Have been riding with the open choke. Should I bother ?

[tonikat]

Coming back home from a weekend trip on my 2008 GS500F, I realized I had left a half-open choke, and had been riding so for some 60 miles. Now, my question is -is that serious ? Is there anything I could/should do now ? should I change oil and filters, or check something?
Or, as my buddy told me, -Don't do it again

[Fullmetal]

Well that's no good. I don't think there'll be any serious harm. I believe the choke just makes the gas more oil-rich, so there may be some evidence on the spark plugs and the carbs might be a little blacker than normal, but I don't think it'll be a problem.

I've heard stories of some people who always ride with their choke on for one reason or the other. I'm sure they have pretty detrimental effects on the engine, but one time shouldn't hurt too bad.

Have to agree with your buddy. Don't do it again lol.

[JimG4652]

It's not hurt.

[The CyberPoet]

The part that is most affected is the spark plugs -- leave the choke on and they'll tend to load up with fouling. If you're bike is running healthy, you have two cures:
1. Ride 10-20 miles with the choke off. Spark plugs are self-cleaning (like ovens) once up to temp, and the plugs should clear their fouling, OR
2. Replace the spark plugs.

Other than that, no harm, no foul, and you're not likely to notice the miniscule amount of carbon build-up in the cylinders from running excessively rich for that 50 mile range (wouldn't hurt to use high-detergent fuels, like Chevron or Shell, to help keep carbon build-up to a minimum in general anyway).

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[steves]

no foul

Maybe a little fouling...

[katman05]

Lesson learned, right?

[VifferJim]

You must've been doing some higway riding, 'cause when I left my choke open just a little in stop-n-go traffic, she died at every stop.

Yeah, take her out for about a half hour with the choke CLOSED! And, no, don't do that again.

[rexazz2]

I rode like that for about 2hrs last summer
hard on fuel that is how I noticed
running highspeed and hot will help burn it out

[tonikat]

Ok, thanks so much, I'm glad to hear. I'll be niiice and caaareful to her from now on.. I'll check those spark plugs. - And put some glue tape on the choke lever

[Mojoe]

The part that is most affected is the spark plugs -- leave the choke on and they'll tend to load up with fouling. If you're bike is running healthy, you have two cures:
1. Ride 10-20 miles with the choke off. Spark plugs are self-cleaning (like ovens) once up to temp, and the plugs should clear their fouling, OR
2. Replace the spark plugs.

Other than that, no harm, no foul, and you're not likely to notice the miniscule amount of carbon build-up in the cylinders from running excessively rich for that 50 mile range (wouldn't hurt to use high-detergent fuels, like Chevron or Shell, to help keep carbon build-up to a minimum in general anyway).

1- no, they are not self cleaning. if you run too rich for too long, or say have any kind of oil getting past the valve stems, plugs will just keep building up with unburnt crap. and if enough of it gets built up, then you get a glowing mass of crap that will act as a spark and give you pre-detonation. your bike will run rough. however, in this case, he should be able to burn off the crap seeing as he didn't drive it all that long like that. still be a good idea to pull the plugs and check them.

2- no need to change the plugs for something like that. a wire brush will do the trick. just clean then up. too many people toss away perfectly good plugs for nothing.

the best think he can do for his engine right now is open that sucker up. that is the only real way to get rid of carbon. take her out and redline it.
no harm to the engine except for fouling it up a bit. a couple of good runs with some good gas like you said will do the trick.

[The CyberPoet]

1- no, they are not self cleaning.

NGK says otherwise right here:
NGKSparkPlugs.com - FAQ - Section on Plug Heat - Subseqtion on Pre-delivery Fouling.
Carbon fouling occurs when the spark plug firing end does not reach the self-cleaning temperature of approximately 450°C (842°F).

This is why bikes that are fouling plugs will sometimes self-clear at other RPM ranges (where the temps & fuel-air mixes are in the healthy range). Spark plugs are inherently self-cleaning once up to proper operating temp, or they'd never last the kinds of distances they do.

2- no need to change the plugs for something like that. a wire brush will do the trick. just clean then up. too many people toss away perfectly good plugs for nothing.

I agree with the concept, but disagree with the method. To clean standard plugs (not irridiums), take some very fine emory cloth and clean off the metal center protrusion and the grounding finger(s) of the plug's metal parts, then use dry air or a fast-drying spray to clear any sanding residues and any chemical build-ups from the fouling. Using a wire brush on the ceramic or firing tips can easily damage the coating on the ceramic parts, leading to cracking of the insulator and possibly ceramic parts flying around in the cylinder; wire brushes are suitable only for the threads.
See NGKSparkPlugs.com - FAQ - Can old spark plugs be cleaned? (instructions on how-to)

the best think he can do for his engine right now is open that sucker up. that is the only real way to get rid of carbon. take her out and redline it.
no harm to the engine except for fouling it up a bit. a couple of good runs with some good gas like you said will do the trick.

You don't need to redline a bike to get the carbon out, but running it up to redline occasionally isn't a bad thing (you don't need to be in top gear either -- you can do it in 3rd and get the same benefit). Your bike, like the Kats, do have a manufacturer's warning in the operating manuals against running it out to redline in 1st and 2nd gear due to the (small, but real) potential for damages to the transmission and lower-engine parts on a sudden closed throttle without disengaging the clutch first.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[kevin2502000]

2- no need to change the plugs for something like that. a wire brush will do the trick. just clean then up. too many people toss away perfectly good plugs for nothing.
.

I know we are talking about a 4 stroke bike but on 2 cycle engines such as dirtbikes and snowmobiles I have never had success cleaning a fouled plug. Once they are fouled they never fire right and I do toss them. I think they either predetonate or retard causing it to fire out of "time".

[Mojoe]

I know we are talking about a 4 stroke bike but on 2 cycle engines such as dirtbikes and snowmobiles I have never had success cleaning a fouled plug. Once they are fouled they never fire right and I do toss them. I think they either predetonate or retard causing it to fire out of "time".

2 strokes foul up plugs a lot more than 4 stokes do....and that is usually where I have to clean my plugs more often. my push mower, my weedeater and my outboard motor.

as far as cleaning them, I have never had a problem using a wire brush. I have a grinder with a wire wheel and a quick run across that has always worked for me. I used to have a plug cleaner....which is basically a sandblasting. think I still have it somewhere, but found the wire wheel to be faster and easier.

as for them being self-cleaning...ok, I will buy that to an extent....but a very limited extent. you know...sort of like self-cleaning ovens. they will clean themselves as far as very small spills and splatters, but if you spill a glob of say some gravy, it is just going to turn into a mass of hot carbon.
If it is in an engine that has bad valve guides or rings and you have oil blowing by, then I find it hard to believe the plugs will "clean themselves" as they say. If the ignition in the chamber won't ignite 100% of the fuel in the cylinder, I can't see the remaining heat from the plug doing it.

I have had some old beaters (cars) that burnt a lot of oil. I am talking to the point of having a little dieseling going on when you shut the switch off. when that happens, it is plug cleaning time. and I am sure those ngk's would do the same thing.

I was tired when I posted the first time, and basically thinking of engines in very poor condition. in general, any plus is self cleaning when you are talking about use in a healthy engine. I was referring more to extreme conditions.

[The CyberPoet]

as for them being self-cleaning...ok, I will buy that to an extent....but a very limited extent. you know...sort of like self-cleaning ovens. they will clean themselves as far as very small spills and splatters, but if you spill a glob of say some gravy, it is just going to turn into a mass of hot carbon.
If it is in an engine that has bad valve guides or rings and you have oil blowing by, then I find it hard to believe the plugs will "clean themselves" as they say. If the ignition in the chamber won't ignite 100% of the fuel in the cylinder, I can't see the remaining heat from the plug doing it.

We're in full agreement there. The self-cleaning aspect only works on a healthy engines; if the plugs are loading up faster than they can clear themselves, they're not going to make it.

Segue:
A long, long time ago, me and a buddy rode the same model bike (Honda 450's). His bike was off at the carbs (too rich - thanks to idiocy on his part drilling holes in the airbox & an untuned jetkit), while mine was tuned right (still OEM). He carried a set of spare plugs with him and would normally swap & clean them every 30 to 60 minutes of riding (whenever they'd foul)...
During one fairly long road trip, he dropped one of his spare plugs onto the concrete, snapping it just above the threads, so field-expedient method, we decided we'd swap plugs about every half hour between the bikes, so mine would keep clearing the fouling that his was putting down. Got us home...
Can you say "ouch, damn that's hot!"?

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Mojoe]

Segue:
A long, long time ago, me and a buddy rode the same model bike (Honda 450's). His bike was off at the carbs (too rich - thanks to idiocy on his part drilling holes in the airbox & an untuned jetkit), while mine was tuned right (still OEM). He carried a set of spare plugs with him and would normally swap & clean them every 30 to 60 minutes of riding (whenever they'd foul)...
During one fairly long road trip, he dropped one of his spare plugs onto the concrete, snapping it just above the threads, so field-expedient method, we decided we'd swap plugs about every half hour between the bikes, so mine would keep clearing the fouling that his was putting down. Got us home...
Can you say "ouch, damn that's hot!"?

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

hehe....had a similar situation with my old honda nighthawk. the alternator went on it and I was coming back from Ontario with a friend. the battery would go dead and I would start to lose my headlight. so we would stop and swap batteries. it would not even start his bike, but it would start if we popped the clutch. he would charge mine while we were riding, and I would kill his. then we would stop and swap again. me must have did that a dozen times.
I ended up having to buy two batteries in the end cuz his never held charge very well after that.