Freestyle Fuel issue

[Citizen]

New to me ski built and tuned by Xscream some years ago. I bought off original owner who barely rode it. Been having some fuel related issues.

First few times I rode the ski one of the power valves was leaking oil/sludge. Pulled and cleaned both power valves (which were packed with sludge) and resealed with gasket maker. And leaned out carbs 1/16th turn on highs and lows. No leak issues since. And ski seems to be running great.

After this latest ride session I opened up engine bay to remove battery and saw that I had a light fuel mixture all over my carbs, pretty equally distributed. I also noticed the top(inside) of my flame arresters had a lot of fuel mixture on them. If i had to guess i would say my fuel mixture is getting blown back out of my flame arresters and all over my carbs/intake mani.

No backfiring or running issues so I believe my reeds are fine. No water has gotten into carbs so far while I have ridden it. Or at least not enough to notice.

This latest batch of fuel might have been mixed a little heavy, maybe 30:1, could that cause this issue? Do i need to further lean out the carbs? Plugs are soaked and black, but its difficult to get a good burn and read them, this 1200 is a handful.

Ski is running great, just making a mess out of my engine bay.

XS1200R
Full Spectrum 49's
500' elevation
Unknown Jetting

 

[Sanoman]

@Philip Clemmons

 

[Harbor]

My dasa does similar, but Iam at 40:1 and seems slightly less messy. kinda makes a mess on the carbs/intake/inside filter top. Mine vibrates a lot and vibrates the needle off the seat and fuel can be seen spitting from the high speed circuit in the center bomb site at idle and when snap throttle. Rear carb does it.

I've tried more check valves on the kidney blocks, new needle and seats, raising pop off, smaller seats, 26 and 30 with not much success. Was at 3 each on check valves, I also had some slight reed tip wear on the outside reeds at all 4 corners,

I've bought a different style kidney block that has passage that doesn't dump directly behind the check valve. It has an internal passage that rises before its outlet. Not sure how well It will work... @CARBONX2 told me about them.. We Did figure out a part number if needed.

Doing all the repairs now but my guess is ill still have some mess.

You might have a look at your bomb sights while idleing and at snap throttle and also 40:1

My plugs run black/oily slighty wet/shinny looking... Deffinanlty different than were prolly used too

Edit:

 

[Citizen]

My dasa does similar, but Iam at 40:1 and seems slightly less messy. kinda makes a mess on the carbs/intake/inside filter top. Mine vibrates a lot and vibrates the needle off the seat and fuel can be seen spitting from the high speed circuit in the center bomb site at idle and when snap throttle. Rear carb does it.

I've tried more check valves on the kidney blocks with not much success. Was at 3 each. I also had some slight reed tip wear on the outside reeds at all 4 corners,

I've bought a different style kidney block that has passage that doesn't dump directly behind the check valve. It has an internal passage that rises before its outlet. Not sure how well It will work... @CARBONX2 told me about them.. We Did figure out a part number if needed.

Doing all the repairs now but my guess is ill still have some mess.

You might have a look at your bomb sights while idleing and at snap throttle and also 40:1

My plugs run black/oily slighty wet/shinny looking... Deffinanlty different than were prolly used too

Edit:
View attachment 368584View attachment 368585View attachment 368586

Thanks for all that info man! I posted up on FB as well and had a lot of people contact me with same/similar motor setup. Apparently this is just how they run...a bit messy.

I did have idle turned up quite a bit that day and I think that is the explanation for the excess milkshake all over my carbs.

Let me know how your changes turn out though as I wouldnt mind running a bit cleaner.

 

[BrightE's]

My tpe 1021 does the same thing. I just clean out the power valve sludge each season.

Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk

 

[Citizen]

My tpe 1021 does the same thing. I just clean out the power valve sludge each season.

Sent from my LG-US998 using Tapatalk

So you just clean them out once a season?

 

[Pro-pulsion]

I'm certainly not into power valve motors yet but that white froth in the flame arrestors is oil mixed with water. I used to encounter that quite a lot when I ran Castrol super outboard marine and Mystik. I changed up to Maxima Marine Pro and have never had the issue again. Some oils will absorb the water where others will make it bead to better pass it through the system. I too would think 40:1 is a better ratio, if the heavy sludge starts to form solid deposits, it has a good potential to fall back into the cylinder and be dragged with the piston leaving gouges in the sleeves.

 

[Harbor]

Let me know how your changes turn out though as I wouldnt mind running a bit cleaner.

Ran the engine on stand to set timing, it has the new kidneys blocks and back to 1 check valve each and the slinging fuel out the high speed circuit of rear carb is gone

I did notice the front carb is frothing fuel into that pink stuff during the process. Haven't looked into it yet though..

 

[Citizen]

Ran the engine on stand to set timing, it has the new kidneys blocks and back to 1 check valve each and the slinging fuel out the high speed circuit of rear carb is gone

I did notice the front carb is frothing fuel into that pink stuff during the process. Haven't looked into it yet though..

Nice! I may end up going that route as well. Will let you test it out a bit more. Since i mixed my ratios right and am riding the motor a little harder I have had much less mess. We will see how it goes

 

[hornedogg79]

Pop off psi too low. Bumped mine up to 26 and it quit making a mess. Freestyle skis are on and off throttle constantly. Going full throttle then off, fuel continues to flow and floods the circuit if pop is too low. Likely leaving some power on the table too. Mine would hit great on the first trick then would be a little muddy when going for the next. Now it hits clean and consistent over and over and over.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Citizen]

Pop off psi too low. Bumped mine up to 26 and it quit making a mess. Freestyle skis are on and off throttle constantly. Going full throttle then off, fuel continues to flow and floods the circuit if pop is too low. Likely leaving some power on the table too. Mine would hit great on the first trick then would be a little muddy when going for the next. Now it hits clean and consistent over and over and over.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

thanks for info man! i will take a look at that if it gets worse or continues. it has cleaned up quite a bit now that i am riding her harder.