Dirty carb, what do you think?

[Rhinoracer]

This is how the carb looks after 2 fill-ups since I cleaned it and put new jets in.

Could this be cumulative (I always use the same fuel station) or maybe I got some bad gas? I had to fill up on a roadside gas station on my last ride.

[Craigo]

Is that corrosion or dirt?..It looks disgusting...are you riding it off road? is air boot connected correctly? Air filter clean?

[djadams]

I'd be thinking air boot - if that crap was coming from the fuel you'd probably have all manner of running problems from clogging jets. Is that stuff in the float bowl, or only in the venturi?

[Rhinoracer]

I was thinking the same thing after I posted. It's not corrosion, it's some kind of deposit I wiped off with carb cleaner and a rag.

Strange thing is only this side of the carb is dirty including the intake port in the head. The back side of the throttle plate, jets, needle, float bowl, everything else is clean.

Bike was losing power so maybe some internal passages were blocked but everything looked clean to the naked eye.

[Qqqqqqqqqqqq]

thats a concern

[Rhinoracer]

Checked the air filter and boot, filter was clean, re-oiled it just in case, the boot looks ok, it was sealed properly when I took it off to clean the carb.

Since there's nothing I can do about it I'll just ride it like this, unless somebody tells me the engine is about to blow up.

[Craigo]

Mmmm. could be crap fuel......Install a clear in line filter and monitor it's condition after riding....

[djadams]

This is weird - when you wiped it off, what was it like? Soft or gritty? Bizarre that it's only downstream of the throttle, but not in the float bowl... Could it be being pulsed back up through the intake from the cylinder!? Anything weird on the plug if you check it?

[captb]

Maybe excess air filter oil.

[NateSD]

I had the same problem... Rebuilt the carb more times then I would like to admit. Ended up dumping out some seriously varnished fuel. Over the course of the problems, I had filled the tank twice, so I never did find out for sure if it was isolated to dirty fuel, or maybe had too much oil on the aire filters. Only time will tell now. I will definately look closely at the fuel every time I fill up now. Whatever it was, it left a very rough texture inside the carb and very dirty intake. Seems to run fine now, and all was clean when I replaced the float bowl gasket after the last ride. Gasket needed it from all the rebuilding/cleaning!

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff411/NateSD/2011-08-18_18-28-44_323.jpg - Clean

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff411/NateSD/2011-08-18_18-33-17_731.jpg - Varnished!

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff411/NateSD/2011-04-23_21-19-01_617.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff411/NateSD/2011-04-23_23-32-32_972.jpg

[Rhinoracer]

This is weird - when you wiped it off, what was it like? Soft or gritty? Bizarre that it's only downstream of the throttle, but not in the float bowl... Could it be being pulsed back up through the intake from the cylinder!? Anything weird on the plug if you check it?

I think so too, maybe the valves need adjustment. Residue was soft not gritty, wasn't air filter oil, I'm sure of that.

The intake ports had some black soot also so maybe it's the valves, I don't know so I take back my last comment and won't ride it till I check vave clearance. Maybe somebody with valve and cam chain experience will chime in if these are symptoms of a loose cam chain or burned valves.

[Rhinoracer]

I had the same problem... Rebuilt the carb more times then I would like to admit. Ended up dumping out some seriously varnished fuel. Over the course of the problems, I had filled the tank twice, so I never did find out for sure if it was isolated to dirty fuel, or maybe had too much oil on the aire filters. Only time will tell now. I will definately look closely at the fuel every time I fill up now. Whatever it was, it left a very rough texture inside the carb and very dirty intake. Seems to run fine now, and all was clean when I replaced the float bowl gasket after the last ride. Gasket needed it from all the rebuilding/cleaning!

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff411/NateSD/2011-08-18_18-28-44_323.jpg - Clean

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff411/NateSD/2011-08-18_18-33-17_731.jpg - Varnished!

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff411/NateSD/2011-04-23_21-19-01_617.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff411/NateSD/2011-04-23_23-32-32_972.jpg

That's exactly how my carb looked, I'm glad to hear it's nothing serious, I was about to remove the valve cover to check valve clearance.

Thank for chiming in with pics and everything.