Topic: Suddenly popping then suddenly not - was it the fuel???

[dboblet]

After weeks of riding with no problems, suddenly there was lots of popping on deceleration. Then sometimes while just cruising, then sometimes on acceleration.  Then suddenly, back to normal.

I 'think' I might have gotten a tank load of bad fuel.  Hard to tell cause I didn't think of it until just now and the popping was a couple weeks ago and I add about 2 gallons every third day.  Could water in the fuel cause this kind of problem??

And while I'm asking, should I be running 97 octane or go for higher octane??  Fuels now are a bit different than 30 years ago.  I'm assuming that since there was concern about emissions control when my '78 CB750 was made, Unleaded fuel was what it was designed to run on.

[TwoTired]

You only need 87 octane (pump octane rating method) in the US.

[gold72]

check your spark plug gap, my bike was popping on decel as well until I gapped my plugs properly

Might not solve your problem, but it is easy to check

good luck

[dboblet]

oops, I MEANT 87 octane, not 97. Grrrr.  Hate this blasted keyboard.  I think I'll cool off by going for a ride now.