I saw some discussions in another thread so I thought it might be useful to get everyones viewpoints in one easily-to-find thread.

My opinion .....

If you need to do a carb treatment on a regular basis then you're running too rich. Period.

Now there are various reasons why you may be running rich, from an overly rich jetted carb to running the engine cold (such as short trips in cool weather).

I believe the best treatment is to cure the cause of the rich condition rather than adding gas/carb treatments to 'fix' it.

Once you have carbon-fouled the engine, then these treatments are effective at temporarily fixing the condition but I don't believe that you should be relying on them to keep the engine clean.

Doc

I agree Doc

I did the shock on mine to clean everything out from the rich factory settings. I think part of the confusion comes from the fact that the bikes will run so good when jetted rich that people think it's good to go. So if there is a problem they don't think it's jetting related.

I too, agree. Yes, I did start a post that was about resolving this issue, which lead to me "shocking" the carb.
Now , as a result, I'm back with the stock(jetting) set up , as it has never given me a problem, Infact , been told it may be on the lean side. Runs execelent now , and will be messed with only as nessesary.(or when the mood strikes) Seems like every time I jetted, following the instructions both here and at RSR,which was to jet on the lean side, I encountered issues. Who knows, could be me.

jetting is an issue
and too much choke but

I have run into a lot of guys using hi test gas and because they did with other bikes including harleys

But in the road star because of low compression ratio this can lead to incomplete burn and a cause of a lot of carbon problems..

After pulling mine down and reaming the guides and with the amount of carbon that was present in the ports and in the compression chambers of the heads. I could not agree more. Mine was jetted when i got it and i new then that the back valves were already sticking a little. The previous owner must have thought BIGGER=BETTER. This is not so. I agree with yall totally. Unless you are going with a bigger bore then more than one size larger is way to big. And then If running in cold temps for short distance can give you trouble. <br><br>Post edited by: BamaStar, at: 2007/02/28 18:09

Ditto to what everyone has said. I prefer the preventative approach. When I got mine, it had 4,000 miles (sea level) with stock jetting. I brought it up here to 5,900 feet and noticed the problem. I took out the stock main jet (182.5 Mikuni, equivalent to 194 DJ! ) and changed to the 175 DJ. Put the DJ needle on the 3rd clip from the top, put the PMS at 2 turns and added the Speedstar K&amp;N filer setup and the HK 3&quot; big straights. I did the through-the-carb MMO spray-till-she-dies shock treatment, and have been running 1-2 caps full of MMO through every tank full since. Problem seems to be all but totally gone.

Just for a final swat at it, when the bike is reassembled and the weather gets warm, I'm gonna do the can of Seafoam through the first tank of the season, run the piss out of it, then add 4 (and ONLY 4) quarts of Mobil 1 V-twin and a K&amp;N oil filter. Then I'll just continue the preventative MMO capful in each tank of gas, and I believe that and the leaner setup it should keep it running SVS-free. Hell, I think I could even go down to the DJ170 main, but I don't wanna go TOO lean. And I NEVER lug it...

RK<br><br>Post edited by: Roadkill1962, at: 2007/02/28 21:38

I would like to add to that it doesn't help that every jet kit you can buy for the roadstar has you jetting it SO rich , that you're already in trouble just following directions(try explaining that to your mother). I personally didn't find this site until After I had followed DJ instructions (destructions), and knew something wasn't up to snuff.

Big Bear wrote:
I'm back with the stock(jetting) set up , as it has never given me a problem, Infact , been told it may be on the lean side.

BB
I thought the bike comes from the factory with a 182.5 main jet which is said to be too rich from all I read .I would like to know what your set up was since we live in the same area .I have factory pro jets and am going to install dynajet some time or another . My setup is 175 main.... washer clip on the 3rd groove....pms slightly &lt; 3 rounds out......Coug <br><br>Post edited by: Cougar, at: 2007/03/01 05:52

Hey, Coug...if your ride is a little uncomfortable...the gas tank goes on the OTHER way, man...LMAO!

OK, so it seemed funny to ME at 5:00 in the morning...

RK

The set up I'm running is as follows: stock jets, stock needle , pms at 3. Now here's where I'm being told its probably on the lean side from Guido (read his comment in &quot;exciting update&quot; post). I'm also running the barons ported manifold, the airbox drilled with 10 half inch holes , and a K&amp;N filter. Also running the roadhouse classic two into one system. I guess that combo sort-a leans out the rich jetting, but I tell you, she runs great.I'm probably no more than an hour maybe an hour and a half from you, if you want to give it a quick spin, I'd be happy to meet you somewhere (so I can drool over your pipes in person).Let me know,BB.