Kawasaki enduro takes too long to warm up

Hey all.

Picked up this F8 250 last fall. Went through it and got it running like a champ. When winter came I put stabil in the fuel and put the tender on.

Have had a few warm days since then so I took it out and started it up. It starts immediately like usual, but won't rev. It runs fine as long as the revs don't go past 2-3k. Just bawwwww (bogs). Slowly (in 10-15 mins of riding) it gradually warms up and will rev out fully. The bike never took this long to warm up before storage. It acts almost like it has a fouled plug, but the plug is totally fine and I've changed it twice just in case.

Not sure where to start... last year I went through the carb, replaced head gasket, new points, new air filter, the whole nine yards. Bike was running great. Any ideas before I just start randomly tearing into it?


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Pull the pilot jet out and make sure it is perfectly clean. Sounds as though it is lean on idle circuit.

jimmer said:

Pull the pilot jet out and make sure it is perfectly clean. Sounds as though it is lean on idle circuit.

Click to expand...

My first inkling was the carb too. I think I will pull it and give it the once over and clean it out.


Here's where I list all my bikes:
'71 Kaw 250 Bison
'81 KZ750 cafe
'94 XR250L
2014 Yamaha Bolt

In progress: '68 CL350

Fuel flow? Or sticking float not allowing full bowl to fill up quickly enough?

I cleaned out the carb, checked the torque on the head bolts (a couple were a smidge loose) and when putting the spark plug back in the cap came off in my hand. So I cut the wire back a touch and screwed it back in tight. By that time it was 10:30pm and today it's 35 and snowing, so I will try To get her out on Monday.


Here's where I list all my bikes:
'71 Kaw 250 Bison
'81 KZ750 cafe
'94 XR250L
2014 Yamaha Bolt

In progress: '68 CL350

Started it up. Same issue.

Decided to hook up my timing light to see if the plug was firing every time. It's not. I suspect points at this time, I will check to see if the gap surfaces have corroded. That's my guess because the garage I have is only semi-heated (connected to the house so it stays about 20 degrees warmer than the outside) so my next day off (Monday) I'm gonna dig in there. If those check out ok I will scope out the coil next since that requires pulling the tank.


Here's where I list all my bikes:
'71 Kaw 250 Bison
'81 KZ750 cafe
'94 XR250L
2014 Yamaha Bolt

In progress: '68 CL350

In case anyone reads this someday for some unknown reason the timing was off. How it got off sitting in the garage all winter is beyond me. But it was retarded... once I set it no more problems


Here's where I list all my bikes:
'71 Kaw 250 Bison
'81 KZ750 cafe
'94 XR250L
2014 Yamaha Bolt

In progress: '68 CL350