How much have I shortened the life of my Zen?

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sperera

sperera

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Had a big scare and still concered about my fairly new zen in the FG.

Met up with a couple of members at the show grounds for a bash. Filter wasnt clean but still in good condition. Running stock FG filter with TGN dual stage on top. All oiled correctly.

After about a 5-10min run in very very loose and fine dirt my motor wouldnt rev much. Had a look and the filter had turned black because of the loose dirt (and heaps of it) in that short time. Even the inner filter was very dirty.

So I though just a dirty filter, not getting enough air why engine is not revving. Didnt run it anymore. Took it home to clean and saw that dirt was on filter housing, took that off, dirt was in carby on choke circle thingy. CRAP :mad:

Took carby off, cleaned it in kero, blew with compressor, had a look at manifold, no dirt in there, looked at side of piston through inlet port, no dirt there, cleaned filter and carby and ran 1 tank from start to finish (at a different spot!) and all seemed well, revving and idling nice, plug colour is good too.

Have I drastically reduced the life of my zen? I think I have but don't know. Im on tank number 12, original zen (G260RC1) lasted 49 tanks and was hoping this would be similar but don't know anymore.

There's a vid in the vid section of the FG running before it wouldnt rev. Hard surface to explain, almost like top soil, super soft, loose and fine.
 
the only thing you can do is try it. im sure the filter was clogged causing it not to run. ive had this happen to, very dusty parking lots. this is why its important to run a tgn redneck and a pre-filter bag. my motor has had dust in the carb 2 or 3 times now, still runs good now, although im sure i wont get great life out of it.
 
ive already ran a tank since it happened and seemed fine, revved really clean and nice.

just don't know how long it will last.

im going to start using grease on either end of the filters as added insurance.
 
mine sucked a bunch of dirt in in spring last year, been fine ever since. the cylinder wall doesn't look the greatest now but it still runs great, id guess about 6 liters of fuel later.
 
no real way to gauge it except by performance.

you may of been lucky and not did much of anything. but you may of cut the life of the ring. all depends on how much actually got thru.

you should Really think about using the Baja air fitler setup. they are that well setup, once properly oiled and greased. youll have no more worry unless you just don't change the filter out. heh.


worst case, you need a new ring in a couple tanks.
 
I'll agree with Timmah on the filters. I run HPI on nearly all my 5ths, even the semi has one sticking out the back. I put filter oil on the ends to seal it to the case. they also have a rubber seal inside that helps. for the off roads I add an outerwears (not needed with on road so much). Mind you the FG filter is pretty good too as I have one on the baja.

Sharkey, we should almost invest in a couple leaf blowers for the lot this year. Dave has my old one. Only $100 at princess auto. if we had 3 or 4 going we could clean the lot in 15 mins
 
Timmahh said:
no real way to gauge it except by performance.

you may of been lucky and not did much of anything. but you may of cut the life of the ring. all depends on how much actually got thru.

you should Really think about using the Baja air fitler setup. they are that well setup, once properly oiled and greased. youll have no more worry unless you just don't change the filter out. heh.


worst case, you need a new ring in a couple tanks.
Click to expand...

was it you who did the thread on setting up an air filter? it was a very informative thread ;)
 
hmmm HPI set up, that might be an idea.

i already oil the fg filters on the ends to help the seal but dirt still got through the ends. inside of air filter was still clean, outside little dirty.

will the HPI filter fit inbetween the roll cage on FG's? I think they will because their circumference is smaller than FG plus I have a TGN dual stage on top of that which makes it wider again but still fits inside the roll cage.
 
I thought the stock FG filter was supposed to be fairly decent for offroad even more so with a prefilter??? I have a K&N with a pre filter and it was fine after a beach run. Maybe there was a minute gap on the underside that you didnt see or something cos it sure sounds unusual??
 
thats usually the case for me too, run 40+tanks on my old FG MT and 62 on this one and its the first time ive noticed dirt got around, and I oil the whole filter including the sides so im pretty stumped how it happened. i think it was the type of dirt I was on, almost like top soil, hard to describe.

i think the outlaw is the only foolproof set up when oiled and cleaned correctly ofcourse, no way for dirt to go around the filter like the FG setup.

ill try the grease, if dirt still finds it way past im getting a outlaw and v-stack.
 
did some work on the air filter last night, oiled up both TGN and stock, including the sides that touch the filter housings, as ive always done, then put a nice layer of grease around both sides of the filter housing.

will give it a test over the weekend, if still no good im going to be getting the outlaw set up.

anyone know if clean grease gets sucked into the engine if it causes any damage?
 
whats this outlaw filter set up you on about sounds good any links/pics i cant see it being a problem grease getting in as the fuel should break it down might smoke abit more thats all but not 100%
 
I wouldn't think grease would hurt anything, but it sure is messy. What surfaces do you run on to have such a dirt problem?

I have been everywhere with mine from the beach, to in the water and I've never ingested in dirt with just the stock filter. Are you using a sticky air filter oil? I buy mine from the motorcycle shop. This stuff is like sticky chewing gum between my fingers. If you don't oil the filter, no filter is going to work correctly.

At 60 tanks I would have given up counting! :lol: It's like measuring a 10 year old's age in months, "Oh he's 120 months old" haha. I just go by gallons, it's easier.
 
goon news on the grease.

oh and im in australia, we don't use gallons, 0.7L per tank so thats 42 litres.

the dirt, usually I run on gravel, fine dust gets kicked up and lots of it. but this never, to my knowledge makes it way into the engine, everytime I do a filter clean I check the housings and never noticed dirt until my first run at a new spot. completley different dirt, almost like top soil, very loose, very very soft and lots of it, also fine dust mixed in there.

in five minutes a new clean and oiled filter was black, and the dirt found its way around the filter.

I use castrol foam air filter oil in a spray can, also purcahsed from a motor bike shop, always used it and never had an issue until now.

Here's a link for the outlaw filter.

http://powerslideracing.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28_30&products_id=2420
 
I personally never liked the spray can oil, I don't think it penetrates the filter well enough, it just sits on top of the filter like a skin. I like the lube in a squeeze bottle, that way I can saturate the filter and squeeze out any extra. Then I know for sure it's thoroughly lubed.

Just a personal preference.


Sorry about the liters to gallon mix-up, I forgot you guys in Australia are on the metric system. I used to do conversions in all my posts for the metric guys, but I can't remember them all off the top of my head. I know a liter is about a quart, so I guess you've ran almost 10 gallons through your truck. That's about the same as the tank on a small (1:1) car.
 
no worries about the metric system LOL.

i like the spray cans coz I can cover the entire filter in the stuff and then squeeze it through, the oil bottle tends to drown one section of the filter and then you need to concentrate to squeeze it evenly to the rest.

i really think its more of the surface im running on to be honest. here's a vid of the day it happnened, check out the dirt, real dark and so soft.


im getting a outlaw filter and v stack off a mate so ill try this out when I get it and see how that holds up.
 
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