Leaking gas from installed pods

My 82 Gpz550 has pods installed by the guy I bought it from. I'm pretty sure they're just generic. I've got the stock airbox, but he rejetted and tuned for the pods, and so the bike doesn't with it.

My problem is the EGR and crankcase breather hoses. What the guy did was just poke a hole in one pod for the breather hose, and in another pod for the EGR hose. This causes 2 problems.

First, the one with the crankcase breather is sucking up oil, and causing carbon buildup on one of the spark plugs after a few hundred miles. Second, and more troublesome, the one with the EGR hose is leaking gas when the engine's under a load. The more I open up, the worse this problem gets. After a good 50 mile ride, the crankcase is dripping with gas under the carbs.

A stock setup seems to just route these hoses directly into the airbox in front of the filter, but I can't seem to think of a better way of routing the hoses with the pods.

Do you guys have any advice, or is this just something I have to live with if I run with the pods?

Edit: I suppose it's also possible that the valve shouldn't be dumping nearly so much liquid gas anyway, so if you have any ideas there, it would be helpful.

Thanks.

Post edited by: blorgfreth, at: 2007/10/22 10:53

I have an 82 kz550, almost the same and im going to be installing pods as well. I know the crankcase breather is supposed to have its own breather filter, z1 has em, saw them on ebay stores too. The large hose that goes from the top of the valve cover that used to go into the airbox is also supposed to have its own breather.
I BELIEVE everything else should be plugged up, not sure on that but im sure someone here will give you the right answer and ill also be watching for the same answer because ill be doing the same thing, removing the emissions junk and plugging everything up.

Picture of this?

If he's poked a hole in the pod filter and is running the breather hoses in there, that could be sucking the fuel out of the carbs and into the pod filters. Those breathers need to be run somewhere to filtered air. Bowl Vents are just that. You suck a milkshake from a straw, and you get milkshake. As the fuel is used in the bowls, the space there must be replaced with either air or fuel to keep it balanced. It's a breather, and they shouldn't be hooked up to a vacuum or pressure.

Are you stil running the emission stuff over the valve covers?

The vacuum ports in front of the carbs should look like this:


The rear of the carbs should look like this:


The green colored lines above, are the carb bowl breather lines. If you leave them open, you'll get dirt in the bowls. Use a breather filter for the crankcase, and bowl vents. Cap off, and remove the emission vacuum stuff. No one will turn you in for doing that.

Post edited by: CoreyClough, at: 2007/10/22 11:36

Darn Double-Postings. :blush:

Post edited by: CoreyClough, at: 2007/10/22 11:34

Thanks for the reply Corey.

CoreyClough wrote:

Picture of this?

No pic yet, but I'll update with one when I can. Hopefully this can help.



The hose labeled "92059A" is what's plugged directly into one of the pod's filter. I'm guessing you're correct about it sucking gas out of the intake.

Are you stil running the emission stuff over the valve covers?

As far as I'm aware, the parts above the airbox in the above image are the only emissions stuff on the bike.

The vacuum ports in front of the carbs should look like this

I'll have to take a look at the bike tonight, but where is the big hose in the middle ending up?

The rear of the carbs should look like this:
...img...

The green colored lines above, are the carb bowl breather lines. If you leave them open, you'll get dirt in the bowls.

Ok, so that's a problem, since they are open, with the hoses just leading nowhere. I'll get a filter on it, but otherwise that's not the cause of any trouble, correct?

So if I get you right, I should just put a filter on the crankcase and those bowl vents, and then cap off the "92059A" hose? Or are you saying that I sould run that hose into the bowl vents and cap off something else?

Edit: Cropped image to be less irritating.

Post edited by: blorgfreth, at: 2007/10/22 12:20

violentvintagecycles wrote:

I have an 82 kz550, almost the same and im going to be installing pods as well. I know the crankcase breather is supposed to have its own breather filter, z1 has em, saw them on ebay stores too. The large hose that goes from the top of the valve cover that used to go into the airbox is also supposed to have its own breather.

Can you point me to the breather filters you're talking about? I can't seem to find them on z1.

www.knfilters.com/vent.htm
Find out your measurement, and see which fits. The one on my engine came with it, but I'll be happy to get any numbers off it and a few pictures next weekend when I'm working on my bike.

I have 2 of these Key Fob Filters attached to the hoses coming from the bowl vents that work out very nice: K&N P/N 87-0150


That large hose you speak of in the picture above, is routed to the airbox, and only exhales the exhaust gasses from the reed valves when the pressure exceedes the valve. That whole smog assembly with the hoses chould be removed. Cap off the valve cover holes(black silicone), or use a hose and loop them togeather. In my carb pictures, there should only be one vacuum hose going to the petcock. Makes it all simple and less hoses to leak.

Post edited by: CoreyClough, at: 2007/10/22 15:22

Blorg, i cant seem to find them on Z1 either, although i could have sworn they were there.. My bad. here is the ebay store item # for the ones i saw
(#130141768967)

CoreyClough wrote:

...helpful info...

Awesome. So once I've got those filters, it takes care of that. I'll probably just loop the smog hoses together so I can easily put it back in place if needed.

Hopefully the last questions on this. Will I need to do any additional tuning after removing the the smog assembly?

Would there be any trouble leaving it on and just capping that large hose?

violentvintagecycles wrote:

Blorg, i cant seem to find them on Z1 either...

No prob. Thanks for the ebay link. I figured it was just a generic one, but wasn't sure if I should be looking for a specific piece.

Thanks for the help guys. I get nervous working on the bike, since I live in an apartment. I have one go at fixing stuff, and can't leave things taken apart or unfinished overnight while I wait for parts or research stuff.

Post edited by: blorgfreth, at: 2007/10/22 17:28

Here's the link to Z1 Enterprises Crankcase Filter:
www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=2628

The crankcase breather filter may not be a great idea if it is spitting stuff into a pod air filter. The reason is that there doesn't really need to be a filter on the crankcase breather except perhaps to keep crud from falling into the engine. A filter in that location on a bike that is getting some blow-by (the oil that blows OUT of the crankcase) can easily clog a filter and if the breather doesn't breathe, you can actually harm your engine. It seems to me that if you connect a hose to the breather pipe and route it over your swingarm, you will be in less danger of this happening. As far as the picture of the carbs with all those hoses fitted to the vacuum ports, that too is a poor idea, in my opinion. Each cylinder has a slightly different amount of compression and thus, each will have a slightly different amount of vacuum produced. This is the purpose of synchronizing your carburetors... this equalizes the slide heights in an environment where there is a different amount of vacuum affecting the slides. If you hook them all together, this doesn't "equalize" the vacuum to where the slides become automatically synchronized; it actually defeats synchronization and all four vacuum ports will then behave as if the carburetors are no longer synchronized... the bike will run rougher I think. I advise capping unused vacuum ports and only connecting the vacuum port needed to actuated the fuel petcock diaphragm. If you are running pods, you should have NO penetrations of any of the pods... the ASS (Air Suction System) should be removed; not utilized with a hose dumping crud into a pod filter. I am also unclear why gas is dumping in the pods with the hoses. I wouldn't think this would happen but then I have never heard of anybody doing this and have no first hand knowledge of doing this so I can't say for sure WHY gas is dumping into those air filters.

The carbs have been both bench sync'ed and vacuum synced, and are working just fine. It was recommended connecting the 1&4 and 2&3 vacuum ports together a while back, and I've been doing it ever since. I am guessing it has something to do with firing order and vacuum pulses. I guess it could be run with them capped, but since it's working for me, I'm leaving it that way.

I agree if using pod filters, then trash the vacuum valve system.

Makes sense about the breather filter. If he's getting pressure from it, then it's a sign on piston ring blow-by, and a complete compression test(wet and dry) should be performed. The breather system doesn't need to be a complete sealed system like on cars, routing it back to the intake, so routing it away from where road dirt and water can enter is what I'd recommend.

Thanks for your opinions and suggestions George, always look forward to them.