One month ago, while in the process of removing the twist throttle on my 02 P650 and reinstalling the original thumb throttle, I was interupted by a minor family emergency. After getting that troublesome Yorkie housedog to the vet, I was eager to fire up the Prairie and head to the deer stand. All I had to do was put in the new air filter and covers. It only took a couple minutes and it was ready to fire up.

Oh man, did it fire up, straight to red line, with the most awful top end noise. I hit the kill switch thinking that the throttle was stuck but it wasn't.

My heart started to sink, Had I removed the cotton patches over the carbs to keep out the dirt while working? NOOOOoooo! I hadn't!!!

I pulled off the air filter and looked into the carbs >>>> no cotton. Good that the kids weren't near to see this, my top end noise wasn't good either.

Stuff gets sucked into engines FAST. Couldn't hook any cotton out of the cylinders through the plug holes with wire. So I decided to try and start it up and see what would happen, it was pure cotton so I hoped it would burn. The cotton was thin, clean and about 4 inches in diameter.

It started up sluggishly and with lots of shaking and gut wrenching noise that went on for about 30 seconds. I tried to keep the RPM's low. Then it suddenly settled into a nice content idle and gave off an unusual exhaust smell.

I rode it to my stand and didn't see a deer. Maybe they also noticed something didn't smell right.

So my question for this forum (I'm a returning member from 3 yrs. ago) is: Even though the motor seems to run fine and the only problem is the compression is down very slightly in the front cylinder, and there is no more strange noise; Could I severely damage things if I continue riding it? Or should I pull the heads and check for bents valves or bad seats?

Any opinions?

Merry Christmas!

 

i would think that it should be fine, i mean its only cotton and as long as the engine feels solid now i wouldnt worry about it but i would flush and change the oil just to be sure that there is nothing floating around that didnt burn up because it could clog up the oil lines and then you will have a BIG problem....if the valves were bent you would hear a tapping sort of noise and if the seals went then it would smoke when you start it...how much lower is the compression?

 

the compression was about 4 psi less than the rear cylinder.

 

Oh man does that bring back memories!!!!
Many, many years ago I did the same thing to a 350 Chevy. I had to put new retainers on the valve springs and to do this I had to pull the carb and valve covers. Being the good mechanic I was, I put a typical red shop rag in the intake so no "dirt" would get into the engine.
After changing the retainers I put the carb on and forgot the rag because it was down in the intake.
I got everything hooked up and tried to light it off. It did not start for a while (because the rag was soaking up the fuel) and I thought that was weird?
It finally lite and ran REAL rough. Being a kid I decided to clean it out. This is where it gets interesting. I had side exit exhaust. As I jumped on it I looked in my mirror and saw little burning pieces of rag flying out the pipes!!!! This actually happened!!!!!!
My first thought was what the @$#@#????? Then it was like OOOOOOO fudge!!!!!!
I drove the car back to the shop and pulled the carb. Half the rag was gone!!! I pulled the rag out and put the carb back on.
Now what; I was thinking???? Tear the engine down? Pull the heads? Nawwwwwww; screw it; I'll just run it and see what happens.
It puffed out flaming pieces of rag for about a 1/4 of a mile and that was it. I put many more 10's of thousands of miles on that engine with no problems at all.

My take. Don't sweat it. You will be fine.

Ha ha ha ha..........thanks for the bad memories!!!!!!!!