Friday, August 23, 2013

Desmog: KTM 350 EXC-F

This is the infamous smog canister:



E-Ticket’s description of this process is great. You can find it here:
http://ktmtalk.com/index.php?showtopic=440785&st=208

Why desmog? The can is known to fill with fuel if your tank is filled all the way and it can make starting hard. Magazines noted this in their reviews. What do you need to do if the canister  fills with gas and causes problems? You have to take the canister off and empty the gas in it... and you shouldn’t pour this dirty gas back in your bike... so if you are wilderness somewhere what are you going to do? No, no that doesn’t sound very good!
The smog stuff also gets in the way of servicing the bike. Many of the larger fuel tanks won’t fit on the bike with this cannister in the way. It’s heavy. And... well thats enough for me.
A couple other points on desmogging:
There is a vent on the cam cover that goes to the airbox. Some people remove that stuff as they don’t want any oil from the airbox getting into the intake of the engine. Personally, I note the XCF-W also has this same venting arrangement to the intake, so I kept it that way. Other people choose to vent the cam cover to the atmosphere, but I personally see no big advantage there.
Also, you need a bolt to plug the hole where the SAS mounting spigot. I don’t see this in the XCF-W parts book and my bike didn’t come with one. I've since heard in might be in the 500s parts book? You can find bolts that fit (like some oil drain plugs might be the right size). There are vendors who sell a desmog kit with a nice aluminum bolt, but they are expensive. I ended up going that route, but I was unhappy with the kit and thus won’t mention it here.

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