Greetings, all. I'm new here.
I have a question. My GS has recently been running very well when warm. Today I noticed that I had an exhaust bolt missing. I readjusted the one that was on there and needed to go somewhere. I figured it would be OK since it had been missing already for who knows how long.
It rode alright for the ride there, but I noticed some backfiring. It rode just fine all the way to the gas station. I picked up some Shell 92 octane. Then the real trouble started.
The bike idles, but eventually boggs and dies. When engage the choke, the engine idle barely goes up, and sometimes goes down. Either way, it runs worse. Also, lower RPM acceleration stutters and spits until I get it up to 4000rpm. Any ideas? I'm sorry if this is too much info, but I was trying to tell you everything that has led up to this. I would appreciate any advice!
The backfiring can be attributed to the missing exhaust header bolt. Air can leak into the exhaust causing any unburnt fuel to ignite.
Have you always been running 92 octane? It is best to run 87 in a stock GS. Octane is not a measure of potential energy, it is a measure of a fuels resistance to spontaneous combustion during the compression stroke. Higher octane fuel is only needed with higher compression engines. Try the cheap stuff and see how it runs.
Soon after I had posted this problem about my GS, my wife told me she put Shell gas in our Saturn and it was now "missing" and the "Service Engine Soon" light came on. She said she ran really low on gas and refilled it with Chevron and all the issues cleared up. Since my bike was showing symptoms of water in gas, too, I drained the tank almost completely (so well I ran out of gas on the way to the station) and filled it up with Chevron gas. And you know what? Runs fine. I don't know what's wrong with Shell gas here in this town, but I'm never using it again in either of my vehicles. Thanks for the advice, sir. I replaced the exhaust bolt today so it would stop backfiring. Fixed that problem, too.
wait wait, now I get their add campaign! Their new gas has 5x more soap and water...and maybe fishies :lol:
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