Sorry about the double post
You mentioned in a another post about blocking the coolant line to
the carbs, is there any down side to this and where is the best place to block
the line?

Thanks

 

Downside is the 650 will not run as good in snowy weather. I have never lived in tenn. A motorcycle without some kind of carb heat gets ice buildup in carb and intake. Makes it run like garbage. If you just ride, you might not notice it, but if you let it idle it will ice. Every non carb heated quad I saw running at my brother's campground iced up while idling. Some worse than others.

I said that to a vforce owner, I thought, that lived in Kentuky. I didn't take any thought to whether he would ride in the snow or if he gets snow.

Remove the line and plug the fittings.

 

Nyroc,

Can you put a valve in this line, so that it can be turned on and off?

RJ

 

I thought of that, but I am undecided.

I think it is probably a good idea.

I personally am undecided, since that strainer thingy melted on me once. I was overheating when it happened. If you stop the flow of coolant, that strainer thingy can get hotter than usual.

I think that strainer thingy is only needed to protect the carb heaters anyway. I take the proper goodies with me to plug those hoses in case the strainer thingy melts again. I drove around for a while with no strainer. I didn't take any notice of any performance difference since I was having other cooling system problems caused by flushing the cooling system to get the dirty pond water out that I put in.

I hate the strainer thingy. I think it is not our friend.

 

Nyroc
Thanks for the reply, didn't think about carb icing,
think I will leave that coolant line alone, at least for now.
Might get a little performance boost in real hot weather tho.

 

I'm in a cold enviroment up here and frozent carbs have never caused me a problem. It is important to let your bike warm up on a slight more than idle before moving and before shutting it of on mine POV. I had a heated carb on my king quad in an other life and it was a pan in the a$$.

 

Most people won't even notice it. It didn't happen every cold winter day. Conditions have to be right. My brother's P400 only ran like crap once that I remeber during a light snow while the humidity was high. After the engine was warm from a little riding it was fine. If it gets colder there isn't enough moisture in the air and it won't happen. It seems worst when the humidity is high and it is near freezing.

I also had a suzuki 300, that could possibly the industry's crappiest quad. It froze it's carb a lot. If you don't let it sit and idle the freezing problem seems to go away. Obviously you don't go heavy on the gas when the engine is cold. That wears them out. Take off and ride easy. Engine heat will stop the freezing eventually.

I think I have convinced myself that a valve is something I want to try (next spring).