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Turbos & Water: Not Good Bed Fellows?

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Old Jul 2, 2005 | 09:54 AM
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Default Turbos & Water: Not Good Bed Fellows?

Here's my question:

Are Turbo applications, primarily motorcycles, overly suseptible to water/humidity related issues?

I have been plagued with a recurring issue:
The bike will run fine while on the stands in the garage... however, under a load, it falls on it's nose around 5K rpms.

In trouble shooting these issues I have back tracked my steps to try to determine what commonality exists prior to the onset of the issues.

This may sound silly, but I think the catalyst for my recurring issues referenced above is excessive moisture either physically in the turbo housing or the result of wet wiring / electronic components.

One common thing I can recall is that I after working on the bike, for what ever project I am doing at the time, I finish up by washing the bike (i.e.: saturating the bike with water)... then issues seem to follow.
Never thought of it before... always went for more of a mechanical explanation.

Does this sound totally off base?
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Old Jul 2, 2005 | 09:56 AM
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A little more information / background on the subject...

After some period of time.... the bike will begin functioning properly.
I historically would rip everything apart and go nutz looking for the problem.

This time, all I did was start the bike on the stands every day or so in the garage and let it run for a while.
Occassionally getting the RPMs up a bit.
It stayed high & dry.

I took it for a test ride last night after not riding it since the issues recurred about 2 - 3 weeks ago.

The bike ran just fine...

Previously, I was never able to really root cause the issue or pin point what I did to resolve the issues...

Could I have simply been dealing with a moisture issue?
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Old Jul 2, 2005 | 02:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Fordified
Is the bike EFI or carb? If you're washing the bike before it starts to break up, you may be water logging the air filter. Above 5k, airflow through the filter could start to draw in moisture through the filter which would cause the bike to nose over. Try not washing it for a week and ride it alot and see if it ever breaks up.
EFI

Yes... the air filter is in a place that is suseptible to being saturated with water.

Yes... when it's dirty, at least it runs.
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Last edited by Cecil; Jul 2, 2005 at 09:29 PM.
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Old Jul 6, 2005 | 07:05 AM
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could very well with moisture. Keep it covered and if you wash it put a bag really tight over the intake cone (I suppose its a cone). Putting a rubberband and tapering it off will definatly help.

We all know how engines love moisture in the combustion process... they dont haha.

Tell us how it works out cecil and good luck.
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Old Jul 6, 2005 | 11:46 AM
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hope u never get stuck in the rain
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Old Jul 6, 2005 | 11:58 AM
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Or maybe its because you are purposely injecting water into the combustion chambers for more power j/k Soaking filter with water = big no no. I know this. Distributors don't like water either. haha.
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Old Jul 11, 2005 | 02:14 PM
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only thing i question about it, is that you say it keeps nosing over...i could see it nosing over a couple times...but after a few minutes running, enough air has been run through the system, especially at high velocity due to the turbo, to push whatever water had built up in it, out. are you running a MAF setup, or a speed density setup?
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