Fuel

[Corndog]

In my book it shows leaded or unleaded fuel can be used in my '80 xs...

I don't know what to use, I haven't seen my head and if it has hardened seats or not.
Any help would be awesome!

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

To quote Grizld, The Grumpy Old Man, " Soft valve seats in some older engines (Triumph, BSA, and high compression Harley motors, for example) present a problem, usually solved by replacement with hardened seats. No problem exists with Japanese 4-stroke motors"

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

.....therefore, I haven't read of anyone challenging the use of unleaded fuel, but there are problems occurring with the ethanol blends destroying some of the cheaper filters and such. MikesXS admits that it is "playing havoc" with some of their plastic fuel products. I exclusively use non-ethanol. Easily available here in CNY.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Try forum search terms: "ethanol" and "gasohol" and "sta-bil" and "stabilizer".

There goes your weekend...

 

[jamesgs4]

just run premium to avoid pinging. if you have ethanol free in your area use that also.

 

[azman857]

In my '80 SG I use unleaded mid grade. No pings. I have swap my original head because I modded one for elephant feet adjuster and lapped the valves on a second head. I don't know how many miles I put on both heads but at least 5-6k miles on the current one and still going strong.

 

[Bob Kelly III]

I use Regular unleaded all the time... and won't use Premium
2 reasons,
1) it's about .75cents a gal higher than regular up here.
2) and the compression isn't high enough to warrant the use of premium only.... when you get to 12:1 compression ratio and up then Premium is a good idea.... but these bikes don't get that high.

.... However the timing is not adjustable on a TCI xs650 and you cannot adjust out a ping if you get pinging
I personally want to do the modification so I can change the timing of the engine a small amount....just because I like to run a bit more advanced in my motors..... even though I do so, I don't have pinging problems most of my engines have a 9:1 or 10:1 compression ratio too !
......
Bob.......

 

[mrtwowheel]

I won't buy a vehicle that requires premium grade fuel.

 

[Bob Kelly III]

I hear that !
....
Bob....