So far so good with tuning my FL350r. First I marked my throttle at each 1/4 throttle position as to not make any guessing. What I do is roll the throttle on slowly to the point I want to test and then hold it there. Right now I'm working on 1/4 throttle which is affected by the pilot, slide, Needle Jet, and needle diameter the most.
I got the machine nice and hot first. Performing a 1/4 throttle slow roll-on and the AFR gauge starts out immediately at about 14:1, but then while holding steady at 1/4 throttle the mixture drops like a rock down to an overly rich condition, to the point where at 1/4 throttle under basically no speed (~10mph?) nor load the AFR is going to 10.5:1 - and at which point the
Engine starts to blubber pretty bad off. So, its running pigity rich. Plug is showing wet as a teenage virgin.
Test was done with:
VM38 Spigot
Pilot: 45
Main: 450
Needle: 6DH8 (Which is a very WIDE needle on the bottom end)
Slide: 2.5 (Mikuni 003.145)
Series 166 Needle Jet: Q6
Dropping the needle into the carb to the #1 clip helped just a tad but the 1/4 throttle circuit is affected by too many other areas. I'm already running one of the fattest series #6 needles and the final test was still showing AFR rich with the needle in the leanest clip - so it is absolutely time to try a leaner slide and/or Needle Jet.
Also I've been noticing this machine is quite fat and sluggish off-idle. It doesn't like to rev up too quickly at all off-idle. Now, same thing happened with my FL400 Pilot, and when I changed the slide to a leaner one on that machine - wow - Now it'll pull wheelies. Hence I've ordered the following to try one at a time or in combination:
Series 166 Needle Jet: Q2
Slide: 3.5 (Mikuni 003.147).
Also my EGT at idle is a bit cold at 400F. The leaner 3.5 slide should help that out a bit.
Both of these pieces will draw a tendency to leaning the mixture between 0 and 1/4 throttle.
I've also got room to increase my pilot jet if that starts showing up lean or whatever.
At the end of the day - I'm really REALLY liking this AFR. What I've been 'feeling' is being absolutely confirmed on the gauge thus far and I cant wait to see how well my machines run once properly tuned up.
Buy one!