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-   -   Evap Canister Clean - DIY for the Royal Enfield Himalayan BS4 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/203889-evap-canister-clean-diy-royal-enfield-himalayan-bs4.html)

It's been close to 7.5 months I've got my RE Himalayan and the journey has been a mixed bag. Fast forward to today, the one area that gets neglected the most on the Himalayan BS4 is the EVAP Canister.

But first off, what is an EVAP Canister on a vehicle and what role does it play?

EVAP or EVAPORATIVE SYSTEM is nothing but a charcoal canister that is present in your vehicle that ensures it collects the fumes/vapor formed inside your fuel tank routed to this canister. This canister then re-route these fumes/vapors to the intake manifold via a purge control valve.

Basically what this system does is, instead of letting the fuel vapor going to atmosphere, this traps the vapors/fumes and then re-circulates them to the engine via the intake manifold to be burnt. This way, the atmoshphere stays clean, which makes the regulators and green-goers happy.

With basics out of the way. Why now! What gives! Well, for RE Himalayan it gives! :uncontrol

REH BSIVs has been notorious to stall over time during riding without a clue to the rider. Owners have scratched their heads as to why, when everything works perfectly fine. But only recently did I as an owner, digging a bit deep came to know about a startling fact. Kinks! Kinks? Where and how? Will answer them in the coming pictorial!

Story time: Owning the REH for close to seven months now, the experience has been sort of a roller coaster ride. Good bits, boring bits and pain in the posterior bits, well as I said earlier, it's a mixed bag of emotions. The bike for the most part is washed every other weekend and made sure she's off of crud, as Ooty is where I live and certain roads that I loiter around are pretty nasty, and this crud cakes up extremely well on the bash plate.

With cleaning and washing mostly done by myself, my eyes spotted something interesting when I was scrubbing the bash plate today. I saw a black box, with tubes crisscrossing them. Voila! I found something. Now, I was just hunkering there and fiddling there for a few mins checking out the tubes coming to and fro and observing how they're routed.

Brings my phone, opens the Service Manual, found that the flight data recorder was nothing but a EVAP CANISTER.

Now comes the sigh part. Why a setup at such a non-discerning place? Me thinks, it's probably that the flight data recorder must be kept out of hand of use mere mortals, well RE can probably answer that. Hehe.

But the first thought that came to my mind was. Gosh, I've been through muck, crud and I know the amount of crud that was just on the bash plate outer that was caked from my ride a while back and the plate took a good amount of time to make sure it was spic and span.

I immediately knew this plate had to come down in order to be cleaned thoroughly and there it was DOWN AND UNDER.

How to remove the bash plate.
===================

The bash plate is held in place by four 10 mm hex bolts. The front two bolts and the left side bolts are fairly easy to remove. The bolts on the right side is where your patience and dexterity comes into play as the exhaust pipe almost leaves no space covering the entire surface. Fiddle with it, you'll get them out.

The plate was crud laden on the innards. The image you see was with basic crud removed with kerosene liberally applied to rinse. The brushing then starts.


Turning the plate under, I found four allen keys that hold the "so called" holders that hold the plumbing in place. These are 4mm Allen screws and it's pretty straight forward removing them. Here is a picture of the plate down under. Removing them, allows the the entire plumbing to be removed and the bashplate is all that is left, cleaning in process.


The cleaning was done in two steps. First the bash plate was cleaned, then the plumbing was taken to the sink and then sprayed with kerosene and brushed liberally. Make sure no kerosene enters those transfer pipes. I will explain what those two pipes are in the coming picture set in the coming pictures.

60 mins later, after a thorough clean and assembly done, it was back to this. Satisfying indeed.
Attachment 1819966

Just when you thought you'd assemble everything back -- something pops up, I knew how cruddy this under side portion of the canister was. The plate was hard caked and the stains were very tough to get it out. The underside of the canister and the bash plate partially clean. The other thing I found out is, the canister is held in place by a rubber band. There is no protective layer underneath the canister, like a rubber base or like a seat like we have in car battery compartments for the battery to sit upon or a support to make sure it doesn't move forth. Unfortunately, it just sits on the bash plate. Too crudely Himalayan-ish for my liking. I thought why not create one.


From hereon it was pretty simple. Took a piece of insulating foam, made sure it was folded four ways to make sure it was thick enough to make a cushion underneath the canister box, cut the foam to the exact size of the canister, used Flex Kwik to stick the foam on the bash plate. And I'm done! Pre-works..


Here's how it looked after everything was put in place with the foam layer underneath and a final clean with kerosene again on the nook and cranny before installation. It was so crud settled, even after 1 hour and almost 300 ML of kerosene later, it still had crud residue which simply doesn't budge.




Assembly to the Bike..
=============

Assembly reckoning. I was wise enough to clean the bash plate and the EVAP canister. But dumb enough to forget the fact that the portion behind the bash plate of the engine seldom gets cleaned no matter how much pressure washing is done, it just doesn't cut it. So, a little spray of kerosene there and brushing solved the issue.. Pre-clean...




Now that everything was cleaned up to satisfaction, it was finally time to bolt er up or was it! No. Another assembly reckoning. The tubes themselves.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to click a picture on this one. The stock routing of the tube isn't that great. On the left side of the bike, below the engine you can see a tube barely running towards the intake of the rear of the bash plate.

This was poorly routed in my opinion, though no kinks were observed, the routing is so cable-tied everywhere, it's easy for the tubes to be squeezed and this CAN "choke" the engine, this is why the motorcycle stalls at times even when everything seems perfect. This is the part from where the fumes/vapor go to the intake manifold

There are two tubes from the fuel tank, one is the normal drain tube and the other is the fuel tank to canister tube. This tube is connected to the EVAP PURGE VALVE on the bash plate and is routed on the left side of the motorcycle, near the radiator downtube. Any kinks or if this line is choked the bike would stutter at times during startup or immediately after startup or after a ride, and sometimes even stall the engine when riding. This is due to the pressure build up and not being vented right. I've grabbed a picture of the routing for ease of undestanding.


Now the tough part out of the way. It was finally time for installation. Notice that I've now routed the tube from the right (left side of the vehicle) (grey one), viathe canister holding band as opposed where it would normally be routed outside the band from factory making it easy for it to kink by pushing or pulling the tube.

One might ask, won't it choke the tube by routing it my way. Absolutely it doesn't! It has more than enough space for two of my fingers to enter in that band space and have excellent radial and axial play. Totally kink and flex friendly.


Installation is the same as removal process. Make sure the 10 mm bolts are torqued all the way. The right side bolts will take a little dexterity and fiddling to seat them as it being a tight space, but you can.

Conclusion!

First off thanks for reading the post. The intention of this post is to make aware Himalayan owners that such a small neglected part can throw temper tantrums when you least expect. Washing the bike alone won't suffice. It's advisable to clean the EVAP Canister, the bashplate every four to six months and check the tubes for any kinks and make sure the tubes aren't stuck or kinked at a sharp point, and that's all there is to make sure your REH rides without ADHD. :)

Ride safe!

MOD NOTE: Kindly do the needy by either merging or creating a new thread for itself. Thank you again so much.

Cheers!
VJ

The first thing that came to mind was "If I ever get a Himalayan that'd be the first thing to hit the bin!" :D

Not worried about the fuel vapor being directed to under the motor or circulating through the can, what concerns me is what would happen in the event that the plumbing leading to the intake goes for a toss, would not want muck or what not being sucked into my throttle-body.

If I were you I'd give the plumbing a good inspection once in a while just to be on the safer side.

It's EXACTLY the reason I had the reckoning. In fact, all the tubes were thoroughly checked, everything was as it should be. Forget going it for a toss, if those tubes were to crack or to crud up over time, the bike would have a severe ADHD (Acceleration Deficient Hiccup Disorder) that is.

She'll be inspected every three months or so or immediately after a muddy ride. ;)

For some reason, I'n not able to add three more photos, not sure why and a picture that's gone out of proportion.

Cheers!
VJ

VJ, it will be interesting to hear in detail about your pluses and minuses on this bike so far.

VJ,
Thanks for a very informative post. I have one concern: the piece of foam that you used to pad the canister will absorb water and retain in for a long time. This will definitely lead to corrosion of the engine guard.

My suggestion is to replace the foam with rubber beading like what is used on cars (black EPDM rubber) and use it only where the canister touches the plate. This will minimise the area of contact of the beading and also allow space for water to drain.

I too am curious on your take on three Himalayan. I'm seriously considering the Himalayan but RE have complicated my decision with the interceptor!

MB, thank you for taking the time to read the post. I did have a couple of butyl tube lying around and I did consider that, and I exactly had that thought in my mind of mud getting accumulated. The reason why I used a foam is to filter those mud particles dirt out, acting like a filter while cushioning it from vibrations. Since it will be removed every three to four months from now on, the foam itself can be washed with water and squeezed and it's back to shape. Once the foam degrades, then it's back to rubber base.


RL, thank you for taking the time to read the post. Tagging you and MB since you guys have asked for the same question. Teeny weeny history.

Truth be told, I've never been an RE guy from the day I know what a RE was. Fast forward with the different bikes I've owned, and being a sucker for spoked wheels. I was on the look-out for a decent ADV for a long time. In fact, my bank was seeing me as a regular with savings being punched in for none other than the Duke 390 ADV.

Being ridden the REH for a while now, before the purchase too, somehow it had the charm to gravitate me towards itself over and over to again. After a hard check on reality, decided to purchase one. Long story short, don't want to bore you guys.

Positives:
The bike had extremely comfortable seating position. The tallboy stance puts you on par with SUVs even while seated on the bike, this is what I liked the most.

Secondly, the wifey liked it the most. Although she hates the ingress and egress factors, she likes the fact that she is able to sit normally without straining her back like we have on a sports bike. She basically didn't want her back to be strained.

Apart from decent power, wonderful suspension, and lousy brakes, it was a seal it all deal for the both of us and personally I opted for this bike, after we had a service center finally setup here in Ooty M.R Motors, so that made the servicing part of it easy which otherwise would definitely have been a pain point, as the nearest SVC was 80 kms away to and fro, and not to mention, "nothing gets done right the first time" RE attitude, it had a huge influencing factor, personally.


Sad Part:
Starting the sad part with an influential factor, parts are cheap for the most part. But, for the discerning buyer, the package still has a lot of room to improve, L O T.

Though everything seems well put, there is sure a saying and the bike discreetly screams, I won't last long. I've never had this settling feeling on any other motorcycle to be honest. Do I like it? Yes. Does it do everything I wanted to do? YUP. It's probably a cliche to say this, but it's a strong gut feel that it wouldn't just cut it, sadly.

Secondly, some of the parts quality are extremely good, such as cable ties, fasteners, plastic quality of the air filter box and overall plastic parts to say the least are of very good quality. Where it leaves TONS of room for improvement are the chassis itself, paint quality, overall how parts are put in place, the wiring loom quality, exposed parts. You cannot have a fill it shut it type attitude on this bike, the bike will bite you back -- hard for not doing that.

This bike masks its negatives very well once you ride the bike, that's the charm this machine has. It has poor quality parts, it has things that could give up on you when you least expect, but it has the CHARM to keep you chugging around and that's exactly where I fit it, I guess. I've bitten the bullet, and there's no going back now eh!

A humble tip, if I may to a prospective customer that I'd throw in is, if you're thinking to go for the Himalayan, keep these things at the forefront.

1. Your service is gonna be crappy irrespective of how the showroom looks, irrespective of how the people are dressed up in the showroom or how fluent they are in English or Spanish. Once the vehicle is delivered, it's tata bye-bye. Don't come back.

2. All that glitters ain't at ALL gold. A notion to always, always keep in mind.

3. Spares downtime. Consumables are kinda stocked for the most part, you ask for a savvy part, they get intimidated and the waiting period starts, for the most part. Although some areas have lesser downtime. In my part of the country, it's worse to say the least.

4. This is a use and throw bike. Period. Do not expect long-term investment on this motorcycle. The premium you get is what you make out of this machine while it's still in possession with you. If you're a long-termer, I'd suggest put your money elsewhere.

5. Will I put my money on any Royal Enfield henceforth? Absolutely zilch.


6. I can nitpick from now, but that's with any bike, so let me refrain from doing that. I'm not sure how the 650 twins fare for the most part. The 650 is going through the same doldrums that the Himalayan had upon its inception, all gung ho, unless we have a proper ownership review. But, the one thing that gives me hope is the 40k 3 year warranty on these new machines.

With RE the jury is still out there. We shall wait on this part.

Hope it helps!

Cheers!
VJ

Very frank and honest. Love it! The above is a big reason why i just have no intention to see the 650 twins until a few bikes have crossed 15-20k kms.

These are precisely my issues with the bike after having rented an albeit badly kept one for an offroad training program. The basic fundamentals of the bike including the gearing was just hogwash.

But then you have guys like nathan postie milward convincing the whole world that the himalayan is the best thing to have happened to the motorcycle world, so what have you.

What is your take on the BMW gs310? If had been available at a lakh less new, would you have gone in for it? Have you had a long hard look at this bike in person? Its lighter, has more power, and dare i say better quality? And since the ktm adv is only due in the latter part of 2020 now...

I am sorry about dragging this thread to something else, maybe you should convert it to an ownership thread now lol:

I am no Bullet expert, however know a thing or two about EVAP Cans

As Many mentioned, EVAP is the first thing to be thrown; however I think there is more to it as by removing the EVAP you will still need to program the ECm someway to tell it that there is no EVAP and not to open the Solenoid valve.

Secondly these stored vapors are used sometimes to correct fuel mixtures, Also in some cases it handles the fumes in a fuel tank, like without a EVAP canisters or blocked cans Mercedes tanks are known to collapse


Lastly cleaning them with water does no good, these Cans filled with activated charcoal has a life, once that is over you either change the charcoal in them or buy a new one; washing as much you want does not do anything great.

IN most cases its not the EVAP cans that fail, it generally the solenoid or the plumbing that leads to air leak hence bad mixture

Indeed. It's the plumbing that gets rotten over time and cracks form in the line and that's when trouble comes in. EVAP Canisters what I've been told do is they lose their ability to hold the fumes/vapor as the charcoal inside the canister degrades.

Absolutely not, RL well if not for this then what.

Now to your question of BMW's G310GS, I haven't test ridden the bike, so I cannot comment on how she feels. But, even if it was available even for a lakh lesser, I wouldn't bat an eyelid to the bike. Personally, I wasn't attracted do it. I've seen the review of the bike though, umpteen times, just to see how it fares, how it is, all the getty-going about it. But, it jussst didn't click it for me.

I would have at least considered it if it had a TVS badge for sure, but hell no not the BMW badge. In a humble tone and not to sound uncanny, I personally say, only a dimwit would purchase a BMW in this day and age, purely this. A man who's well worth his wit, won't bat an eyelid to the BMW badge in India, be it a four wheeler or two wheeler. :Frustrati

Coming to the bike itself, there wasn't one part of the bike I was attracted to, again coming to the love at first sight factor. Spending umpteen times watching different videos from around the world just to see, if something lures me to it, even intentionally, it just didn't cut it.

I wouldn't mind people investing their hard-earned or dad-earned moolah on a BMW badge, it's purely one's free will. :uncontrol But whatever they do, let them double, triple validate what you're getting for your money apart from a metal chunk. Are you getting your worth is the first question to answer and that was big turn down for me. An arm candy of a machine to put it simply.

The interesting fact is we all feel though the motorcycle market is opening up in India, but unfortunately, it's morphing, not evolving per se. Whatever rate it is evolving is at a snail's pace to say the least. We don't have options like what we do abroad, we have beautiful small single and twin cylinder off-road bikes that have proven their wits, donkey's years back with people touring them worldwide. What sells for peanuts there is a wet-dream here and this is what differentiates necessity from luxury, as in the case of BMW.

This is exactly the sweet spot where RE sits in. Though their machines are lagging, their top brass know how to keep the enthusiasm on the brand going on, and so we have the REH and the REI and RECGT. It's this niche market they've aimed at and working which is giving them the class leading sales. Brilliance isn't it.

I guess now you can make a better decision.

Cheers!
VJ

Thanks, VJ for your opinion.

Somehow I have this nagging feeling that the REH is under-designed. Like having your exam answer sheet pulled away before you could finish. The engine and gearbox are nice but not nice enough at that price in 2018.

I agree that the new REI having a 3 year warranty is very reassuring. But I'm not expecting anything great in terms of service. Maybe thing of it as a cut-price Triumph Bonneville would keep one's expectations in check. I think I'll wait at least a few months to see how things pan out.

But honestly vj, what other options do we have in this segment apart from these two? Which other bike gives great ride quality, long travel suspension, tractable motor, reasonably bullet proof, light frame etc.

I have a versys, and though potent as a highway milemuncher, i would be damned riding it every day in a place like ooty or kodaikanal even. Even bangalore and its traffic does cut it for me. And forget serious offroad... Every metre is a heart in the mouth moment. Trail riding yes, fun no.

So then where are we and what are we left with? Forget about the BMW badge, we are just talking bikes here.

Xpulse when it comes will just be way too underpowered to go anywhere on the highway. And for some reason that bike doesn't brook too much confidence. The versys x300... Well they have outpriced even bmw.

The ktm 390 is what we are all waiting for, but i would wait for a full year and the next model year to come out before i drop money on them. Thats 2021 unless you are very generous with time and money.

We are not anywhere close to the thread topic... Maybe some of these posts can be edited and moved elsewhere. Good conversation though.

Absoultely right, RL. Do we have a choice? I'd definitely say no. The fact that manufacturers are rushing to build something different, especially new manufacturers, throw in unique temper tantrums to their bikes, especially in a cost consicious market like India.

Either we have to shell out horrendously more for the "premium" we deserve or we altogether go for el cheapo use and throw items, that's the pace where we're heading these days. More manufacturers have to come the CBI Completely Built in India route for us to get the best products, even if they demand a slight premium, it would still be far lesser than the CBU premium we pay for the motorcycles in India.

We have so many manufacturers setup here in India. It's the Japs that offer a decent money to value bikes, the European bikes are basically arm candy stuff for ones who want them, no resale value, gets you eyeballs and often don't last long, a personal notion of mine. Sportsbikes, they are a different league, they do command a premium because there is something more to it, people are ready to pay for it more, it's unique et al, even I do. But am I okay with the servicing and bills, cost of ownership, a definite no.

And in the case of a work-horse that we're looking at, that's where the scenario changes.

You and I know for a fact that some motorcycles termed "premium" in India, are basically junkyard machines elsewhere. A half-naked redneck can purchase a brand new Ninja 300 and jump along with it from his rooftop and no one would bat an eyelid, which itself should say a lot about the "passe premium" we consumers are forced to adopt in India and the premium we pay for this. Sad!

Case in point N300 ADV, G310GS, Benelli Series, (the Kawasaki off-road kids mopeds costing almost the price of Tiago) this isn't premium at all, this is our hard earned money, taken by someone in the name of tax, duties and what not. Add to the servicing costs of these "fancy toys", you are not at all doing any justice to the money you've invested. NADA.

I hope it's not a boring VJ doctrine. But, the day when manufacturers decide to put in more quality, Made in India machines and truly evolve with better gamut products, I think that's when we'd truly have our checklists full.

With motoring lifestyle market in India as extremely aggressive as its ever been, it's great to see things going right by manufacturers, everyone is armed to the teeth, lovely collaborations, beautiful designs, and what not, but "the" thing isn't happening. A more reliable, locally made machine would expand the gamut, giving bikers even more choice, and an ownership experience that doesn't come back to haunt you like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. lol:

Cheers!
VJ

So what you are saying is, you will trash the himalayan from the nearest cliff home and get the 390 adv the day it launches. Can't fault that. Put me in line too.

:D

Truth be told, the kawasaki experience has been great. Just the bike's a bit too heavy for me to do any serious exploring off the tarmac.

I did consider that for the Himmie in the third month of ownership, but I didn't want to spoil my roof, you see. rl:

Cheers!
VJ

Very informative. Thank for sharing.

Maybe there is a image missing. What exactly did you clean on this EVAP can, other than cleaning the externals?

These quirks do not come as a surprise. RE has a long standing history of designing things in such a way that they leave some bits for you to figure out.

The old AVL 500 engine had this oil catch tank which was to collect sludge and residue from a crank case exhaust line or blow by gas line. This tank had to be cleaned out during service intervals. As you know, that probably never happened if you did hand your bike to your friendly neighborhood RE authorized garage, which my friend did as he did not believe in the concept of "local garages". This catch tank has another feeder pipe that leads to the air filter box. When you do not flush that oil residue catch tank, it over flows and sends that residue down the other pipe which goes into the air filter box. What happens next should be an easy guess. Your air filter gets soaked in oil. Works alright for some time as it acts like a K&N filter. Once it gets really soaked, your engine gasps for air and eventually dies. There will be oil dripping from your air filter and in some cases, flow out of the air filter box itself once the filter is soaked.

This happened to my friend and while we were on a road trip. We did not have a spare air filter nor did we have the knowledge on how to tackle this problem. We were stuck on a highway with not a village or garage in sight. The only way was to literally rest the bike on the road, to the side of the air filter and let the oil drain out slowly. This poured out some more sludge from that catch tank and on the road. We could resume our journey after some time.

We did learn something out of this but it was not without anger and frustration. Who wants to be stranded on the road.

On a positive note, I don't believe RE operates like the days it used to make the AVL 500. Things have definitely changed and for the better.