O.k. my brother in-law just bought a 2000 mojave and when at low rpms under load the engine sounds like a diesle truck knocking all over the place. Once you get the rpms up it goes away. Is this common with a mojave or kawasaki motors in general. This my first real experience with a mojave and his first quad so any help would be appreciated.

 

the mo has a relatively high compression and will detonate on a lot of pump gas. This will happen when under a load. Try running some quality premium fuel. Do not try to run the mojave on regular or mid grade fuel.

 

Thanks, one thing I noticed is it really runs good on the top end. We are going to pipe it and maybe go down to 20 inch tires or change the gearing to get a little more low-end trail riding grunt.

 

I use a low octane fuel for my Mojave. Cold this contribute to it overheating more than normal? I already hot wired the cooling fan and I run coolanal. Will I see an improvement with a higher octane fuel such as 93 octane? It doesn't seem to have any problems now. Also, my motor does have a slight off idle knock. Thanks.

 

My Mojave makes the same noise at low RPM when under a load. It only happens when it doesn't get enough thottle. I'm not convinced it is detonation though. The manual doesn't say you need to run high octane gas and I have never heard mine pingwhen under load during a hill climb. I think it is just the noise the machine makes when it is about to stall. nothing serious, just rev it out. Mojaves have to be revved to make power.

 

The knocking you hear is the counter-balancer telling you to rev me or shift me. Mojave's need RPM's to run. If your in too high a gear with respect to the RPM's, the counter-balancer will protest.

 

As mojaveaddict said-Mojaves have 11:1 compression stock-they need at least 93 octane(premium)-says so in the manual-I run 110-no knocking or pinging. Higher octane gas gas gives you a cleaner, cooler burn.

 

Mordr,
Since I'm not at home I can't check my owners manual but at Buy Kawasaki.com you can look at the specs and it lists 87 octane as being okay. A guy is not going to hurt anything by running higher octane fuel like premium, in fact it would be better for it. But you don't have to. If a guy's machine is stock than it would be a waste of money to run race gas. Heavily modified? Yeah, then run race gas.

 

rockrider-110 is a waste in a stock machine-probably a waste in mine-It just seems to runs better and man I love that sweet smell. With compression that high you should run better than 87 octane though-not that much more $ when you consider the efficiency of small 4 strokes. I'm pretty sure my manual says run premium, but I will check when I get home tonight-even if I am wrong on the manual thing-from the problems described sounds like low octane to me.

 

I don't own a mojave as most of you know.
But look at the specs. A mojave is a short stroke large bore engine. Infact it has the same bore as the lakota three hundred.
The reason I post this is a short stroke large bore engine is much higher reving. Meaning keep up the high rpm's.
Now on the octane deal, Just walk in any kawi dealer and they will tell you, "High Test". This is a general problem with all short stroke large bore engines, wether it's a car, truck, or bike.
Run high test one day and come back and lets see what happens.
As far as sonoco blue or others compattable, you will feel a difference. Much like a cool dry morning when you feel a crisper throttle.
Good luck though