Cylinder wash is killing my bike

Zombis

XS650 Enthusiast
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Redding, CA
So ive been getting like 33 miles to the gallon. 1980 xs650g bs34s K&N pods stock exhaust was running:
canadian needles 2nd notch from the top
135 mains
stock air jet
45 pilot

now running
135 main
42.5 pilot
canadian needles 3rd notch (middle)
stock air jet

Left the bike sitting for 4 hours wouldnt start but would backfire and light up in the exhaust pipe. come to find had a leaky float seat o ring. replaced it. compression was kind of low. 110 psi. on right 140 on left. cleaned carbs. ran bike for like 5 minutes tried to adjust sync but right cylinder wasn't firing. pulled plugs both gas soaked. compression test 135 on left 65 on right....
Start shitting bricks.

continued checking everything. change oil, Clean carbs again, timing chain tension: good. Valve clearances: good: compression low as hell.

added oil to both cylinders compression went up to 150 on each again. worry rapidly fading.

Finally noticed that the spark was kinda reddish on the one cylinder kinda blue on another. I was doing plug chops a month ago on my lunch break and left one of the plug wires off the spark plug:doh: dumb move.

Im thinking this could be a possibility to the cylinder wash and the low mileage.
i have the green dual output coil. Im going to check the resistance on the coil tomorrw and order up a new one. is there anyhting else i should check other than maybe the needle height?
 
Are you running just the Canadian needles and not the matching needle jet? That doesn't work. You need the Canadian needle jet to go along with that needle.
 
Had to go back and look at my receipts again for that one. I ordered jet needle 5IX11 and Needle jet 336 YO i'm going to double check and count the number of holes just to make sure the number of holes on the sides of it just to make sure they are the ones in the carbs.

Idk I'm borrowing ohm meter tomorrow and am going to give it a try. Between my 650 and my toyota i'm burned out for the day and my garage looks like a disaster site.
 
Maybe I'm missing something here, but your root problem sounds to me like poor and uneven compression due to bad rings. Adding oil to cylinder and compression going up to 150 and then fading indicates this.
 
yes, but low compression doesnt address cylinder wash issues....it should still run alright at the 110 PSI. Whats your float height at, with that jetting it shouldn't be dumping gas in... brass floats on 80 carbs (have em on my 74)...bet they have a hole in them and are letting the floats sink...ask how i know. my bike looked like a waterfall out the air filters and in the intake throats. I think electronic ignitions on these don't like to have a plug wire left off....Destroys the coil if im not mistaken.

pull a float off, and shake it..youll hear the gas and know.

odd your compression would suddenly drop to that low....
 
I believe the cylinder wash on that cylinder was caused from a leaky o ring on my float valve seat. there was gas coming out of the air jet before i replaced it which made me think that this was causing my carb bowl to fill more than it should.

BTW i switched from the brass floats to the plastic ones that are sold on mikes xs. floats are set at 22mm +/- .5mm

I'm thinking I'm just dealing with the end result of having a leaky o ring and the low compression from the rings washing was keeping the cylinder from firing.

I did just pick up a ohm meter so I can test my charging system and the health of my coil.
im also going to continue to do compression tests to make sure the rings aren't destroyed.
 
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