bigred Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 My bike has been working fine and coming up to temperature nicely until Monday. I thought maybe the oil cooler was keeping the temp. down but I've ridden in much colder and it still comes up to temp. When I start the bike with the choke on it smells like it's dumping raw gas out of the exhaust. If I don't start riding pretty soon after starting it, it will die; even with the choke on. Once it dies it will not restart without me bumping the throttle. Once I start riding I have to keep it running and the engine feels very sluggish. Even after 15 miles the thermometer never really gets onto the temp. reading. It sits just above C. It pretty much keeps smelling like it's running rich and I can't feel any heat coming from the engine. Is the thermostat stuck open and preventing the engine from warming up? And would the cold engine run like mine is? Temps. have been in the 35*-50*F range. Anyone have any tips or tricks to be able to do this job with a little less swearing? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Dutchy Posted November 11, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted November 11, 2011 The procedure to test your thermostat is described in the manual (90-97) which can be found under the FILES section. The temp gauge on my 4th Gen nover really moves up. Only in warm weather (25 celcius), me ripping the snot from the the engine and then moving into town traffic. The fan will come on at traffic light, with the gauge a tad over half on the dial. so strike the gauge for anything accurate..... (same for the fuel gauge btw....) For 14 years now, starting my bike has followed this procedure: open choke ignition on press started button engine fires and stalls starter button again and it runs well after 10-15 seconds reduce choke to half that's it so the smells/problems you describe I donot recognise. Doubt it can be the thermostat alone...... Try setting the idle a bit higher (little knob near your left toes.....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V4 Rosso Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Check if it runs on all four cilinders by feeling if all headers warm up shortly after you have started the engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Switchblade Posted November 11, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted November 11, 2011 Yeah put it on the center and shake the sh#t out of it. Thats how I got mine unstuck and then of course I change it when I got home. I put a Honda back in and notice they had tapered the shaft the T stat valve works on. In other words when the valve operates on the center shafted its narrower as the valve opens and much much harder to stick . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 If its a gen 4,its only a 2 min job to remove it. I thought mine was knackered and replaced it at about 60,000 . It wasnt, its just, id been using the car for a while and forgot How little the gauge moves Nearly put old one back in ,but decided just to give the old girl a treat :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigred Posted November 11, 2011 Author Share Posted November 11, 2011 It's a 3rd Gen. I guess I'll go start digging around for my manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigred Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Well after driving it some more, I think I might not be firing on a cylinder (too?). There is more engine vibration at idle and a definite lack of power. I felt the front two pipes and they warm up. I haven't felt the back two yet. I have to rev it pretty high to be able to take off without it sputtering like it's going to die. Same thing if I roll on the power after a turn. I rode it home with the needle barely off of C and let it sit for probably 10 minutes. The needle came up a little so I drove it back down the street and I was able to make it go back down way below where it should be. So t-stat and cylinder in the same week? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 V,unlikely imho Think the thermostat may be a red herring (puzzled face here) Cant really see that affecting performance in this manner Check rear pipes,then you'll know a bit more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Check the hose that goes to the radiator, see if he warm's up gradually, then you t'stat is bad. It wont affect performance, but will affect engine wear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beck Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 If its a gen 4,its only a 2 min job to remove it. I thought mine was knackered and replaced it at about 60,000 . It wasnt, its just, id been using the car for a while and forgot How little the gauge moves Nearly put old one back in ,but decided just to give the old girl a treat :-) Be warned, If it's a CA, US market gen 4, it will take much longer and some skinned knuckles to replace it as Honda decided to put the smog equipment pulse air valve body and plumbing right in front of everything you need to get at!....of course! But I guess we're still lucky that it's easier than having to remove throttle bodies to get at it, as on the later gen VFRs. Beck 95 VFR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigred Posted November 18, 2011 Author Share Posted November 18, 2011 Well I felt the back pipes today and they get hot. I started it and let it warm up to where the fan came on. The return hose gradually warmed up from start to the fans coming on. So I guess it is the thermostat? When it was cold and I was trying to keep it running, I restarted it one time and it had nothing. It was sluggish on the throttle response, wouldn't rev past 5k and would want to die on the way up there. I nursed it all they way to WOT and it slowly made its way back to 5k. Then all of a sudden it sounded like a little backfire and the revs shot up to normal. The throttle response was great after that; felt like nothing was ever wrong. Could I be having a valve issue? I have about 22k miles on it and they haven't been checked? I have also de-paired it if that makes any difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer kaldek Posted November 19, 2011 Member Contributer Share Posted November 19, 2011 When it was cold and I was trying to keep it running, I restarted it one time and it had nothing. It was sluggish on the throttle response, wouldn't rev past 5k and would want to die on the way up there. I nursed it all they way to WOT and it slowly made its way back to 5k. Then all of a sudden it sounded like a little backfire and the revs shot up to normal. The throttle response was great after that; felt like nothing was ever wrong. Sounds more like your carbs are the source of trouble mate. Like a stuck carby float or problems with your jets. Basically a carb clean & overhaul should fix that. I quite enjoy stripping and cleaning carbs - it's very zen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NakedViffer Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 You need to be looking at ignition components, its blatantly obvious by your description that you're not firing on all four, at least not ALL the time, its definitely not your thermostat.. My initial procedure would be to pull the plugs and figure out which cylinder is fouling/not firing. It'll be pretty obvious. And if all the plugs look uniform and you don't have one or two that look different I would check compression. The way you describe the gas smell tells me that you aren't burning it all efficiently, just gotta figure out why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigred Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 Found it today. Effing vacuum leak from the front right carb. It was a pinhole in the hose so I couldn't see it all the time. I tried finding the vacuum hose for the back two carbs but I couldn't see it. Can someone point me in that direction. I'm due for some new rubber in a few places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Any idea what caused the pinhole? Age ? puncture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigred Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 Age. The hose just slipped off the nipple on the carb when I touched it. Shortly after finding the pinhole, the hose basically fell apart. I had to cut back a few more because they are all starting to crack. I don't know the history of the hoses so I'm going to assume 19 year old hoses. I need to re-rubber it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afpierce489 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Sounds like you got the carb problem fixed, but did you fix the temp issue? I had the same issue with mine. Turned out that the issue wasn't the thermostat, but the sensor that sends the signal to the gage. It was all fouled up which created a calcium layer between it and the coolant thereby causing my temps to be low. I tried to remove it to clean, but destroyed it in the process. So I bought a new one and everything is fine now. Temp comes up like normal. I'd recommend checking that out, and then testing the thermostat while you have it open. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigred Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 I put about 100 miles on it today with no issues. When I was sitting at idle the temp. gauge would come up to the midpoint and I could hear the fans kick on. When I was riding the gauge was slightly lower than that. It was pretty cool when I was riding this morning and I still have the oil cooler blocked. I wasn't pushing it too hard. So as far as I can tell, the temp. issue worked out with >30* weather and a properly running bike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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