RaWarrior
Well-Known Member
My Max has this intermittent, seemingly randomly issue. At highway speeds(anything over about 55 or so), a "lag" shows up in the throttle. Like you're holding steady at say 70mph, and start to slowly roll on the gas. I'll roll on a little, and nothing happens. Roll some more, nothing. A little more, and all of a sudden it comes to life and takes off with a burst of power. This problem comes and goes pretty randomly, and lasts a pretty random amount of time also. Sometimes for a tank or two, other times for only a minute. Then it may go several tanks and run perfectly. Setting the t-boost to 3k instead of 6k(opening it) always stops the hesitation instantly.
My Magna had this problem, but at all speeds and it turned out to be a bad(arcing) plug wire. The Max got new wires/caps/coils/plugs last winter so that can't be it, and leads me to think it must be a fuel issue.
Thinking it was maybe some water contaminated gas that's hanging around in the tank, I added some k-100(a cure-all type thing similar to sea foam) to the tank of regular 87 gas. The hesitation stopped and did not happen again for the remainder of the tank. I filled up again(87) and the problem returned. More watery gas? Added some sea-foam this time. Problem stopped. Since both K-100 and sea foam claim to raise octane, I thought maybe that was the issue. Filled up with 89, no additive. Ran great for the whole tank(and at least subjectively it ran smoother). I filled up with 87 next time and the problem returned just a couple minutes after filling up. Back to 89, ran great again.
The problem had not returned for 3-4 tanks, all 89 until I was forced to fill up at a dodgy, hole-in-the-wall gas station that still had mechanical "odometer" dials on the pumps. They were out of regular, so I had no choice but "super". Problem almost instantly returned and the bike seemed noticeably less powerful. I ran that tank through almost to fumes, and then just for the hell of it I put in 93 ultra at the local Sunoco. Problem vanished again, ran great, and now my idle was 200 rpm higher than before on the hi-test stuff.
Through all of this the bike is 100% rideable, idles fine, and once you get on it past the "dead spot", it takes off strong as always. It is annoying though when highway cruising, since it doesn't want to hold a steady speed.
Any thoughts on this? The randomness of the problem makes it difficult to tell if any of the additives/octane changes were affecting the problem, or were just coincidences. The engine is stock except for Stage 1 jetting, K&N filter, and holeshot slip-ons.
My Magna had this problem, but at all speeds and it turned out to be a bad(arcing) plug wire. The Max got new wires/caps/coils/plugs last winter so that can't be it, and leads me to think it must be a fuel issue.
Thinking it was maybe some water contaminated gas that's hanging around in the tank, I added some k-100(a cure-all type thing similar to sea foam) to the tank of regular 87 gas. The hesitation stopped and did not happen again for the remainder of the tank. I filled up again(87) and the problem returned. More watery gas? Added some sea-foam this time. Problem stopped. Since both K-100 and sea foam claim to raise octane, I thought maybe that was the issue. Filled up with 89, no additive. Ran great for the whole tank(and at least subjectively it ran smoother). I filled up with 87 next time and the problem returned just a couple minutes after filling up. Back to 89, ran great again.
The problem had not returned for 3-4 tanks, all 89 until I was forced to fill up at a dodgy, hole-in-the-wall gas station that still had mechanical "odometer" dials on the pumps. They were out of regular, so I had no choice but "super". Problem almost instantly returned and the bike seemed noticeably less powerful. I ran that tank through almost to fumes, and then just for the hell of it I put in 93 ultra at the local Sunoco. Problem vanished again, ran great, and now my idle was 200 rpm higher than before on the hi-test stuff.
Through all of this the bike is 100% rideable, idles fine, and once you get on it past the "dead spot", it takes off strong as always. It is annoying though when highway cruising, since it doesn't want to hold a steady speed.
Any thoughts on this? The randomness of the problem makes it difficult to tell if any of the additives/octane changes were affecting the problem, or were just coincidences. The engine is stock except for Stage 1 jetting, K&N filter, and holeshot slip-ons.