Feul lines
 

Er, my bad choice of words there Frank, not quite explicit enough . Yes there are two feul lines out to the injectors , but I don't think one wants to be cutting and splicing filters into those pressure sensitive units, but I may be wrong, I havent really seen any done so I don't know how that would go, would like to hear how it works..The usual approach to filtering was, I thought , to put a filter in the line between uptake point and fuel pumps and other such finely calibrated equipment to keep the crud out. On the gs this is all done inside the tank.
I was just venting a bit of frustration about how engineers and designers like hiding bits in locations which ,yes, are clever and out of the way but which turn the machine into a giant time consuming puzzle when it could be simple and straightforward.e.g. unclogging the filler drain tube which I have done. Not very practical for problems which may occur and need to be rectified at roadside with minimal tools. As another example, unrelated , my old R100 came with a neat single sided swingarm to make quick wheel removal a cinch. Then they hung on a muffler which trapped the wheel, so first the hot muffler has to be taken off.Grrrrrrrrr. Or another: the new 1200gs has centerstand placed so far aft that to remove the front wheel one needs a ton of ballast on the luggage rack ,or a set of blocks under the front axle or suspend it from overhead. Grrrrr.

Fuel vapour lock?
 

I added an additional filter in line on my carburated f650 to stop crud in the fuel. I figured I could just replace it every now and again as required, or at worse take it off and chuck it away.

What I found was that after a few weeks, whenever it was really hot, my bike would suffer from fuel starvation. Opening the throttle seemed to clear it, then it would come back. Stopping for 20mins would also improve it for a little while, then it would come back. What I found was that a vapour lock was occurring in the in-line filter under hot conditions. The fuel was turning to vapour inside the filter body and stopping more fuel from arriving. Opening the throttle seemed to allow the vapour through, but as soon as I went back to cruise revs the vapour built up and caused the poor running.

Solution was to re-route the fuel line and wrap the filter in foil to reflect away some of the heat. It worked for me, but I have a clear plastic filter body where I could lean over and see what was happening to the fuel.

Hope this helps amigo, because it's a simple fix.

OK .. the reason the fuel filter is after the pump is to ensure the pump picks up teh fuel .. if it had to suck through the filter the pump would need a different design. That and the fact that the pump would probably pull the filter element through the pump if the filter were to become blocked!.. it can get up to 90PSI if things get blocked on the output side .. no reason why it would not pull as well as it pushes. And that 90 PSI is limited by a pressure relief valve.. Block that and you'd have some fun!

The filter is inside the tank as it is cleaner 'looking' and if the filter splits there is no safety issue.

The fuel lines are the same inside or outside the tank .. well the inside ones have to withstand fuel on the outside as well as the inside .. but same diameter, pressure ratings ...

---- I am aware of the design defeciencies of some bikes .. I think it is done so they "look good" (sales) rather than "performance" (engineering).

Stagbeetle - totaly different problem there. This EFI filter is partially blocked. proably by watery sludge.

A translucent tank and clear filter housing helps takes a lot of guess work out of problems.

I'm back home.
Had a good trip overall and I would do it again. The trip report will be on my web site hopeful this week. I will post here when it is there.

So, the problem: it was water in the gas.
I know now that I search and found that water is heavier the gasoline and it will go down on the tank.
How do I'm so sure?
exactly 240 miles after the problem shows up, it disappeared.
and at 40MPG, that 6 gallons of bad gas I put in the bike would gime the 240 miles.
On the way back, about 80 miles after I left Creel, the bike start riding fine again. At the beginning I thought that was the altitude (I was a bit down on altitude after Creel, then I thought was the gas 91 that I put after that make the difference. Then, taking chances, I filled up with 87 again just to be sure and nothing changed (I mean, the bike still good), so I come up with my water theory.

Still I want to move the filter to outside of the tank, but dirty wasn't the problem.

Thank you all for your ideas and I learn a lot from that. Next time you are there, do not use the gas from Yecore. :)

I'm not sure if the 1100 is the same as the 1150, but moving the fuel filter to outside seams to be a very common and easy task to do.

There used to be clear perspex float bowels ..

------
Water in the Fuel? Well the fuel filter is paper on the EFI bikes .. and that will trap water by absorbing it inside the paper .. I'd be replacing the filter .. Buy 3 new ones .. one to put on, one to carry as a spare and one for luck. If the clamps are the throw away types (clamp by crimping) then buy the reusable ones - must not be the cheap types - they won't withstand 90PSI! The old K100/11000 bikes had reusable ones .. and they use the same size tubeing/filter..

watery gasoline
 

Glad to hear that the problem cleared up, that you suspect that it was water.
Hmmm, Yes it might have come from the gas you bought in Yecora, but then that doesn't mean that their gas is always contaminated.Mexican cars and bikes too will not be happy with water so the gas pump owner would be told soon enough about it by locals , to clean up his gas. It may have been water present in your tank which finally reached a level where the agitation of riding speed bumps with their peculiar pulsing finally churned it into reach of the pickup pipe.
Beside changing filters you could carry a small bottle of methyl hydrate , the stuff is variously called gas line anti-freeze, carburetor cleaner, or injector cleaner.It is like in the USA available all over Mexico in the litttle display cases at PEMEX stations , auto parts stores, department stores. A form of alcohol , it will absorb the water and put it in suspension evenly through the gasoline so that it will then get run through the combustion chambers and clear the tank, usually with no noticeable effect on performance.

Got the idea.
I will buy a new filter to replace. My uses the non-reusable crimps style, but I guess is a good idea to change to the reusable ones and I will check the idea of moving the filter to outside as well.

I just not sure how the chemical's work on that the water will be trapped on my filter... it means that the filter will deteriorate and particuls probably will start flowing to the injectors?

Thank you for all advice :)

Normal Metholated sprits will help desolve water in gas (petrol) .. it should do no harm to either the filter or the injectors ..

However as your filter is playing games I'd replace it ..

On the road .. if I knew there is water in the fuel .. I'd drain it (the water will settle towards the bottom) ... Then I put say 0.1 of a liter (quart) in the fuel tanlk just to clean out any water left behind.

Trips was good - Trip report
 

Hi guys,
thank you for all your help on my
my ride to Creel and Copper Canyon, Mexico. It is published at my web site.
If you are interested, please visit

Motorcycle trip to Creel, Cooper Canyon, Baja California, La paz

http://viajareua.com/trips/creel/Pic0029.jpg

Glad to hear your sorted, I love the website and all the pictures of the nice food.

Now gental readers go buy a Mr. Funnel and fill up by using that and you never have to worry about water and crud in your tank ever again, it's small cheap will last the lifetime of your bike.

Mr. Funnel

I read the whole Mr. Funnel page. Looks like it's interesting, but couple questions:
Is any one using it here? What model? (I assume that the F3 would be the way to go).
Then, how you store it on your already full loaded bike? It seams quite big (9" x 5") and I could not think on a good place to store it. I don't want it inside my panniers with all the gas smell and dirty that it will collect, so I wonder were do you transport yours.

Thank you :)

Hi I have the smallest one as I like to fill up a small plastic gerry can first, then I fill up my stove and bike from that as in some countries they just give out fuel by the Litre with no fine control of the pumps, so I use the jarry can first that way I know I can take 5 litres each time and don't get fuel all over my bike. Also that way I make sure I dont get sludge and WATER yes it filters water out of the fuel.

Even in Europe you can get some water in the fuel due to condensation when the pumps are filled.

I store it on top of my panniers on the outside, it's really small and has a little tag thing that you can actually tread string through so it ties to the bike. As for the crud and stuff it collects you just tap it out once you filled the bike.

Easy and no fuel filter problems.