stl360+450
Veteran Member
I have a few maintenance tasks to do on my XL350 during some vacation time next week. I thought it might be helpful to post here in the Other Bikes forum to get some advice.
To-do List:
I am seeing some smoke in the exhaust right after start-up and the bike bogs down if I try to take off under load without letting it warm up. Once it warms up, the bike feels fine and I see no smoke in the exhaust. The video below shows some smoke coming out of the exhaust when I blip the throttle right after start-up.
The next video shows that the exhaust does not contain smoke after the bike is warmed up. In this case, it idled for a few minutes and then I rode it around a city block in my neighborhood.
Once I recorded the videos, I shut the bike off and removed the seat and tank to make it easier to do a compression test. The compression test on the warm motor came in at slightly over 150psi. (The specification is 170psi.) Sometime soon I plan to do a cold compression test and check the valve clearances.
To-do List:
- Paint the rear fender to match the front fender.
- Repair damaged mount for rear fender.
- Paint right side engine cover.
- Replace piston rings? Hone cylinder?
- Eliminate rattle of homemade exhaust hanger. The downpipe header comes from XLint Performance (great resource for XL250/350s) and I have ordered adhesive silicone rubber strips to dampen the inside surfaces of the exhaust hanger. Unfortunately, they won't arrive until the end of March or early April. I might be interested in a quieter muffler, although I do like the sound of this one.
I am seeing some smoke in the exhaust right after start-up and the bike bogs down if I try to take off under load without letting it warm up. Once it warms up, the bike feels fine and I see no smoke in the exhaust. The video below shows some smoke coming out of the exhaust when I blip the throttle right after start-up.
The next video shows that the exhaust does not contain smoke after the bike is warmed up. In this case, it idled for a few minutes and then I rode it around a city block in my neighborhood.
Once I recorded the videos, I shut the bike off and removed the seat and tank to make it easier to do a compression test. The compression test on the warm motor came in at slightly over 150psi. (The specification is 170psi.) Sometime soon I plan to do a cold compression test and check the valve clearances.