Kawasaki Concours Forum
The C-14, aka Kawasaki Concours-14, the new one :) => The Bike - C14/GTR 1400 => Topic started by: Howard kelly on September 22, 2012, 11:16:32 PM
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so i left my house and the bike felt funny...wasnt sure what i felt. its 7 blocks to the freeway from my driveway, hot the freeway and it felt ok. cruising at 80, felt a need to pass someone and the bike chugged and didnt accelerat smoothly. downshifted a few gears and it went fast--but not as fast as normal. something is wrong. got where i needed to go and talked to a friend. he suggest a plug had gone bad and it made sense...like i was running on three cylinders and and running rough. left to go home, the bike felt the same, rough. i made a plan to replace the plugs. (22000 on the bike btw)
got home and smelled something funny, looked in the engine compartment, everything seemed ok, looked at the exhaust--actually in it--glowing orange. grabbed my heat temp gun and saw 447 on the black muffler portion and 190 on the head pipe coming in. a close look and the black on the muffler is cracking and peeling-- makes me think the cat is clogged....thoughts?
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Could still be a bad spark plug, or anything else that causes too much raw fuel in the exhaust
All that unburned fuel will ignite in the cat, and make it get really, really hot.
At 24K miles, the plugs in mine looked clean, but the gap was out of spec (too wide).
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agreed....changing plugs next weekend
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You know that the cats are not in the muffler can right? They're right after the header.
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They are in the collector the large area where the four pipes come together.
very restrictive, for a motor that moves a lot of air at high RPMs .
I removed mine and wrapped the header and collector so my gas tank never gets warm anymore.
I was going to drill them out with a long drill but they are VERY hard , so I had a welding shop cut it open , remove and weld back up.
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Is it the stock exhaust? If so, there could be a potato stuck in there... :-\
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Is it the stock exhaust? If so, there could be a potato stuck in there... :-\
:rotflmao: I mean literally :rotflmao:
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They are in the collector the large area where the four pipes come together.
very restrictive, for a motor that moves a lot of air at high RPMs .
I removed mine and wrapped the header and collector so my gas tank never gets warm anymore.
I was going to drill them out with a long drill but they are VERY hard , so I had a welding shop cut it open , remove and weld back up.
Did you add a PCV or anything to change the fuel map? Just wondering if changing the exhaust flow changed how the engine runs.
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At first all I did was the ZX header and Two Brothers duals , I had to block off that grey tube from the intake box because it was really poping when down shifting, I did not notice anything unusual . The only real difference was the front tire comming up higher in 1st to 2nd shifts ;)
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You know that the cats are not in the muffler can right? They're right after the header.
Pretty sure there are two cats. One in the collector and a second in the muffler
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According to my service manual, the cats are in the collector just before it goes into the muffler page 5-6.
Manifold - Honeycomb type catalyst without o2 sensor P/No. 39178-0083 Mark: KHI M 114
Muffler body - Non Catalyst P/No. 18091-0470 Mark: KHI K 517 EPA Noise Emission Control Information
This is corroborated in the 2008 Design Factoid
http://www.kawasaki.com/Content/pdfs/products/concours_QandA.pdf (http://www.kawasaki.com/Content/pdfs/products/concours_QandA.pdf)
Which is also linked to in our C14 Interesting Facts part 1
http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=93.0 (http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=93.0)
Which might not be a bad idea to review on occasion.
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Pretty sure there are two cats. One in the collector and a second in the muffler
Sorry but you're wrong Howard. Feel free to ask anyone who has shortened their bazooka or see Jim's post above.
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Definately no cats in the 'zooka. Theey are stacked in the collector.
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Pretty sure there are two cats. One in the collector and a second in the muffler
If your cat got into the muffler then that would explain the loss of performance. Your wife probably won't be very happy with you either.
(http://rcdas.org/home/images/stories/articles/newsreleases/2011/11-1224a/cat-in-pipe-stuck.jpg)
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That darn cat!
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If your cat got into the muffler then that would explain the loss of performance. Your wife probably won't be very happy with you either.
(http://rcdas.org/home/images/stories/articles/newsreleases/2011/11-1224a/cat-in-pipe-stuck.jpg)
Cat in a hot tin pipe, that's not good for anyone, specially the cat.
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If your cat got into the muffler then that would explain the loss of performance. Your wife probably won't be very happy with you either.
(http://rcdas.org/home/images/stories/articles/newsreleases/2011/11-1224a/cat-in-pipe-stuck.jpg)
Cat in a hot tin pipe, that's not good for anyone, specially the cat.
Pussy in a can? :-\ :-X
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And so it begins....
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And so it begins....
(http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb336/jaywilcox/hiding.gif) (http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb336/jaywilcox/swiqe.gif)
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That looks like some smokin hot pussy.
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Ahhhhhh what a cute little pussy. I had a girlfriend with a pussy like that, but I dumped her for a girl with a different pussy. It was a cool pussy too... it would come when I called it!! ;D
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longhair or shorthair? I kind of like hairless, tattooed pussy.
.
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Not to be a killjoy, but back on topic, did OP figure this out? How long had the bike sat? Could some critter have gotten in and nested - seriously...................might explain the blocked airflow and burning material. Mice and even birds can be pretty industrious and look for confined spaces to nest.
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Finally finished diagnosis...ok I have been busy. The dead cylinder is from a failed stick coil. My dealer says there IS a catalytic converter in the muffler and that is why it was glowing orange inside and baked the black finish off of it....unburnt fuel, cat, heat....do your own scientific explanation
Meeting with the dealer Tuesday to see about warranty covering this...I am 3 months over the 36 months, but only have 22000 miles....
Btw...getting to the plugs is a GIANT pain in the butt
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Finally finished diagnosis...ok I have been busy. The dead cylinder is from a failed stick coil. My dealer says there IS a catalytic converter in the muffler and that is why it was glowing orange inside and baked the black finish off of it....unburnt fuel, cat, heat....do your own scientific explanation
Meeting with the dealer Tuesday to see about warranty covering this...I am 3 months over the 36 months, but only have 22000 miles....
Btw...getting to the plugs is a GIANT pain in the butt
Hmm, that's the first stick coil failure on a C14 I've read about. Not that I've searched around for that failure, but following this board it's the first (for me).
I still don't see how your dealer can claim there's a cat in the muffler. Several people have disassembled the muffler on the 08 & 09 to shorten them. They're saying no to the cat (but then, everyone knows cats don't listen).
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Interesting. Every thing we've been told and seen for the US models indicates that there is no cat to be found in the exhaust bazooka. I think your dealer is wrong in this regard but I can't get that orange glow explained unless there was unburned fuel doing something. In looking at the business end of the bazooka, could it be possible that you were seeing the cat in the collector glowing?
Hmm, that's the first stick coil failure on a C14 I've read about. Not that I've searched around for that failure, but following this board it's the first (for me).
I still don't see how your dealer can claim there's a cat in the muffler. Several people have disassembled the muffler on the 08 & 09 to shorten them. They're saying no to the cat (but then, everyone knows cats don't listen).
Or to herd, like forum members....
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I don't know about what was glowing, I was pretty freaked out at the time, but I think it would be hard for the inlet pipe to be 195 degrees and the canister 447 without something in there
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That massive potato launcher is so freakin big there could be a herd of cats in there and nobody would ever know... ;)
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Let's put this to rest. Your dealer is kooky. I've had the stock muffler apart and I have removed the cats from the collector. There are no cats in the bazooka furry or otherwise.
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That's a relief..
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I'll have to concur with concurly...
I was one of the first (if not the first) to gut the cat out of the mid pipe... and I've had my stock electrolux apart to see about shortening it... There is no catalytic converter in the muffler itself.
If the cat in your midpipe was blocked, the engine heat couldn't get thru it.. Your muffler could have never turned red. Probably the unburnt fuel from the dead cylinder was raising the temp of the exhaust itself. I would think the cat was clean now. Shouldn't occur again once your stick coil is replaced and you are up and running again.
Guys,
Our bikes are 5 years old now... Start looking for this kind of stuff (stick coils) and other parts on EBay... I picked up a whole set of them a few years back for like 35 bucks off of a bike being parted out.. You just never know when you might need something like that, and you sure don't want to pay retail from a Kaw parts house for a new one
JJ
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+1 to that idea! Just bought some off ebay. Thanks for the tip. Not quite as low as yours but close enough...