What is Hydro-Lock?

[Mallett]

Short answer....just ride it....I would be willing to bet that most of the folks that have had hydro-lock were on Valk's that were not ridden on a regular bases.

[Bigun]

most owners remove the OEM petcock and replace it with a manual pingle petcock

  it seems many are worried about this, but also seems to be a very rare event.

  i seriously doubt that "MOST" owners have replaced the OEM petcock.  I have taken it off to inspect and have repair kit, but suspect that most, like me, still have OEM.

And lucky me, I'm in the process of replacing a motor that hydrolocked and destroyed all of the gears on the back of the motor along with trashing the back of the block, definately dont think it was the first time it had happened on this particular bike. Will never know the dealership refused to stand behind the bike even though they claimed they had gone through the carbs before I bought it and I only had the bike for 3.5 months. Took it to another Honda dealership and they said they had never seen one as extensively damaged. Again my luck. It is rare but does happen and can be quite expensive when it does.

[Bigun]

So is the consensus that the belly tank is the most fail safe way to avoid hydro-lock?  $460 is steep, but I guess there is the added benefit of 3 extra gallons of gas.  I would also have to find someone qualified to do the silver welding.

$460 is cheap insurance. I already have over a thousand into a new ish motor from Pinwall and it is going to be much more before I'm done. I'm going to be looking into one before I put my beast back on the road.

[Daddie O]

I appreciate all the information and advice.  I just did a 500 mile ride at mostly 85 mph and I put in half a bottle of techron during the trip, so hopefully my carbs are pretty clean.  I am leaning towards getting a belly tank for the added range and prevention of hydro-lock.  Does anyone know of someone in Northern California capable of doing the welding and installing the belly tank?

[Ricky-D]

That's a pretty extreme measure to prevent a hydrolock situation

When all it really takes is a good fuel petcock and a little attention.

Admitting to  a failure of consciousness as the main motivator

Reveals a submission to a point, where you really ought to consider

Whether or not to continue riding.

I mean, you only have to remember to turn the damn thing "OFF".

***

[Daddie O]

Ricky-D, my suggestion is for you to re-read, and work on comprehension.  I would like added range.  I would like to prevent hydro-lock.  A belly tank would seem to kill two birds with one stone.  I never "admitted to a failure in consciousness", and even if someone else said they forget to turn the petcock off, that should imply they shouldn't ride anymore?  Get real. 

I often ride from Sacramento to the coast, and that trip is about 150 miles one way.  It sure would be nice to be able to go that far without stopping for gas.  It would also be nice to never have to worry about the expensive repair should hydro-lock ever occur.  I have been riding for over 20 years, many of those years as my only transportation, and for you to suggest I ought to consider not riding anymore is effing ridiculous.

[MarkT]

Inexpensive fix - or rather, prevention.  Install a Dan-Marc electric fuel shutoff.  I wrote up a tech article on my web site here:  http://www.horseapple.com/Valkyrie/Tech_Tips/Fuel_Shutoff/fuel_shutoff.html

I have the stock petcock.  Which has failed several times in 15 years.  Replaced it once under warranty and cleaned the sand out of it several times.  Now I never cycle it unless I need reserve.  Just let the Dan-Marc shut off the fuel.

+1 on this, it's my next project with rebuilding the petcock to not need the no6 vacuum line.

Question for you though MarkT, the relay setup that you have uses a momentary on switch to activate the relay to supply current for the dan marc valve. Does the relay hold the current open until stopped (like hitting the kill switch if that is your power source?)

Correct.  That's the point of the "latching relay".  Powering it from the kill switch output as I explain in my tech article means if you cut the bike power by key or kill switch, the hidden pushbutton will have to be hit again after turning on the key, to turn the fuel back on.  Anybody hijacks your bike or otherwise gets it started and rides away, will be out of fuel in about a mile.

BonS made a circuit showing how to wire this up - this is how I did it.  The "12v switched aux power" on the diagram, I sourced from the kill switch output wire (Bl/W wire on the 9-pin Bl mini connector in the headlight - same wire at Bl/W to the coils, also at Bl/W at Pin4 of the ICM) :

[Bigun]

So is the consensus that the belly tank is the most fail safe way to avoid hydro-lock?  $460 is steep, but I guess there is the added benefit of 3 extra gallons of gas.  I would also have to find someone qualified to do the silver welding.

$460 is cheap insurance. I already have over a thousand into a new ish motor from Pinwall and it is going to be much more before I'm done. I'm going to be looking into one before I put my beast back on the road.

Just as an aside As we pulled my motor I pulled the carbs out to have a look. Every bowl was spotless not so much as a bit of sediment. So now I am baffeled I figured at least one of the carbs had to be gummed up to cause the malfunction that lead to my hydrolock but I cant find anything wrong. I ordered a bunch of redeye vitrolon today and will get everything gone through before reassembly onto the bike. It almost has to be a leaking seat Doesn't it???

[Bone]

Bigun did you read post #25 ?
My 98 had gas running into the cylinder from the vaccum line going the petcock. I don't know if a hydrolock can occur from this situation. Mine happened when the engine was running the petcock was turned off when stopped.

[Bigun]

HMM did not think of that. Oh well if that is the case it will no longer be a problem with the Pingel.