Author Topic: Hard starting, white smoke, oil leak (Read 8251 times)

Samurai · « **on:** May 25, 2007, 06:27:13 PM »

I'm confused and concerned. Have had the 05 B12 out for several rides this season (weekends) and overall no issues, although starting it one time a big backfire. Then last week started to notice a little hesitation on the bottom end on a ride. Thought possible bad gas. Parked it for a week. Went to start it up the other day, got it going for awhile, but would not stay idling. Gas was low, switched to Res and got it going, but huge amount of white smoke. Assumed water in tank / bad gas. Also noticed small oil leak afterwards. Had to go away on a business trip, so could not work on it. Just got back and noticed significant oil leak on floor, but cannot determine where it is coming from. Put in new gas, emptied carbs and basically same thing, get it started, but cannot idle, and white smoke. Any further thoughts and as I mentioned, the oil leak confuses and concerns me.

pmackie · « **Reply #1 on:** May 25, 2007, 06:56:30 PM »

Is it white smoke, or could it be blue smoke? (white=water but your oil cooled, blue = oil)

It could be a head gasket leak? You need to indentify the location of the oil leak. Check all spark plugs, see if any look badly carboned.

Samurai · « **Reply #2 on:** May 26, 2007, 08:24:27 AM »

I spoke with a friend who knew a motorcycle mechanic and confirmed a thought / theory. Either a float got stuck or since I was used to putting the gas stopcock to the "off" positon on my older bike when I parked or stored the bike, I probably was overfilling the carbs and ithus nto the engine causing the ""oily" leak. I had just read in the owners manual about the "PRI" (prime) position (which is the "off" position on the older bike) and how the stopcock should always be in the On or RES position, not PRI. (Live and learn about newer bikes!)

Well, I went to drain the oil and sure enough out "gushed" a oily liquid of oil and gas, probably 5-6 qts. I pulled the plugs which pretty much look ok, but had a slight black oily appearance. Cleaned and blew them dry. About to go to the store to buy new oil, filter, and possibly plugs. Before I do, any other thoughts or anything I should check, buy, or do before I try to fire her up afterwards?

Dave 02 1200 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 26, 2007, 10:44:45 AM »

My 02 B 1200 did the same thing. Fuel leaked past the petcock and into the carbs where it found its way into the crankcase. The oil level increased and, when I started the bike, it was forced up into the breather where it went into the airbox, hence the white smoke and poor running.

My fix was to install a manual fuel petcock from Pingel.

They make a beautiful part for the Suzuki Bandit and it has a higher flow rate claimed to prevent fuel starvation during high speed operation. That is probably not a concern with a stock motor but I like the idea anyway.

My recommendation is to change to a Pingel part.

Also, use the drain plug at the bottom of the tube that comes out of the airbox to drain the trapped oil and replace the soaked air filter.

Good luck.

Samurai · « **Reply #4 on:** May 26, 2007, 02:50:48 PM »

So I drained the oil and air tube for oil and H2O, both full. Changed oil filter. The air filter looked ok and did not appear wet, but did a quick look because taking the tank off was a little of a pain. Put in new oil, but put old spark plugs in so that the new ones would not get gunked up with any residue still in cylinder. Got it started, but still tons of what I believe is white smoke, cannot maintain idle, but sounds like it should. Noticed that the oil level dropped from F to half. Not sure what to think. I know my friend said to run it to burn off the residue, but the oil level dropping concerns me and do not want to do more damage. Possibly one cylinder not firing (#2) since when I pulled the plugs, was still wet. Any thoughts?

Red01 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 27, 2007, 12:36:25 PM »

I've seen white smoke that was from fuel before, but it's got to be terribly rich for that to happen. Your nose would tell you right away! As stated before, white is usually water - from a bad head gasket or cracked cooling passage... never a problem on the 1200.

I'd think a dead cylinder would be abvious to detect when it's running, but I suppose it could be firing weak.

Try pulling the plugs and cranking the motor over with them hooked up and grounded to see if they all have nice fat blue sparks. If only one is dead or weak, it's either a bad plug or a bad lead since each coil fires two cylinders at the same time. You can isolate the plug vs wire by swapping plugs and seeing if the problem follows the plug or stays with the wire.

ZenMan · « **Reply #6 on:** May 27, 2007, 12:38:54 PM »

Check for a stuck float or dirty needle & seat in #2 carburetor (the one with the wet plug).

Sometimes just hitting the float bowl sharply with a plastic hammer a few times clears it up.

Just a suggestion.

Red01 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 27, 2007, 12:43:57 PM »

One more thing you might check is to see if it still smokes if you're running with the petcock in the PRI position. If the smoking stops, it would indicate fuel is getting sucked down the vacuum hose that opens the petcock in ON & RES and would mean the diaphragm in the petcock is leaking. This hose normally runs from the #4 (RH outboard) carb - and tees into the PAIR valve, if you still have the PAIR stuff.

Samurai · « **Reply #8 on:** May 30, 2007, 01:52:06 PM »

(If this is duplicate, sorry! I had replied earlier, but was not showing up, so figured I hit the wrong button.)

Well, I am up and running now. Bottom line is that I believe the issue was the crankcase getting filled up with the gas overflow because of the PRI position that I had been using when storing and did not notice the oil level window being full. I got busy over the weekend and could not post a reply back.

I put in the new plugs and pulled out the air filter as Dave 02 suggested. Sure enough the bottom 1/4 of the filter was soaked with oil and had wicked up from there, giving the top visible portion a "whitish" apperance, thus my initial observation that it was not soaked or bad. Of course the local dealer did not have a filter in stock and was close to closing time for others. Had to wait until Tues to get from another dealer. In the meantime, I had to know, so I fired up without the filter and it started and sounded ok right away. The white smoke poured out of the exhaust for about 5-10 minutes, then went away, just like my friends mechanic said it would as it burned off the residue. Got the filter last night, put it in, and went for a short ride to make sure eveything seemed ok, then a longer ride later. Everything seems ok for now, which I am elated about

and will update later. (I took a lot of ribbing from the group I ride with when I showed up with the antique Honda on Mon. for a ride. Hey, aren't Retro bikes becoming the fad right now anyway?

)

Thanks for all your input and help!

Red01 · « **Reply #9 on:** May 30, 2007, 03:27:16 PM »

Glad to hear you got it figured out!

pmackie · « **Reply #10 on:** June 03, 2007, 08:58:40 PM »

+1

Just make sure you got ALL the fuel/oil out of the airbox, (I had to use an oil absorbent spill pad to clean the last bit out of mine), otherwise you will start to contaminate the new air filter right away.

Samurai · « **Reply #11 on:** June 15, 2007, 11:04:55 AM »

Just to close this out, everything is running fine and went for several rides over the past weekends. For those in PA / NJ area, went to the June Ephrata Breakfast gathering two weeks ago and saw about 1000 bikes including several Bandits. Not sure if any were anyone from this forum. Rode up with a group of HD, Metric HD wannabe's, and another Bandit (Silver 03), parked next to my 05 Blue and White.