The cost of carb tuning

[robin1731]

Obviously there can be a fair amount of time involved when dialing in/tuning carbs. I do a lot of KZ900/1000 carbs besides early GL carbs. Those have to be tuned with jetting changes depending on engine work/size, head work, cams, exhaust.
Sometimes you have to play with needle adjustments too.

So the time spent can add up. But parts are not cheap either. I placed an order for jets the other day. Some main jets and also pilot jets for mikuni carbs. Depending on years they take different pilot jets. This order was a couple dollars shy of $240.00 with free shipping. This is a pic of what you get for that. This order was just to refill some of my stock for sizes I no longer had. It is about 1/5, maybe less, of what I have on hand just for mikuni jets.

Just so you know why it costs so much for carb tuning. Besides just the time involved and experience to get it close from the start.

These all aren't the same and each size did come in an individual bag. I just put them all together for the pic before sorting for my tray.

[rcmatt007]

that will get you about a quarter at the metal recycler

[desertrefugee]

I hear you, Robin. The world has changed. Cost of brass is what drove me to bail on my dual Weber setup. I'm a carb hack, but had them pretty close, although really needing another round of jetting to get dialed in. Each iteration was roughly $60. Go through a few rounds and it adds up - especially if the leftovers won't go onto the shelf for upcoming jobs. For me, unused were essentially throw away.

[JSBail]

Jumping to conclusions is what had me chasing my tail when tuning the carbs on my 77 cb750 F2. Many on the 750 site I visit insisted the later 750 carbs were jetted lean to suit the EPA and that larger main jets were needed to get them to run good so before I even got the bike running I put 110 mains in it ..... and it ran horrible so I tried 108's, better but still horrible so I took it to a shop with a dyno and had them make a dyno pull with an exhaust analyzer and that told me everything I needed to know. The exhaust analyzer showed it way too rich at wide open throttle (black smoke out the exhaust while on the dyno made that obvious) and too lean at part throttle so back in went the stock 105 jets and I raised the needles and the bike ran and continues to run fantastic. That shop only charged $30 for a dyno run however they have since sold their dyno to make more shop space and the only other shops around that have a dyno want $100. In the meantime I have a set of 108 and 110 jets that I purchased but currently have no use for.

[wingrider]

I hear you, Robin. The world has changed. Cost of brass is what drove me to bail on my dual Weber setup. I'm a carb hack, but had them pretty close, although really needing another round of jetting to get dialed in. Each iteration was roughly $60. Go through a few rounds and it adds up - especially if the leftovers won't go onto the shelf for upcoming jobs. For me, unused were essentially throw away.

I am hoping the added displacement of the additional 200 cc’s might help those carbs without having to re-jet them.