About to give up!

I was riding the 1000 today in at least 90 degree weather and it started smooth ran smoothly for the first 10 minutes at least, then it started to bog at all the stops when I would go to take off. Then all of a sudden when I rev it up it sounds like the engine is running inside of another engine or like its boxed or something. It sounds like the engine is running on all fours but it is light sounding. Plus the tach has this really eratic idle to it, like I would be sitting at idle but the tach says 0 rpm and then I supposedly go to rev it to 2000 and the needle jumps to 5 or 6 really fast and drops back to zero and if I don't hold the gas, it shuts off. Also when riding it only goes up to 28 mph and then the exhaust backfires and it makes this duhduhduhduhduuuuh duh duuh noise. I doubt its the carbs, but when I looked at then my no.2 carb is missing a screw on the top cap. I checked the spark plugs and they show that the mix is rich but not too rich, like a black soot edge but a grey ground tip

How's your battery?

Too continue, I haven't checked compression yet but I can see oil on top of the piston crown, which indicates some trouble. I will turn off the bike and then turn it on a second later and it runs good till I rev it up. I checked the advance mech and it looked like rust was taking over in there in there, plus the timing rotor that spins and I guess gives a magnetic pulse was a little rusty. I sprayed the advancer with WD40,but I dont really think it works( WD40 I mean). I might be a little bit nuts here but if I rev it up it spins off the WD and then I guess I am back to square on. I checked the carbs friday for holes in the diaphragm and it was an all clear. I just clipped the fuel supply line a little shorter so gravity can work its Strange Magic( man I like that song). New fuel filter

I haven't checked that yet, but I will put that on the list of to do's

Did you check to see if any of the plugs are loose? I know it's a different theory, but on my dirtbikes If I don't periodicaly (sp?) check the plugs they do rattle loose and I lose compresion and power. You can also pull the cap off of the plugs and put a spare plug in, lay it against the fins for a ground and hit the ignition to see what kind of spark you are getting.

All te plugs were tight but I haven't checked the spark. I am going to tear apart the top end anyways and check valve clearances. I also suspect bad rings, seeing there is oil on top of the piston. I just got the whole gasket kit from z1.

Sounds to me like you've lost a couple cylinders. It happened to one of my 650s once where the wiring plugging the coils in was real iffy and sometimes would make good contact at the plugs, sometimes not and it would lose fire in the 2 cylinders the coil was used for.

You may have a fuel supply problem. If it runs fine when you first start it, and then gradually gets worse, you may not be getting enough fuel flowing into your carbs. I'd check your inline filter if you have one, and your petcock screen. If those look good, I'd check for obstructions in your carbs.

check for vaccuum to the petcock.
might be time for a rebuild

Dude, that really sucks. If your workin on it this weekend and need an extra wrench just pm me, I'll be more than glad to come down and help.

I got it all under control right now, just have to get some shims, open up my carbs again, and find whats the easiest way to get a stuck on base gasket off. Any suggestions?