Is this carb icing?

[nakedninja]

Hey guys, hoping you can help me.
Just went to start my bike ('98 GSX-F 600) which I'd foolishly left uncovered for the recent spate of bad weather. I know, I know, I'm a bad person for not covering it and leaving it outside, but I don't have a garage.
Anyway, I went to start it up and we get some very loud and quite frankly disturbing pops and explosions, with no real sign of starting. So I laid off starting it and came back inside. I don't want to ruin the bike and for it to explode, but I feel like I may have already ruined it. Bah!
Is this carb icing? Have the fuel lines frozen? If so how can I fix, can it indeed be fixed? If not can anyone tell me what this is?
Thanks very much.

[SplatSpeed]

nakedninja said:

Hey guys, hoping you can help me.
Just went to start my bike ('98 GSX-F 600) which I'd foolishly left uncovered for the recent spate of bad weather. I know, I know, I'm a bad person for not covering it and leaving it outside, but I don't have a garage.
Anyway, I went to start it up and we get some very loud and quite frankly disturbing pops and explosions, with no real sign of starting. So I laid off starting it and came back inside. I don't want to ruin the bike and for it to explode, but I feel like I may have already ruined it. Bah!
Is this carb icing? Have the fuel lines frozen? If so how can I fix, can it indeed be fixed? If not can anyone tell me what this is?
Thanks very much.

carb icing is due to air flow in the carb

the line wont freeze unless it is diesel

lots of choke to make it catch

[AndyDRZ]

Not carb icing... I believe Carb icing generally happens at speed - not sure of the science but it's to do with lots of cold air getting sucked in to a hungry engine.. and it fixes itself after a few minutes.

I'd wait 5 minutes and try again...


ETA - I type too slowly

Edited by AndyDRZ on Tuesday 8th April 13:54

[SplatSpeed]

the air creates a vacume in the carb this converts petrol into vapour
the atomisation causes the temp to drop

this can cause the parts to drop to a really low temp causing ice to form from the air

[Busamav]

I was imediately expecting the problem bike to be a Kwacker here

[nakedninja]

I suppose with carb icing in the title and ninja in my name I'm just asking for some Kawasaki troubles. But none yet, mores the pity.

[Busamav]

nakedninja said:

I suppose with carb icing in the title and ninja in my name I'm just asking for some Kawasaki troubles. But none yet, mores the pity.

haha I hadnt even noticed your user name , just that a number of Kwak models have suffered from carb icing

[Hyperion]

nakedninja said:

I went to start it up and we get some very loud and quite frankly disturbing pops and explosions,

Sounds like my bike every morning

[N Dentressangle]

Doesn't sound like carb icing at all. You usualy need to have the engine running for a little before that can happen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carburetor_icing

It sounds like a fuel prob of some kind - as if you have fuel igniting in the exhaust. As long as nothing's happened to the timing since you last rode it (unlikely), you've probably flooded it inadvertently, or got some kind of choke issue.

It'll probably be fine now.

[Rubin215]

It sounds like dampness on the plugs, leads or coils.
Your bike probably only has two coils for four cylinders so has a "lost spark" on the exhaust stroke too (each plug fires on both compression and exhaust strokes). If the spark on the compression stroke is too weak to burn the fuel/air mix in the cylinder, it rushes down the exhaust only to be ignited by the lost spark, where it gives a fantastic "pop."

With the age of your bike, the insulation on the plug leads will be starting to break down now anyway so that really won't help either.
Give the whole lot a spray with a water dispersant like WD40 or Silkopen and try again.

Once the bike is running again, you can re-create this effect to much hilarity when passing bus stops by flicking the kill switch to off, giving it a quick flick of the throttle and then flicking the kill switch back on while pointing your index finger on your left hand at someone in the bus queue as though "shooting" them.
The resultant backfire will either have the bus queue diving for the ground or you being machine gunned by armed police...

[StuB]

For those with carb icing - silkolene pro FST!

GSXR's suffer from it too (older ones like my shed obviously).