Honda Odyssey and Pilot Forum

No, It should still start at 119. I've seen them running between 150 - 100 psi. (100 being pretty low).  You can always put a little 2 stroke oil in the plug hole before screwing on your compression tester. If you see an increase in psi readings it's because the oil is helping to seal the rings.
On to your warmed up starting problem....... This one's tough cause they usually start easiest when their warm? If you hadn't said you are getting spark when hot I would look towards the electrical/plug side. One thing you could try is to get a new 2 dollar spark plug, gap it and swap in the new plug after it's warmed up. This would rule out a slightly fouled spark plug since you said it's getting too much fuel (running rich) and it's cheap to try.  If it is getting too much fuel only after the engine is heated up, I can't figure out why the carburetor is supplying more fuel only after being run? I would think if your floats are improperly set or your valve seat is not working you'd have these issues cold as well. When it is running do you have any fuel coming out of your carb overflow hoses? There is very little fuel pressure being built up just by spinning the motor with the recoil starter so why flooding then? Just to be sure this is a stock fl250 gas tank/pump and not gravity fed - correct?

Ok so....  Rechecked points/timing etc. and all looked good. Went down and picked up yet another BR7es spark plug and what do you know I got spark! With the back end jacked up I ran this at all rpm's for about 2 weeks. Two pulls to start with choke on and one once warmed up. Also, after LiveWire mentioned the lean bog I was having at WOT I went back through the fuel system. Blew air through the fuel tank lines to make sure they were clear. Retested the fuel output on fuel pump. And finally disconnected the fuel tee to check. This was a brand new OEM Honda fuel Tee removed from an unopened package. Guess what!!! The Tee is completely open??? You can blow on any part of the tee and there is absolutely NO resistance. Sucks! Luckily I'm a bit of a pack rat and after some searching located the original 1979 Tee. This at least has some resistance when blowing in towards the check valve where as the new Tee has zero. Hoping the replaced tee might let me go to full throttle without the bog I warmed it up good for about five minutes and went for a ride. Well it did ok to about 1/2 throttle but quickly seemed like it might stall. I tried unsuccessfully to bring it up to full speed a few times but then it did stall and wouldn't restart. This time I went right to the spark plug - No spark:(   Pulled the spark plug and it really doesn't look that bad. Pretty clean overall, a bit of brown around the white resistor but not terrible. Geez, I once ran a chainsaw which died on me and when I pulled the spark plug it looked like black carbon was growing out of it (blocked muffler screen was the culprit). Anyway, I took a brass brush and parts cleaner to all the non working spark plugs and now all have spark. So I guess I'll have to pull the rebuilt carburetor. Since it's already been rebuilt, float set to manual specs. I'm hoping I can find something obviously wrong with it. Until I can figure out why its fouling out the plugs I can't do any other testing. Oh well, It's 27 degrees and snowing at the moment so looks like it will have to wait for warmer weather. Thanks, Marty

Just to make things interested I decided to multi test my sparkplugs. The (2) BR7ES spark plugs tested out at 4.55 & 4.10 stem to electrode, stem to ground was open and ground to ground stem was closed or 0.00. (1) BR8ES spark plugs tested out at 4.34 stem to electrode, stem to ground was open and ground to ground stem was closed or 0.00. (1) BR9ES spark plugs tested out at 4.06 stem to electrode, stem to ground was open and ground to ground stem was closed or 0.00. The only different readings I got were on the non-resistor versions (2) B7ES spark plugs tested out at 0.00 or closed stem to electrode which makes sense since there are no resistors in them, stem to ground was open and ground to ground stem was closed or 0.00.  Are the B7ES plugs ok to use since the resistor version is called for in the manual? Well since none of these spark plugs failed and the resistance readings between the 7, 8 and 9 series were closer than expected now I'm wondering why no spark on the 7 series at least towards the end of my testing! Well either way I learned a lot about testing spark plugs!!!

OK, Haven't given up yet. Fired up on choke a few days ago - still having the bog/stall at Wide Open throttle. Installed a temporary gravity fed tank and then it refused to start. Previously had installed and set new points but the tester showed they were off a tiny bit? Reset points and it fired right up. Today with lousy weather, I jacked up the back end and removed the tires for safety. Installed and gapped a new BR7ES spark plug and it fired right up. After warmed up I ran it at all speed settings with no bog. Clear fuel line seems to show fuel filter is doing its job. Still no load so could be the difference. Ran for about 40 minutes and then died on me. Went back in to the points to check timing and light dimmed right at the mark (|F) to the left of the"F". So good. Tested new spark plug and no spark. Held spark plug in my hand and no spark:(. Rested my hand against the head while holding spark plug and mild jolt but no spark. Tested 4 other old BR7ES spark plugs against engine fins and all no spark. Tried both a BR8ES and a BR9ES plugs I had and both show spark. Both these fire right up but seem to smoke a lot so maybe cooler plugs not burning all fuel/oil? I know both the NGK cap and all spark plugs are resistor types. I've tested other fl250'S so this seems to be normal. Happy to listen to any advice:)  All grounds are great so maybe should replace coil/condensor unit (still running original 1979). Any spark plug advice?  Thanks for reading, Marty

Hey Wozzy, That's super cool! Someone may come along to help with more info. and pricing. I have seen pictures of these modified oddysey's for racing leagues but only on the interweb. Curious does it run and also does it have rear modified shocks? Either way it's nicer than mine

Throwing out a bunch of new rebuild stuff.....   I have two odyssey's a 1983 and a 1979 both kept pretty original. Both engines have been bored up to .25 oversize. I have noticed both seem to drip a lot more oil around the exhaust then they originally did. Has anyone else done a rebuild bored up a size and experienced this? My uneducated guess is that with a larger bore it is able to pull more fuel/oil into the carb. I'm mixing at 32:1 with Amsoil dominator 2 stroke oil (it has a pretty low flash point). Open to any oil suggestions.
     Another thing I noticed the exhaust schematic show a circular cardboard gasket. Tried this but found it would not fit on the stock exhaust. A quick measurement showed why. The exhaust connector off the engine is about an 1 1/4" and the pipe that connects to it slides in about an 1 1/4" so there's really no room for it to fit. Curious what others are doing.
     The 1979 rebuild I was testing out today starts right up but hangs a while before dropping back to idle. Since this was vacuum/pressure tested and passed,  I tried spraying starter fluid around gasket, seals, carburetor but didn't notice any rpm increase. So took it out for a quick spin. This one is faster than the 83"!  Next problem is runs right until you try to go to wide open throttle - then immediately bogs. The 1983, same build, runs at all speeds. Both are run with non ethanol gas and carburetors have been rebuilt. I'm guessing I'll need to recheck the carb, maybe jets? Anyway if anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it. Sorry for the long post, Marty.

Hi guys, Finishing up a engine rebuild on a 250. I am wondering if I can leave the clutch off during the initial startup and testing? I know I can jack up the rear tires so it won't engage during testing but thought leaving it off might make it easier. Thanks for your input.