My Phantom Experience.

Got another longer ride in today. Took a trip down 60th street heading south (Karl will know) and rode past the scrap yards and made a loop back around. Maybe 5 or so miles in total. Still didn't give it the beans or test it on any steep hills, just taking it easy and enjoying the ride. It happily runs along at 30mph at around half throttle and 5500rpm-ish according to my bikes GPS speedo - which I verified it's accuracy with my car and phone. Still have a touch of 4 stroking that pops in and out at part throttle. Hard to tell if it is from being a bit rich or if I need to mess with the ignition timing. I got home and let it cool off and retarded the timing with the slop in the magnet to see if that will help, but then the rain clouds are starting to roll in.

Observations. This is definitely a hot running motor. The thermostat on my tachometer, assuming it is accurate, peaked over 300 degrees at the head at one point and I wasn't pushing it too hard. Ambient air temp was about 70 degrees. I didn't help things by removing a base gasket to decrease the squish gap. I do know that it will run a hair hotter than normal during break in, but even if it started running cooler after break-in is over I would want to be cautious about pushing it hard on a hot day for sure. To its credit, it did maintain a decent temp while holding a steady speed of 20+mph, so at least while cruising along at higher speeds it seems to do alright. Definitely not a good motor for puttering around at lower speeds.

I will say this. Even during break in, and at part throttle, this motor is easily 2-3 times more powerful than the first motor I built those years ago. Very different animal. I love the power for sure. I just hope I have managed to work in some reliability with that power.
 
ImpulseRocket89 said:
Got another longer ride in today. Took a trip down 60th street heading south (Karl will know) and rode past the scrap yards and made a loop back around. Maybe 5 or so miles in total. Still didn't give it the beans or test it on any steep hills, just taking it easy and enjoying the ride. It happily runs along at 30mph at around half throttle and 5500rpm-ish according to my bikes GPS speedo - which I verified it's accuracy with my car and phone. Still have a touch of 4 stroking that pops in and out at part throttle. Hard to tell if it is from being a bit rich or if I need to mess with the ignition timing. I got home and let it cool off and retarded the timing with the slop in the magnet to see if that will help, but then the rain clouds are starting to roll in.

Observations. This is definitely a hot running motor. The thermostat on my tachometer, assuming it is accurate, peaked over 300 degrees at the head at one point and I wasn't pushing it too hard. Ambient air temp was about 70 degrees. I didn't help things by removing a base gasket to decrease the squish gap. I do know that it will run a hair hotter than normal during break in, but even if it started running cooler after break-in is over I would want to be cautious about pushing it hard on a hot day for sure. To its credit, it did maintain a decent temp while holding a steady speed of 20+mph, so at least while cruising along at higher speeds it seems to do alright. Definitely not a good motor for puttering around at lower speeds.

I will say this. Even during break in, and at part throttle, this motor is easily 2-3 times more powerful than the first motor I built those years ago. Very different animal. I love the power for sure. I just hope I have managed to work in some reliability with that power.
Click to expand...
I normally run around 320-80 with rocket fuel. 380 on hard beating, and around 320-350 when just cruising around. I was out riding a bit today too. I know exactly where your talking about, down by the Satellite motel. Well if it's still there. lol. Leave that slight 4 stroke, it just means not enough load. If you tune it to run smooth, you are going to burn up the motor quicker than it should. A 2 stroke doesn't run like a 4 stroke. You should get some 4 stroke at cruise, and when on flats, and it goes away when cracking the throttle or up a hill. If it is running perfectly smooth on flats, you are to lean. Should be a slight 4 stroke when cruising on a flat. Not a herky jerky, but you should notice it misses ever now and then. That miss is helping take away heat, keeping the engine cooler and giving it a way longer life. Never tune for perfectly smooth on a 2 stroke, unless it's a weed eater. With the clutch pulled it, it should be a dirty rev, and never shoot to the moon. Should stop and get wet sounding at WOT with clutch pulled in.
 
Karl Snarl said:
I normally run around 320-80 with rocket fuel. 380 on hard beating, and around 320-350 when just cruising around. I was out riding a bit today too. I know exactly where your talking about, down by the Satellite motel. Well if it's still there. lol. Leave that slight 4 stroke, it just means not enough load. If you tune it to run smooth, you are going to burn up the motor quicker than it should. A 2 stroke doesn't run like a 4 stroke. You should get some 4 stroke at cruise, and when on flats, and it goes away when cracking the throttle or up a hill. If it is running perfectly smooth on flats, you are to lean. Should be a slight 4 stroke when cruising on a flat. Not a herky jerky, but you should notice it misses ever now and then. That miss is helping take away heat, keeping the engine cooler and giving it a way longer life. Never tune for perfectly smooth on a 2 stroke, unless it's a weed eater. With the clutch pulled it, it should be a dirty rev, and never shoot to the moon. Should stop and get wet sounding at WOT with clutch pulled in.
Click to expand...
I should clarify. I know some 4 stroking is normal and a good thing. This is pretty significant and "rough" 4 stroking. It loves to pull when you give it throttle, but it isn't very happy sitting at part throttle for more than a couple of seconds before it will kick in and then it just jumps in and out if you hold the throttle steady. My goal is to get it to "slight" from where it is now lol.

As for the Satellite Motel. Yeah, it's still there. Has a hole in it from a bobtail Semi that crashed into it while coming down the hill on L street. Driver suffered some sort of medical episode, but as far as I know he was ok and nobody else was hurt.
 
ImpulseRocket89 said:
I should clarify. I know some 4 stroking is normal and a good thing. This is pretty significant and "rough" 4 stroking. It loves to pull when you give it throttle, but it isn't very happy sitting at part throttle for more than a couple of seconds before it will kick in and then it just jumps in and out if you hold the throttle steady. My goal is to get it to "slight" from where it is now lol.

As for the Satellite Motel. Yeah, it's still there. Has a hole in it from a bobtail Semi that crashed into it while coming down the hill on L street. Driver suffered some sort of medical episode, but as far as I know he was ok and nobody else was hurt.
Click to expand...
Drop the needle a notch.( raise the clip one notch)
 
Karl Snarl said:
Drop the needle a notch.( raise the clip one notch)
Click to expand...
I thought about it, but that will also put me maxed out on that adjustment. My plug color definitely says it's on the rich side, but the plug is still more brown than black so I don't want to mess with it too much for now. I think after a couple of tanks I will start messing with the tune more, but I want to leave it a bit rich for now.

The phantom is pretty notorious for part throttle 4 stroking though. They have quite a lot of ignition advance which really doesn't help matters. That is why I tried to adjust the magnet to retard the timing some. My magnet actually had quite a bit of slop to it with the key slot, so I was able to retard the timing maybe 8 degrees (rough guess). I made a shim out of some 20 thousandths steel shim stock I have laying around that filled the gap to stop it moving too much and possibly changing the timing again. Worked out rather well as it stuck right in place where I wanted it to lol.
 
Timing adjustment did help a teeny tiny bit, but I think now it's just the fueling being a tad rich. I did adjust the needle down and it cleared up a bit more. I think I am going to just leave it as is for a couple of tanks. Otherwise, no more issues to report other than some hardware vibrating loose here or there, which is kind of normal. Good way to sort out what bolts didn't get loctite and which ones did. I am maybe 50 miles in now.
 
ImpulseRocket89 said:
Timing adjustment did help a teeny tiny bit, but I think now it's just the fueling being a tad rich. I did adjust the needle down and it cleared up a bit more. I think I am going to just leave it as is for a couple of tanks. Otherwise, no more issues to report other than some hardware vibrating loose here or there, which is kind of normal. Good way to sort out what bolts didn't get loctite and which ones did. I am maybe 50 miles in now.
Click to expand...
Keep us updated, and invite me over if it blows. I'd like to see the damage first hand. If possible. I'll bring the beer. lol
 

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