The official XT225 thread!

Awesome! I've been wanting to mess around with the air box to get the noise difference but I don't want to mess with the carb at all so hearing that gives me a little hope!

The key to these carbs is to turn the petcock to off and run the gas out EVERY time you ride the bike. I bought mine used 6 years old with 200 miles on the bike. I had to have my mechanic go through the carbs. He reset some of the needles but I don't think he rejetted it. Anyhow, it starts and runs great now. It wouldn't hardly run when I bought it.

That's really nice! From the look of the spoke positions, you can run tubeless, which would be wonderful.

I always run the gas out sense my bike is stored outdoors in our shed.. Obviously its in the shed and closed in, but no heat or air conditioning. I can't have the risk of gas freezing in the lines or anything.
Everyone says that if I open up the airbox then I need to rejet the carb to add fuel to the mixture..

That suspension looks soo much nicer than stock.. Custom rebuild?

Going to look at an XT225 tonight!

Edit: Never Mind. They worked great.

Hey guys, I'm trying to search for this but it's not working out for me.
Does anyone know if I can run NGK DPR8EA 9 spark plugs in my 05?

I already have a few and want to replace the plug. It looks almost identical. maybe half a millimeter or something like that longer.. Just want to make sure nothing makes contact.

Thanks.

Is anyone running street tires? Or supermoto wheels/tires? I'm REAL interested in the supermotos but I'm almost never offroad so street tires would be more fitting for me.

The best thing (if available to you) you can do for your carb is to never use fuel with ethanol in it. Ethanol doesn't seem to bother fuel injection systems but it will gum up carburettors real quick.

-- alonzo

Hey alonzo,

I was checking out your photos and the old Triumph project looked interesting. Did you finish yet? Have you been riding it? I like the way you have galleries for each of your bikes.

Also, why no XT225 pics?

Still working on the T120. Frame is primed. Engine is starting to go back together. I have new wheels and spokes but need to blast and paint the hubs. New shocks, instruments, headlight shell and some other stuff. But, my wife also has projects (for me to do/build) so it's been on hold since about November. Thought I'd be back on it this Winter but, alas, not yet.

No XT225 pics? That's one of my other projects. But, other than some carb work and a few add-on's, it's a stock XT. Nothing much interesting about that.

-- alonzo

So what did you all do to make it a SM? I've been considering making mine into one sense I got it but wasn't sure how to go about it.

Ethanol is going to be the death of anything carbed. I had to richen my main jet one step up but so far no problems on my XT225. Hoping for the best. It has raised hell on my 150cc scooter.

Ethanol likes to absorb water though and sure makes a mess of carbs a lot more quickly if left to sit untreated.

Thankfully we do have 4 fuel stations near us that sell non-ethanol fuel and have made a habit of visiting them when ever we can. We also are being a lot more diligent about treating our gas pretty regularly.

Lucky guy... My closest pure gas station is in AZ...

OK, what does it?

Yeah,a1fa, ya VW bus freak, what?

Ummmmm.....might want to re-check that fact! In fact, Stabil contains no ethanol, read the MSDS and FAQ page on the Stabil website. Maybe you are thinking of gas line antifreeze, which is indeed almost 100% ethanol. It serves a completely different purpose though, which is to mix the water with the fuel so it can go through the system and leave through the exhaust, effectively removing it so it cannot freeze while separated from the fuel and block fuel passages.

Not pretending to be a chemist or anything close to it, but nothing I have found anywhere shows that any of the fuel STABILIZERS contain ethanol, they all contain petroleum distillates. Petroleum distillates come from oil, ethanol comes from grain, seeds, and plant matter. So even if the MSDS does not list specific chemicals, the fact that it is a petroleum distillate means it cannot have ethanol unless it is added. As an example, Stabil MSDS lists 95% petroleum distillates (OIL) and 5% additive mixture (?, but probably other chemicals specific to anti-corrosion). Even if that 5% were ethanol (which it isn't), that is still far from being 100%!

Please carry on with your experiment, I am curious to hear where you are going with it.


Tim

Indeed, ethanol is hygroscopic, attracting and holding up to 4 tablespoons of water (.5%) per gallon of gasoline. Because of these properties, as a gas line antifreeze, ethanol is awesome. It will continue to attract water beyond this level, but once it reaches this saturation point, it separates from the gasoline and settles to the bottom of the tank. Fuel stabilizers designed for ethanol increase this level to .7% before the ethanol/water separates out. As a stabilizer, it would create way more problems than it solved.

With that being said, I still don't know how fuel stabilizers work, or at least the exact chemistry behind it. Because gasoline is a mixture, stabilizers work to keep the mixture "mixed" and prevent it from stratifying. They do this by increasing the bond between the different molecules in the fuel to help keep the lighter elements from evaporating off. That's what varnish in a gas tank or carb is, the left over heavier elements of the fuel after the light ends evaporate off.

Since we are waaaaaaay off topic, I will say that with my wife's XT225, the only thing that has worked for us is to turn off the petcock and run the fuel out of the carb every time it will be parked for more than over night. When she does that, it will fire up right away every time assuming she remembers to turn the petcock back on. If she doesn't, unless it is within a day or two, she has to drain the bowl on the carb and get fresh fuel in there in order for it to start.


Tim

Disclaimer: I'm not a scientist, engineer, or chemist.
I do, however, have a fair amount of life experience with things electrical/chemical/mechanical.

Fact: ethanol has an affinity for water. i.e., if moisture is present, the
ethanol is going to absorb it.

Since a carburetor's float bowl (unlike a FI system) is exposed/vented to
the atmosphere, and, the atmosphere in general, contains moisture, ethanol
exposed to the atmosphere will absorb moisture.

Here's my take on some possible results of using fuel containing ethanol in
carburettered engines.

The ethanol absorbs atmospheric moisture (H2O) and,

1. The ethanol/water mix is capable of growing algae (and does so.) This
algae forms the blue-green slime that I've seen in carbs that have been
using fuel containing ethanol. This can happen in as little as two weeks.

This 'slime' clogs the orifices of the carb's jets. Particularly, the
tiny orifice of the pilot jet causing the 'it won't run unless the choke
is on' syndrome. Also, causes the 'it just won't start' syndrome (because
the pilot jet is so important at start-up.)

or,

2. The ethanol/water, in the presence of the carb's zinc/pot metal/aluminum
body and it's brass main/pilot/etc. jets causes an electrolytic action
(electrolysis) to take place. This would cause material from the 'least
noble' zinc/pot metal/aluminum to be deposited on the 'more noble' brass
causing clogging of the brass jet's tiny orifices resulting in starting/running issues.

3. There was something else that I was thinking of about this but now I can't
remember what it was... Oh, well.

4. OK. There is the possibility of more complex chemical reactions going on here
but, they're way over my head so, I ain't touching it.

Here's a link from Stihl on the use/problems of fuels containing ethanol:
http://www.stihlusablog.com/2012/03/gasoline-guidelines-for-stihl-outdoor.html

-- alonzo