Getting er started again

[shoeless_000]

So over the past four months I have given my 77 gs550 a makeover from hell. She started out looking like Mr. Cleaver's moped and now she's a mean, bare essentials, skulled out grunge cafe racer. Some of my mods are:

Junked the stock airbox and filter

Fabricated a custom intake with 6.5" K&N cone filter

Grinded as much of the useless crap off the frame as possible

Said to hell with the mufflers, straight headers, wrapped of course

Switched to a AGM gel battery which was then relocated under the rear cowl/hump

Had my old lady sew me a custom seat

And finally, stepped up the jets three to four sizes (I have both to play with)

What I need help with is any advice whatsoever that would help me in getting her back into peak running condition. I haven't tried starting yet, as I'm waiting on my pilot jets. I'm somewhat new to bikes especially older ones, so I would hate to make my job of getting her running harder than it has to be. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

[TheCafeKid]

Are you getting stock size pilots or upsizing? Chances are you can prolly dial it in from what ive been told with the stock pilots, but you'll need to up the main size...could be tough to judge with that fabbed filter. Definately will need to rejet with open pipes and freer flowing air filter tho. Otherwise you'll run lean and that leads to bad things.

[Ironriot]

Running open exhaust with a custom intake I think is gonna be hard to dial in. Maybe try get a cheap wideband sensor when you're gonna dial everything in. It'll save you from running lean and blowing a hole in your piston and it should also be alot cheaper than spending some time on a dyno

[TheCafeKid]

Ok Riot showing some ignorance here as im no mechanic, but wtf is a wideband sensor and what does it do, and do i want one?? LMAO

[Ironriot]

YES YOU WANT ONE!!!!! Lol actually a wideband sensor is basically just an oxygen sensor and an LCD screen. The O2 sensor reads your exhaust gases and shows if you're running rich or lean by sending a voltage signal to the reader. It helps immensely when try to read whats going on with a set of carbs. Now you can get a really fancy one that'll have a full display and what not or you can get a simple one that reads the voltage that the O2 sensor sends out and go from there. Either way its as simple as duct taping the O2 sensor to the end of the pipes and adjust accordingly

[TheCafeKid]

and how much does a cheap one cost??

[Ironriot]

Lol if you REALLY want cheap what you can do is steal an O2 sensor off of your car and then measure the voltage with a multimeter. Same thing and you can get it done the same as an expensive model for ALOT LESS money.... But a cheap one can range anywhere from 100 something to 200. Mostly because the O2 sensors themselves ain't cheap

[TheCafeKid]

Ahhh.. that sounds complex...lol Im seriously considering bringing my bike in the house...LMAO seriously tho.

[Ironriot]

Its nothing of the sort. You take this off your car

http://www.made-in-china.com/servlet/image?compatible=true&tid=2&fid=0&lan_code=0&cache=1&id=TptaGaEzwQfL

And then provide it with power via one of its wires.

Then hook up one of these to it

http://www.nfauto.co.uk/images/july/multimeter.jpg

Just touch the wires to the wires from the O2 sensor. Its gonna read a voltage. From there you'll know if its lean or rich. And HOW lean or rich it is

[TheCafeKid]

yeah but how do you know if its rich or lean?? Is there a scale based on voltage?? I have a multimeter already, so that part is done at least...lol

[Ironriot]

Yeah there is. O2 sensors send a voltage from like .1 to .9 I think and from there you'll know how lean or rich. I'll try and see if I can find a table

[Ironriot]

My bad buddy they create they're own voltage. Which explains why they only work after they've warmed up. I got that part wrong but here's an excellent article on how they work

http://www.dnd-automotive.com/tuneup/02-sensor.htm

[TheCafeKid]

AHHH that totally makes sense! Thats a hell of an idea?? I wonder how much a cheappy O2 sensor is at like autozone or something. Thats a hell of a neat lil tool! Do you just stick the o2 sensor in the end of your pipe and tape it on?

[TheCafeKid]

Oh man it has to get up to 600 degrees! i dont think your exhaust at the end is that hot, youd have to stick it WAY up in there.

[Ironriot]

Hehe the problem with buying an O2 sensor is that you'll be hardpressed to find a crappy one. The only ones they sell at AutoZone are the Bosch brand. The cheapest ones are the ones that are used by ford. Its about 50 bucks. And pretty much all Ford trucks use the same ones so just go in there and get one for like a '04 Ford F150. The only difference between the ones listed for Ford are the length.

And yeah you just stick it in the pipe, tape it on and then read the sensor's voltage and tune accordingly.

Although its pretty easy to do at Idle, it become difficult with other thing like WOT. But maybe just putting the bike on the center stand and running it through the gears can solve that problem. The important thing is running it through the gears. You never want to just rev the sh!t out of an engine. Engine's need a load or else you can spit a rod