Kawasaki Concours Forum
The C10, aka Kawasaki Concours - The Original => The Bike - C10 => Topic started by: julianop on December 06, 2012, 10:08:52 PM
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For those who swear by it, what's the recommended dose of TC-W3 per tank full ??
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Better make it stronger than 50:1. Why? That's what's in yer weed eater, right? How does it start in the spring?
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I run 2 oz / tank. If a bike is gonna sit a good long time, maybe double it, but that's alot. I will say this - my bikes sit in a steel building in the summer in Florida, and don't get ridden much during the summer. Ethanol evaporates at an alarming rate, and in just a day or 2 I would need to use prime to refill the bowls. On the voyager it goes from insta-start to cranking forever to fill the carbs (fuel pump). Pre tcw-3 I was having carb issues. i actually had to pull shoodabens carbs after a 6 week layoff because the pilots were clogged hopelessly. Since the tcw-3 I have has ZERO issues. I know older guys used Marvel Mystery oil the same way, and tout the same advantages. JMO, Steve
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2 oz. per tank kept my connie starting and running fine. Backin Steve up on this one as I had the same experience with my bike.
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Thanks chaps. I've been through one bottle at about that 2oz/tank dose, and have just bought a second bottle. My bike doesn't sit much more than a week, and I'll ride through the winter as much as I can, but I am virtually convinced it helps anyway...
Seems to me it helps to lube the carb slides, making roll-ons and roll-offs between 2000 and 3000 smoother. Could I be right, do you suppose, or is it my imagination and wishful thinking?
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Seems to me it helps to lube the carb slides, making roll-ons and roll-offs between 2000 and 3000 smoother. Could I be right, do you suppose, or is it my imagination and wishful thinking?
I can't offer any real proof, but I agree that I think it helps. It certainly doesn't hurt them.
I rode year round here in arkansas and never had more than a week or two in the winter that it sat. But with todays crap they sell for gas, that was enough time to cause a problem if I didn"t have the oil added. And in the summer heat it took less than a week.
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So why do chain saws and weed eaters have problems?
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So why do chain saws and weed eaters have problems?
Poor design, probably. The carburetors in those things are hardly top grade designs, and the slightest imperfection would be likely to cause problems.
Just my expressly uneducated opinion.
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So why do chain saws and weed eaters have problems?
I don't do chain saws and weed eaters - to lazy, I pay someone - but I've been using tcw3 for a few years in my pressure washer, and it has looong sits. never fails to start and runs like a champ. I have to admit though, it's a honda :rotflmao: Steve
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So why do chain saws and weed eaters have problems?
I'm not having any issues with the weedeater or lawn mower I use it in. ;D
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Or maybe the carbs in the weed-whackers and saws are better designs than motorcycles. - ??
I have a Sindawa 25 brush cutter, 2 Stihl saws (029 and 170), cheap-a$$ MTD lawnmower, and Generac 3.5K generator. Except for the mower, all are 18 years old and all start with two or three pulls of the string even after sitting all winter. The fuel in the Generac is from 1996, sitting in a damp cold basement and it starts and runs just fine. I don't use tcw-3, but I do use Stabil in the Generac, the Connie and the Wee-Strom.
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I'm intrigued by all this. I use Stabil and have had no problems in the snowblower, weed eater, street bikes, dirt bikes, pressure washer, lawn mower, atvs. It'd be cheaper and more convenient for me to throw in a few ounces of 2 stroke oil, but does it have to be TCWIII specifically or will Castol Actevo Snow 2T 2cycle oil for snowmobiles work?
Another question - I wonder why Toro sells their 2 cycle oil with "fuel stabilizer added"?
http://www.lifeandhome.com/toro-snow-oil.html?gclid=CMbqsrSwibQCFao7MgodwSgAbA (http://www.lifeandhome.com/toro-snow-oil.html?gclid=CMbqsrSwibQCFao7MgodwSgAbA)
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Stihl advertises an ethanol free gas/oil mix on their web site for sale.
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Poor design, probably. The carburetors in those things are hardly top grade designs, and the slightest imperfection would be likely to cause problems.
Just my expressly uneducated opinion.
No wonder, carbs made by harley could never be top grade.
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Stihl advertises an ethanol free gas/oil mix on their web site for sale.
Just about all the small engine shops around here sell pre-mixed fuel and highly recommend it. They say the majority of their work is carb work. Co-worker swears by it, says it has a long shelf life.
Mike
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Just about all the small engine shops around here sell pre-mixed fuel and highly recommend it. They say the majority of their work is carb work. Co-worker swears by it, says it has a long shelf life.
I asked the guy that runs the small engine shop (teaching inmates how to fix and rebuild them) at my prison a few questions earlier this year. He suggested using premium gas. (Ethanol free not available anywhere near here. And how much more does the premium really cost in the amounts you use in small engines?) But he said that even the premium gas here in NY wasn't great.
I had asked him about my line trimmer, which wouldn't run, except on half choke. Even when new. He said that the EPA settings (unadjustable) on the carbs, and the crappy NY ethanol gas both contributed to it. The solution: Keep running it on half choke.
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TC-W3? Brand name or ????? I guess it's a fuel stabilizer, right? Been using Sta-bil; any advantages to TC-W3?
Thanks,
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TC-W3? Brand name or ????? I guess it's a fuel stabilizer, right? Been using Sta-bil; any advantages to TC-W3?
Thanks,
Two Cycle Outboard Motor Oil
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TC-W3? Brand name or ????? I guess it's a fuel stabilizer, right? Been using Sta-bil; any advantages to TC-W3?
Thanks,
It is a specific rating/specification for two-stroke oil.
http://www.nmma.org/certification/certification/oil/tc-w3.aspx (http://www.nmma.org/certification/certification/oil/tc-w3.aspx)
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I use Lucas TCW3 and put a cap full in every time I remember that I just filled up...around home, anyway...
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I use Lucas TCW3 and put a cap full in every time I remember that I just filled up...around home, anyway...
I imagine you'd want to shake it around to mix it properly if you do it that way.
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Will any 2 cycle oil work or does it have to be TC-W3?
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TC-W3 on the label. I used walmart brand $11.00 a gallon. I had bought a smaller bottle of it that was marked in 2 0z. increments and just continued to refill it from the gallon.
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I saved a handful of empty and clean 5-Hour Energy drink bottles for TC-W3. They are 2 oz bottles. I keep a few full ones with me ready for fill ups.
edit: not to worry. The original label is torn off, so they do not drunk (drank?).
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I saved a handful of empty and clean 5-Hour Energy drink bottles for TC-W3. They are 2 oz bottles. I keep a few full ones with me ready for fill ups.
Does your Concours have more PEP?? ;D
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Does your Concours have more PEP?? ;D
Yes. But that is more because of SiSF :)
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I saved a handful of empty and clean 5-Hour Energy drink bottles for TC-W3. They are 2 oz bottles. I keep a few full ones with me ready for fill ups.
edit: not to worry. The original label is torn off, so they do not drunk (drank?).
That's a good idea. I've been using a baby bottle, since it seals well and has nice measurement markings on the side, but it can be a little messy.
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The smaller the cylinder, the smaller ther jets. That is part of the reason that the C-10's have trouble, they are pretty small jets controlling each of our little 250cc cylinders fuel. Take a look at a jet for a 26cc weed eater or a 50cc moped, you can hardly see through them when they are clean and new. That little hole plugs up really easy. The carb on my 300 Inch six cylinder ford had a jet that looked like it would pass grains of rice, and it never plugged up.
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I imagine you'd want to shake it around to mix it properly if you do it that way.
Yep! A couple of pumps of the front forks works (in my mind, anyway)...and, I feel better knowing I've just helped coat the inside of the fuel tank with a light oil film...no rust visible so far...I also use Star Tron to help stop water from collecting in the low spots...carbs still seem good after two and a half years... ;)
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Yep! A couple of pumps of the front forks works (in my mind, anyway)...and, I feel better knowing I've just helped coat the inside of the fuel tank with a light oil film...no rust visible so far...I also use Star Tron to help stop water from collecting in the low spots...carbs still seem good after two and a half years... ;)
Yup. I'll rock mine from side to side at the gas station if I forget to put it in before filling with gas. I'm now perfectly accustomed to people looking at me as if I'm strange.
I'll look up that Star Tron...
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Yup. I'll rock mine from side to side at the gas station if I forget to put it in before filling with gas. I'm now perfectly accustomed to people looking at me as if I'm strange.
I'll look up that Star Tron...
If I forget to add it before filling up, I just let the natural violent agitation action of upstate NY's roads mix the tank contents for me.
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If I forget to add it before filling up, I just let the natural violent agitation action of upstate NY's roads mix the tank contents for me.
The northern Midwest - Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois - seem bad this winter: I think there has been more moisture getting in under poorly maintained roads. That causes buckling during thaw/refreeze cycles, and the plows do the rest.
I saw a road crew patching up holes in Rockford IL this morning; I found that a bit optimistic, but every bit helps, I suppose.