ruh roh.... smoking a bit...

[86venturejay]

OK, so I rode up to Helen, GA the other day as I live about 30 min south for Oktoberfest. First time Ive ever had traffic to sit in up in the mountains which is pretty much all I ride. as I sit still at an idle, she starts to smoke. as I begin to move the smoke continues but as I ride out it goes away. Out of curiosity, I've repeated this process and sure enough, it happens just the same.

 

I thought about rings maybe but as I'm reading through, I'm wondering about valve adjustment. I would think if it were rings, it may smoke all the time???? not sure. She's got 45,000 miles on her and if I were to guess, she's not been adjusted. Found a great write up on second gen valve adjustments but no luck finding on here about the 1st gen. sounds like a heck of a job but given my service manuals, you guys and my total disregard for digging into something I've never done before..... well I just don't see why we cant make this just work like a stinking charm! lol

 

Anywho, any thoughts? any links to posts I've not found yet or anything else that could be helpful would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks guys and gals!

Jay

[Marcarl]

I'm thinking that the only way it would smoke at low rpm is if an intake valve was slow in opening,, like super slow. I suppose worn valve guides might also be the culprit, but then it would smoke on start-up,,,, so I'm really thinking that you have too much oil in the crankcase. It should only be half way up the site glass when on the center stand.

[Yammer Dan]

What Carl said. The way its smoking it must be some kind of valve problem and it is easy to overfill them.

[GaryZ]

What color is the smoke?

[86venturejay]

smoke seems to be white/grey if memory serves from the other weekend

 

 

I'll have to check and see where I'm at on the sight glass... if its a bit high, I'll drain some and see what happens...

 

should I be looking at doing a valve adjustment anyway? 45,000 miles and not sure if its ever been done. Only had it up and running for this summer. Bought it about a year ago or so but been doing carbs etc etc to get her on the road.

Edited October 19, 2011 by 86venturejay

[GaryZ]

smoke seems to be white/grey if memory serves from the other weekend

 

White/gray smoke would normally be fuel.

[ACE50]

White/gray smoke would normally be fuel.

 

White/gray smoke is oil, excessive fuel would be black, am I wrong?

[Prairiehammer]

I think white/gray smoke could be coolant. Black is fuel. Blue is oil.

[GaryZ]

I guess the point is;

white/gray smoke is probably not oil

[Gearhead]

Where is the smoke coming from? Pipes? Engine area? Center stand? Sometimes they leak oil in the middle near your feet and it gets on the hot exhaust collector. Does the temp gage go super-high? It's normal for it to go to ~2/3, just a bit under the red, when warm. Does the cooling fan kick on?

 

Yes on the valves. Adjustment interval is ~28k miles. But I doubt that's related to the smoking.

 

Jeremy

[86venturejay]

Smoke coming from the exhaust out the back, not from any other strange place. the temp Gage actually reads just fine... not even really high at all. it's cooler now and the fan kicks on fine so the temp always stays nice and centered in the middle... if it gets a bit high, the fan comes on and you can watch it cool back down a bit.

 

Let me say also that while it's cold it seems to idle fine without the build up of smoke. Once it's warmed up is when it seems to build up the smoke while idling. It doesn't have that coolant odor to it that smoke normally has when it's a coolant issue nor am I making oil (my oil level is not rising) and also the oil smells normal.

 

Once she's warmed up and idles she starts to smoke... just a TINY TINY bit at idle but kicks out quite the cloud when you get up and go and the RPMS get higher. If you put it in neutral and just rev it, you can make smoke signals with it if you had a good blanket on hand. Once you ride out on the open road, a smoke trail will follow for about 1/2 mile then dissipates and all is well again. If I never get stuck in traffic or have to wait longer than a standard traffic light, it will not smoke at all the whole day. it's just when I have to sit that this phenomena occurs. (things that make you go hmmmmm)

 

Anyways, thanks again!

 

Jay

[skydoc_17]

Hey Jay,

Here are some things I have run into, and the things I did to narrow the cause down.

Because pretty much all fuel has Ethanol in it now, (which is alcohol based=collects water) when sitting for a period of time the water being burned actually creates steam out of the tail pipes. An once of Seafoam per gallon in your tank will change the composition of your fuel and will let you know if this is the issue. If you have been running "High Test" gas in your bike, the operating temp. of the motor has been lowered, and you are seeing "burn off" of a sooted up combustion chamber. Trying running 87 octane gas to solve this issue. I have also ran Seafoam in the crankcase right before an oil change to remove combustion deposits in the engine.

Try an adjustment of the "Idle Mixture Screws" to lean out the mixture during extended idling.

The First Gens. do run a bit rich fuel wise, try the "Needle Shim Mod" to lean out the fuel supply if it is smoking while you are reving it up.

As far as a Valve Adjustment goes, at 45,000 miles you are due. I offer my shop Valve Shim Kit with the cam tool and an assortment of shims for the cost of the shipping, and the purchase of a set of Valve Cover Gaskets.

If you have any questions about anything I have mentioned, please feel free to PM me.

Earl

[86venturejay]

Ok, I just went and checked the oil.... ummmm yeah, it was a bit high... not all the way to top but close... oopps. So anyway, I drained it till it's right dead in the middle. when I drained it I also drained a bit into a cup to inspect the oil. The oil looks great and my coolant level as also perfect. I took her up and down my subdivision roads a few times to warm her up at the delight of all my neighbors I'm sure... Once nestled safely in the driveway, I let her sit for a bit. Still smoked once I reved it but it seemed to go away in a couple minutes where as before it would not go away until I got on and hit some higher speeds of actual ride time.

 

I'm wondering if maybe with it being too full of oil, if it will just take some time now to get rid of the build up and will stop smoking all together? Maybe some seafoam in the tank and in crankcase and an oil change to get it gone completely? not exactly sure.

 

Also, while inspecting all of this, I noticed somewhat of a knocking noise that was much more obvious on the right side of the bike. Not anything that made me say HOLY CRAP!!!! but was a bit more obvious when my head was down there looking at the sight glass and such. Is this more or less a normal noise? just curious.

 

Thanks again!

Jay

 

PS, Skydoc, I'll send ya a PM. I'm definitely interested in your offer. Thanks so much for your help and input.

[Condor]

Check the inside of the air filter box. You may have blown some oil up in there when it was overfull. It'll run down the venturi and make an engine smoke...

[86venturejay]

Ahhhhhh.... Ok. Will do! Thanks condor

[jasonm.]

I believe there is an O-ring in the center of the engine where the breather (PCV) hoses come up. I hear that when the o-ring fails or begins to fail...they can send out quite a bit of oil directly to the air box up those hoses. And the bike will smoke a lot. Maybe this o-ring is failing. I think Skydoc may know more about this possibility. Also, I hope you are checking the oil on the center stand and relatively level.

[Gearhead]

Regarding the knocking, mine does that, it's play in the clutch basket. Pull in the clutch and see if it quiets down. Well-synced carbs make it idle smoother and minimize this.

 

Jeremy

[jilldwr]

My Goldwing knocks like a diesel when the carbs are out of sync! Your smoking could be the valve stem seals, could they not? Once worn, they let oil pass into the cylinder. At higher revs, this little bit of oil gets burned off unnoticeably, but at lower revs, it will smoke more.

[jimmyenglish]

Adjust the valves. We got our 86' w/50k on it. I was sure the previous owner never adjusted them because he is a total loser. It's really not that bad and goes quicker than you think. When I checked at 50k every valve was out of adjustment. I erred on the loose side and when I rechecked just a few weeks ago at 82k (quite suprisingly) all 16 were perfectly in adjustment. I measured each one at least 4 times putting a turn or two on the crank between each just to be super sure.

 

Probably not related to your smoking issue but a very important maintenance procedure nonetheless. Worst part is getting all the crap out of the way.

[raybear71]

Does it have a large dose of seafoam in it? This will also cause white smoke.