Kat Won't Run With Factory Air Filter

[antman2029us]

What's up Kat riders! This is my first post. I have a 2000 Kat GSX600 that sat for a while I was on deployment in 2009. I got it up and running then it sat again for another deployment.
-I recently cleaned up the carbs, added a K&N filter replaced the oil, spark plugs, fuel hose and filter and got new gas.
-When i went for a ride i noticed at around 3500 rpm, the Kat wouldn't have any power and rpm's wouldnt go any higher. So after much reading and trial and (many) errors, I placed some cardboard over the air filter to restrict some of the airflow and she was good to go.
-I ordered the factory filter since I read K&N 's dont work well with Kats but now I have the same problem. Bike work great with cardboard but not with just filter. Can you help me out?

[shpielers]

Just to clarify - you ditched the K&N and went back to the stock set up, correct?

What symptoms are you seeing now that you're back to a stock set up? Still crappy around 3500 rpm? Have you ever cleaned the carbs? They do t like to sit for very long. Look up Carbs 102 in the wiki , it's a great walk through on how to properly clean them. There's also a video walk through somewhere on here if you search for it.

[muffinman]

What are the issues with the stock filter in place?

[antman2029us]

Just to clarify - you ditched the K&N and went back to the stock set up, correct?

What symptoms are you seeing now that you're back to a stock set up? Still crappy around 3500 rpm? Have you ever cleaned the carbs? They do t like to sit for very long. Look up Carbs 102 in the wiki , it's a great walk through on how to properly clean them. There's also a video walk through somewhere on here if you search for it.

I cleaned the carbs before I got the K&N. With the restricted air flow through the filter it runs fine. Able to reach high RPM's while on the center stand (no load). If I dont use the cardboard it wont even start up.

If I put my hand slightly over the air filters air intake and give it some choke, it starts. It does this with the K&N or the stock air filter.

ALSO...

Are you using the choke to start it? You will need to choke it when it first starts no matter what the atmospheric temp is, at least at first. Putting cardboard over the opening is effectively choking the engine. If it runs with the cardboard after first starting, see above. If you remove the cardboard after a minute and it's fine, you just need to use the choke.

[Badfaerie]

You have an air leak somewhere. Likely one of the carbs aren't seated right on one of the boots or you're airbox drain is open. If you can't find anything visually, grab a can of flammable spray such as starter fluid or WD40 in a pinch and start spraying around all the connections between the airbox, carbs and motor. When you spray and the RPMs rise you have found a spot where air is leaking.

[Kreylyn]

Overly restricted air flow (carboard with small hole) = greatly increasing the "vacuum" pressures in the carbs that pulls fuel through them for the air mix. Basically... your increasing the fuel, reducing the air flow... to make a richer mixture for the engine to run right. An old mechanics trick to help clear out passages was to suddenly cover the intake on a carb when the engine was running, forcing a massive vacuum pulse throught he carbs sucking through any thing that might be blocking a jet or passage. This doesn't work as well when you have multiple carbs, but the effect is still there to an extent.

This tells me your most likely seeing an issue where the carbs are not as clean as you think they are being the primary issue. Secondary could be an air leak, but that would be a pretty massive one if that was all it was. Or it could be both in combination. Alot of people mistakenly think that cleaning the jets alone is cleaning the carbs, and forget to pay close attention to the many ports inside the carbs that flow fuel or air to those jets.

Krey

[blitz2190]

+1 on what krey said if you didn't dip the carbs over night, or at the very least run carb cleaner and compressed air through all the ports, then you most likely didn't get everything