Is my pilot jetted right?

[jtl216]

I've been messing with the jets and mixture screw because I've changed the airbox to a lunchbox and added a yoshi slip on and I think my pilot is on point but I'm not sure.
Here it is: When the bike is fully warmed a little choke will raise the rpms but a lot will drown it out. I know that would point to it being rich but since a little choke helps out at first I assume I'm on point.


When I turn it on in the morning it'll idle at ~900 without dieing but when warm it'll stay at ~1200-1300 and it rides fine.
Once its warm:
Little bit of choke gets the rpms up
A little more causes it to stumble and catch
A lot more causes it to get too rich to ignite and die

I had the pilot at 20 mikunis with 3 turns out and now i have it at 22.5 minkunis with 1.75 turns out. Is one inherently better than the other? They seem to perform similarly, and someone on the gstwins forum suggested the difference between 20 and 22.5 pilots was about the same as 1 1/2 turns out.
More than anything I just want to make sure I'm at optimum performance as far as the idle. I put new plugs and I can't really read them yet.

[The Buddha]

You idle @ 900 when cold without choke ?
That sounds rich to me.
@ idle you should be just a hair lean. It makes hot retsarts better.

If it works fine other wise its OK dont worry about it.
But pilots affect the thing up to 1/8th throttle. So how is the bike @ take off ? Try both aracer style take off @ 3500 rpm, as well as the old lady style where you're trying to take off with it still about @ idle.

Cool.
Buddha.

[jtl216]

Hey Buddha, how do you feel about plug chopping?

I tried doing that for my idle with new plugs and it comes out white. I went on the extreme and did 3.5 turns out @ 22.5 pilot and my left cylinder has a brown tint but the one on the right keeps staying white. Moving up to a 25 pilot seems overkill. Now that its richer, it's also hiccuping in the exhaust when I close the throttle. I'm assuming that's the extra fuel being burnt up by the PAIR system (I have a CA bike). I tried 4 turns out on the right cylinder (the one that kept coming out white) and it's still white.

As far as power, I got good response across the range. I'm just worried about running it lean chronically. Should I be concerned at all? I want to believe that as lean as I get it w/o negative performance will not be as lean as stock jets with stock airbox and exhaust.

[The Buddha]

That is just reading plugs, plug chopping is when you ride it and do on the road.
OK the white cyl - look for air leaks in it, look for fuel level in the floats, and anything else that makes it lean.
Left gotta be = right, essentially.
Cool
Buddha.

[yamahonkawazuki]

Indeed. Our beloved gs was known to be lean, but not damned lean. Shouldnt be hard to figure it out though .

[jtl216]

That is just reading plugs, plug chopping is when you ride it and do on the road.
OK the white cyl - look for air leaks in it, look for fuel level in the floats, and anything else that makes it lean.
Left gotta be = right, essentially.
Cool
Buddha.

Ah, I've dealt with air leaks on a VF500F with really bad carb intake boots but I'll have to check my GS out then.

Are there any parts that are particularly prone to air leaks? I think I'll start off checking the float bowl is screwed tight and the carbs intake boots.

EDIT: Can this also be caused by a bad header gasket? While thinking about this earlier it occurred to me that I've had the headers on and off a few times. It definitely has to be some sort of air leak because my bike was running fine with the current jets and all this happened around the same time I removed the headers. Now it's cutting out at around 8500rpm, WOT.