Sunday, April 12, 2015

Maybe the Last Snow...

We got another reminder that winter isn't over yet. Just a few inches overnight and most of it was gone by late afternoon. Another update from all of the messing around with the carbs I've been doing. With the change to the smaller main jets (122 down from 130) there was no popping when the engine was cold. That was what made me change the jets in the first place back in August. The CHT (cylinder head temperature) was higher with the smaller jets as expected. About 375°F for the left and 325°F for the right. This is the corrected temperature with OAT of 33°F. It's really cool when things work the way you think they should!

The wet air filter returned when I was riding while it was snowing yesterday. By the time I arrived home from a relatively short 10 mile ride, the engine wouldn't idle and you could smell unburned fuel from the exhaust. CHT were both really low in the 200°F range. I quickly pulled the air cleaner element (it was wet) and the engine ran just fine. I'm having a hard time believing that I'm the only one with this problem. A search on the Ural forum, SovietSteeds, mentions this as one of the reason for home fabricated air cleaner housings. If I'm going to be taking this rig to the lower-48 this summer, I need to do something to keep the rain out of the air cleaner. The Napa paper filter I tried last month didn't help as it took even longer to dry out than the Ural air filter.

I couldn't tell any change from drilling the slide. Though the wet air cleaner probably drowns out any other change. 

10 comments:

  1. How does the air filter get wet anyway? Shouldn't a proper housing prevent such? Weird. However I am confident that you'll figure something out to fix it ;-)

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    1. You nailed it with "proper housing". I think the moisture just gets sucked into the inlet on the bottom of the air box and filter is right there just inches from the inlet.

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  2. so flipping the direction of the air scoop made no difference eh? that's too bad....am really happy with the new airbox design of the 2014s, too bad not retro-fittable according to URAL. It's basically a copy of the Beemer Airhead airbox by the way....

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    1. Nope, reversing the direction actually made it worse as when it's forward, it's facing into the mounting bracket. It just needs a better baffle but there really isn't enough room under the airbox.

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    2. I played with baffles to keep water drops out....never got it to work right. Foam was definitely an error! Perhaps something you can bolt onto the scoop with baffles, or redirects the scoop downward....

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    3. At the suggestion of someone on SS, I ordered a Frogzskin panel to cover the opening on the bottom of the air cleaner housing. I read through the forum thread referenced and it sounds like a possible solution.

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  3. "...lower 48." Photos. Lots of photos.

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  4. Your blue and white Ural sure looks pretty in the snow.

    Fingers crossed it is the last snowfall. Our temps are supposed to be in the 70's this weekend and hubby is teaching.

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    1. Blue and white motorcycles are made for the snow, right?

      Probably won't be the last snow. After all it's only April. Though I know quite a few that are hoping that it may be the last snow that actually sticks around for a bit. 70s sounds pretty nice especially if it's sunny...

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