tell it still is'nt running right, but its nice

 

[uvangoey]

I reran them hot and got about the same results..

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Sounds like your compression is good.

Until you replace the carb boots, the bike is going to run lean and suck air after the carbs. The bike won't idle correctly as air is by passing the carb and NOT PULLING THE FUEL IT NEEDS to run... You can't properly tune an engine with a major air leak, especially a non-FI engine..


If, after the boots are replaced, you can perform the following:

If you have access to an IR gun, point it towards each header to see if the temps are close across the board. A cold cylinder header indicates that cylinder isn't firing, likely electrical, coil/spark plug wire, cap, etc. A clogged carb can contribute to that.

If you have an inductive timing light (clamps over the spark plug wire and clamps to a 12 volt source) slipping that over each spark plug wire while the bike is running will let you know if spark is coming thru.

A much less accurate way to check the header pipe is use a water dropper and drop just a very, very small amount of water on the hot header and see which pipe (if applicable) is cold or hot. The hot pipe will vaporize the water immediatly, the cold pipe will run off.

You can also start the bike cold and before it gets hot, CAREFULLY TOUCH EACH PIPE as it warms as see if one doesn't warm as fast as the others..

BTW, how did the spark plugs look? Can you post a picture of them?

The white smoke sounds like just moisture in the exhaust system...

 

[uvangoey]

Heres a photo of the plugs, there actually a bid darker in person, there light brown/tan. The one on the far right is darker than the rest of them though, but still looks good i think.
Theres a small hole at the bottom on the muffler that drips little bits of oil though. Im going to take the exhaust off again to see what cylinder if any its coming from.

Their all firing, i allready did the hand test, but ill get my dads ir gun and post back with those results also.
When i was pulling my plugs, one of the boots came off and i noticed that the inside of the wire was corroded, so Im going to put another could pack on it because when i bought them he sent me 4 Lol

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Heres a photo of the plugs, there actually a bid darker in person, there light brown/tan. The one on the far right is darker than the rest of them though, but still looks good i think.
Theres a small hole at the bottom on the muffler that drips little bits of oil though. Im going to take the exhaust off again to see what cylinder if any its coming from.

Their all firing, i allready did the hand test, but ill get my dads ir gun and post back with those results also.
When i was pulling my plugs, one of the boots came off and i noticed that the inside of the wire was corroded, so Im going to put another could pack on it because when i bought them he sent me 4 Lol

The plugs look pretty good. Glad to hear you did the firing test and all seemed well.

That corrosion by the spark plug boot will definitly cause misfiring.. On some bikes, the boot itself has a threaded pin in the middle of it. You can literally unscrew the pliug cap (CC), trim the wire down to fresh wire and re-screw the cap on. Your bike may or may not have that option... I just looked up your coils/spark wires on a Yamaha parts fisch. Seems the cap OR cap AND wire is available separatly without buying new coils..

Oil dripping from the muffler is pretty unusual.. Could it be carbon in the muffler mixing with moisure built up in the exhaust system?


Its starting to look like getting the carb boots replaced is narrowing down the driveability of the bike.

Your getting there!