Signs of Carburetor Icing

[Flying]

What the title says. Searching on Google gave me many results specific to aviation.

Could someone list the classic signs/symptoms of carb icing while the bike is running as well as inform whether or not these issues would cause short-term damage?

[CC Cowboy]

Originally Posted by Flying

What the title says. Searching on Google gave me many results specific to aviation.

Could someone list the classic signs/symptoms of carb icing while the bike is running as well as inform whether or not these issues would cause short-term damage?

Icing used to happen in one of my dad's planes. You get lose of power and sputtering. Just pull on the carb heat and it will stop.

[Whiskey]

It's about 2-4c outside, the bike losses power & cuts out, rolling on doesn't help. it's happy to restart after sitting for a short time (no vacuum raises the melting point & the carbs are on top of a warm engine) but does it again.

It's not going to do much damage by itself, but knowing it's losing power means you want an exit strategy because the dozy prick in the Jeep behind you could...

[Whiskey]

Originally Posted by CC Cowboy

Icing used to happen in one of my dad's planes. You get lose of power and sputtering. Just pull on the carb heat and it will stop.

Does the 250 have a carb heater? Only had an fi one

[Racer x]

It would be rare to ice up the carb on a 250 ninja. No ,no carb heat. But the icing is caused by perfect conditions. It like a high dew point. The air is saturated with cold moisture. The barometric pressure in the carb condenses the moisture and water is produced. This water freezes and blocks fuel passages.
The solution is to simple start te engine . Let it run then shut it off. Allow the engine heat to warm the carb. This will melt the ice and you can go on riding.

[Skullz]

I've ridden down to -5f last winter for short periods of time with no icing or loss of power but it does take a lot longer to warm the bike, and you'll use almost full choke until it is completely warm.

[csmith12]

I am pretty sure this would be the first sign of carb icing. ijs...

[DaBlue1]

What is carburetor ice?


Carb heater install on ninja 250 - YouTube

[Racer x]

When it's super cold there is not much moisture in the air. It takes a specific set of conditions for icing to be a problem

[Whiskey]

Lifted from another forum, a long serving mod who's a mechanic got sick of answering the same question multiple times

Carb icing ... The facts. -
its coming up regular again so to save unnecessary threads ill get some info going here.

carb icing normally happens at temps of +4 to 0 degrees, it can happen at higher temps but normally it will need fog or mist to happen in the +8 to +4 range.
once its actually freezing out the problem tends to go away as the moisture entering the airbox freezes and goes to the bottom of the air-box instead of entering the carbs.
there's some realy good vids of the process happening on a vmax owned by biker.ie member johnpclynch

Link to original page on YouTube.
and

Link to original page on YouTube.
symptoms are typically rough running which gradually gets worse until you have to stop,then bike wont start or struggles to start but if left for 5 mins its back to normal, goes great again but 5 mins or so on an open road and it starts loosing speed gradually again.
lads generally suspect dirt in carbs or a dodgy coil breaking down under heat

a post from mosquito today is very typical of the posts about the subject in the workshop section
entitled " speed dropping"
http://www.biker.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=101913

Originally Posted by mosquito View Post
Well lads,

Having abit of trouble, seems when I'm traveling steadily at 60 to 70 after a few mins the bike would just suddenly out of nowhere drop down to 55-45 and there would be no encouraging it to pick up speed again it just keeps going down gradually so I'd drop her down to forth still no go, so I pull into the hard shoulder and pull in the clutch and then it will just die, and is a **** to get going again and it's never usually hard to start.. Happened to me about four times on Friday.

The weird thing is I could drive around for hours on roads that I have to keep altering my speed and it wouldn't happen but on a straight line for five ten minutes it will happen without fail..

Any ideas to what the problem is? Minor/Major?

Thanks in advance lads
............................................................ ............................................
the cure....
many manufacturers tried various carb mods , some better than others but none were perfect. the kwackers suffered badly from it thus they modded them by feeding warm coolant to the underside of the float bowls but the skinny pipes and filter often stop the flow so it lets the bike down.
suzuki tried the stupid electrical carb heating method and i doubt it ever worked right .
one thing that definitely does work is silkolene pro fst . the stuffs great and if you suspect carb icing get some straight away .
heres what silkolene have to say.........
http://www.silkoleneoil.com/techtip7.htm


genuine posts of help/queries will be left on this thread ,all the rest will be cleaned out every few weeks .
hope this was of help.
chopper

[Ghostt]

I think I might have your answers, http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/What_is_carburetor_ice%3F