Running a motor with no air filters.

I now have my bike running real good and was wondering if i have no air filters on it will it hurt anything? I cleaned the carbs, they have a 115 jet in them with a open star header. I already know i need to go up to a 120, my question is does it hurt anything reving it up and letting it sit there running with no air filters and a 115 jets in it? I plan on getting some pods....

FWIW,
I ran my B1 with 34's and no pods or air filter for about 2 years and the motor is just fine.

However, if you get a big enough piece of dirt or whatever in there, you'll be looking at problems down the road.

I would have to think that a stray JuneBug or one of those crunchy cicadas might foul something up. Would probably be a good idea to cover the carbs when you aren't working on the bike to avoid any unwanted guests. Glad to hear you're up and running!
How long before you are on the road?

Well yeah i cover my carbs with a shirt when not working on her. Far as up and running the plan is to have a tube put in my rear wheel tomorrow at ducati. Then sometime this week i am gonna buy my air filter pods, and hopefully friday i will go get her legall.That is if the title comes in, the tow company still hasnt received it yet. Oh yeah i gotta get my new 120 jets and slap them in, but that wont take but a few minutes.

Until you get over 1/2 throttle you are not getting much use out of main jets anyways. A bike running lean runs hit so limit your running to short blips in garage. Running without filters is risky. One small rock/pepple/chip of stone/ arge piece of dirt can bugger a valve seat if it happens to close on it. Again limit running to short blips in garage. I run velocity stacks on my drag bike. Saw a fellow years ago at Shannonville run off the end of track (way too short shutdown area, him doing 8's) fall over and have motor suck huge amounts of gravel in to motor.

I have no problem with running a motor for a few minutes without and air filter, but I absolutely will not run one long term without one. That is one of the reasons I always ran the diesel motors in my big trucks over 1 million miles without an overhaul (and then traded the truck in).

Good air filtration is critical for long engine life, running without a filter chews up the valves, pistons, rings, cylinder walls, and dirt gets into the crankcase and wears out the bearings, and on plain bearing motors it will wear the crank.

Yes, that is a subject I feel strongly about, and I have seen the research reports that back up my opinion

steell wrote:

I have no problem with running a motor for a few minutes without and air filter, but I absolutely will not run one long term without one. That is one of the reasons I always ran the diesel motors in my big trucks over 1 million miles without an overhaul (and then traded the truck in).

Good air filtration is critical for long engine life, running without a filter chews up the valves, pistons, rings, cylinder walls, and dirt gets into the crankcase and wears out the bearings, and on plain bearing motors it will wear the crank.

Yes, that is a subject I feel strongly about, and I have seen the research reports that back up my opinion

definately,ive seen the affects of running carbs with no filters when i was younger.just velocity stacks cuz they were cool!:blush: beats the hell out of valves and seats,scratched cylinder walls....:S :whistle:

Steell said it all.
Back before dragbikes had air boxes, the guys used to keep a towel over the carbs until they got to the front of the staging lanes ready to start the motor. Then they would pull the towel off and give it to the rider. He would put it in the front of his leathers and zip them up. After the run, as soon as the bike was off the track and stopped, the rider would unsip his leathers, pull out the towel and cover the carbs before the crewman arrived with the pit bike for the tow back to the pit.

We get heads and cylinders in the shop all the time that we can tell the bike was run with no filters,

Jay

Post edited by: APE Jay, at: 2006/07/11 02:02

stay off of gravel roads