Cal To 49 State jetting swap questions.

[Vmaxattacks]

I have a '94 "smogger" bike and have ALWAYS had shitty results whenever I tried to do any mods to the carbs. I have clocked barely more than 16K miles on it since I bought it new. I have always felt this is a pretty anemic bike compared to all of the other rave stories I read:confused2: This is one cold-blooded pig and it ALWAYS has to start with the choke even in fair weather and will pop and sputter until it warms up completely! I still get the once-in-a-while backfire through the carb that some folks talk about but I guess this is what it is. In around '95 I put a set of Cobra's on it with the supplied jet kit. What a waste of cash that was. After living with it for several years I went back to the stock muffs---now drilled with 5/16" holes and no end caps. I replaced the drilled slides with 4 new ones and went back to all stock jetting and springs. I got back the lost power and the poor mileage but still suffer with a poor low-speed condition. When I ease into the throttle it is very un-smooth and has been since day one. I don't know if this is characteristic of these Vmaxes or not all I know is mine is like this and always has been. It pulls hard no problem and I often see the "oil" light. I installed a T-boost but I rarely use it so I will probably remove it as well. I was pulling plug wires and letting it idle and when I pulled the #4 wire and let it idle it sounded almost the same as if I did'nt pull the wire at all and when I eased into the throttle the popping and sputtering (when approaching 4K RPM) that I contstantly experience was non-existant so this lead me to believe there was a problem with either the plug, wire or carb. Swapped plugs---same, same. Checked the wires---nada. I have performed numerous "peashooter"'s, "shotgun"'s, I do the Seafoam religiously and have parted the carb rack several times just to find nothing out of the ordinary. Floats are a consistant 17MM. Filter is new-ish. Air filter is also a new stock paper one. I replaced the carb-to-manifold boots a coupla years back just because of age as they were getting pretty rotten but still were good. The needles are all out about 4-turns. The sync is dead on with my Mercury stick.
A while back I got some Mikuni #90's and replaced the original #100 PAJ-1's and am still using the Cal needles. I do have some 49-state needles and was contemplating swapping those if it were to gain anything. A few folks on the VMOA site told me not to and a coupla more said "why not ?" so I am posing this to you guys. Shoud I try the 49-state needles along with the #90's or just say to hell with it and go back to the #100's and just live with it as this is just a characteristic of this finicky-ass bike?
Also, I checked all of the plugs and they look good yet it just "feels" sluggish from off-idle to(pilot circuit) to midrange (needle jet circuit) transition. It is not as "crisp" as I would expect it to be. I live in the Inland Empire region of So. Cal where the elvation is about 900ft. BTW, compression is 160-all four and this bike has never been raced or abused.

So what the f**k??
Thanx for any and all suggestions!

Bud

 

[one2dmax]

My 05 has (had) cali emmissions on it. It made 127rwhp with my jet kit and kerker header. You can pull off the can if you want but it doesn't hurt anything either.

Sounds like the small pilot jets need cleaned up and float levels set.

Sean