Hi Bought a 98/99 blade engined MK. and I have two questions if someone can help.

The engine was running and it drove onto the trailer, however it has never moved further than this. On inspection it has a small bore open ended tube coming out of the head below no 3 carb (not from the carb system itself but below that, in the head. It drips the odd bit of petrol from this and I was wondering what it was?

It was thought that it was part of the cooling system however the car does not have enough outlet pipes coming from the water pump to take a small pipe.

As the std air box has been removed it now has three pipes connected to the carbs, two small bore ones either side and one big bore pipe T piece between carb two and three. all would have been connected to the airbox. Can I safely block up these pipes.?

any chance you can get a picture up?

is it a engine breather that would connect to the airbox

Thanks I will try to get a photo up tonight,

Doddy to which of the questions were you answering? :-)

Mike

Float valve chamber drain?

The 3 tubes are likely breather tubes going to above the diaphragm. Usually bike manafacturers put them into the airbox so they don't get full of crud but for the limited miles you'll do you just pull those hoses off. You don't want to block them off or you'll stop the piston moving.

I am pretty much cetain it is a vacuum take off you are describing that on the bike fits onto the fuel petcock on the tank so that fuel is only delivered when engine is running. It often gets missed which is bad because it allows air straight into the port and makes that cylinder run lean (very lean) Block it off and you should find power goes up considerably, temperature drops and tick over rises. More importantly the piston wont melt
regards
Andy
Forgot to add if you want to be certain look at the other 3 inlet ports and you will see blanking bolts in a similar position that are used when balancing the carbs
Andy

[Edited on 3/3/10 by Andy B]

Click on my www. link, then go to mauals inside that folder is a folder called fireblade mauals in that one you'll find a genuine fireblade one to suit in PDF format feel free to download it

tony

See photos, this tube with the drip of fuel is coming from the head and not connected to the carbs?

Any ideas?

As I have just purchased the car (its never run before) and I am out testing tomorrow I am concerned that the previous owner may have left something out.
I miss my Zetec :-)

Thanks everyone for replying,
Mike

See photos, this tube with the drip of fuel is coming from the head and not connected to the carbs? It seems to be the only outlet/inlet at this level.

Any ideas?

As I have just purchased the car (its never run before) and I am out testing tomorrow I am concerned that the previous owner may have left something out.
I miss my Zetec :-)

Thanks everyone for replying,
Mike

[Edited on 4/3/10 by mickymacireland]
Rescued attachment photoall400.jpg

i'm fairly sure that is what andy's referring to so it needs blocking off. i'll check on mine later if no one else confirms it

if the other pipes you mention are what i think you mean they are left open

[Edited on 4/3/10 by bigfoot4616]

Definately carb balance port and it definately needs blocking off to stop it sucking in air to the port - will really run much better once this is done
regards
Andy

Once again, thanks everyone, and especially AB, being so helpful and for sharing your knowledge. The car ran very well on its first ever test run today.

Mike