Today I went out on the bike. It was soaking wet, and freezing. The little B4 was reluctant to start. I opened the feul cover and water started pouring into the tank from around the opening. (I know it should drain through a hole just inside the opening, but for some reason the water doesn't drain properly.) Not too much went in, but more than I'd have liked. I still had plenty of feul, so I closed it and carried on trying to start the bike. It worked after a minute, and I was away.
The B4 is a pretty cold blooded little bike. They don't like the cold weather. Last year I rode to about 2C (35F) and she was not impressed with me. Of course I've been happier too. Nothing like shivering so hard you're afraid of dropping the bike at lights.
If the water was just around the collar and drained into the tank, it's likely from a blocked drain tube. This tube shares with the coolant drain. Follow the hose from the bottom of the tank to where it "T"s to another. Then both of the tubes will lead to the ground. With the tube disconnected from both the T and the tank, push some compressed air down it to make sure it's not blocked. If it's not, and this is still a problem, try the same procedure with the hole at the top of the tank. Most likely some spoogy stuff will come out of one or both.
I carried on into town and went to Bow and Stern, a shop which sells and repairs outboard motors and quads. I had an interview there the other week for an apprenticeship, and I found out today that I got the job! Yay!! 
Now I'll be getting trained properly how to fix things and how everything works!
Congrats!! Perhaps you'll also have a warm place to periodically tweak on the bike on your own too.
Anyway, I went to leave the shop and my bike was behaving wierd. It was like the whole rev range was a flatspot. It sounded different too, kind of like it does when the engine is cold and you open the throttle too quickly, and it kind of bogs down for a second. But it sounded like this all through the rev range. And the power seemed weaker too. I guessed that this may be a symptom of my water contamination, so I went to top up with some fresh fuel.
That honestly sounds like a bad fuel mixture. That could be from too much water in the tank versus gas (How low was the tank when the water fell in? How much water was it? I wouldn't honestly think that there should have been too much water added to the tank,... no more really than an ounce should be possible to be held up there. ), or it could be from not enough air. How did the exhaust look when it was doing this? White? Blue? Black?
Now here's the wierd part.
When I stopped at the petrol station, I got off the bike and noticed that there were two bolts sitting in my belly pan! I got them out (burning my hand on the down pipes in the process 
) and tried to figure out where they were from. To be honest, they looked like engine casing bolts. To start with it looked like they had fallen out of somewhere, but looking closer I saw that the bolts had snapped. I couldn't find anywhere that they had come from. I considerewd the possibility that they had come from my last engine, and just been sitting in there ever since it had been in the garage getting fixed, but I have cleaned my bike a few times since getting it back, and never noticed them before. I know that Peter had switched the bolts from my old engine casing onto my new engine, as some of my ones were adonised gold, but there were still a few that were just the normal colour. I don't know if maybe he managed to snap a couple in the process of removing them from the old engine, and they fell into the belly pan and were forgotten and un-noticed, or if they fell out of somewhere on the bike recently. One has a couple of numbers on around the edge of it, but I don't have it with me, so can't tell you what they are.
I can't say off-hand, especially not without seeing them. Now that you've ridden it a little, see if you can find any new "Seepages"anywhere. Chances are that 2 bolts off the engine won't cause a "gush" of oil, more likely a weep or a leak.
Download the service manual from Russtang (from this link:
http://forums.banditalley.net/viewtopic.php?t=877 ) and look at the info about the bolts (likely in the service info section) It will likely tell you what the bolts will be for. Seriously, this is a really helpful manual. Download the Owner's manual from the same link.
Now here's the stupid part.
Too busy worrying where the bolts had come from, I somehow managed to start putting diesel into my little bike, instead of unleaded petrol!!
Believe it or not, this wouldn't have been as disasterous as you think. Tiny bits of diesel won't hurt a gas engine, but it must be
very dilute. Put gas in a Diesel though and you can pretty much kiss the engine goodbye.
As soon as I noticed, I stopped, went and payed for it, and pushed my bike off to the side. I had to take off the tank and pour everything out down the nearest drainer. What a waste of money! Then I had to fill it up again, with petrol this time! Thankfully, I managed to connect all the hoses properly, and it started no problem. It is now running the way it should, revving properly, and with the usual power. I can't believe I never even noticed I had taken the diesel nozzle instead of the petrol one! Mind you, I had a lot on my mind, being excited about my new job, and worried about those bolts.
Ok,.. so you had the tank off,... all you had to do is pop the air cleaner cover off and look at the filter and the airbox underneath. How come you didn't? You were 90% of the way there. The air box is the black box that the 2 black and silver shrouds attach to. ( Which is why they're referred to as air cleaner covers.
) The back of the tank rests on it (closest to the seat and battery.)
There's a drawing of the air cleaner at this link:
http://www.mrcycles.com/fiche_section_detail.asp?category=Motorcycles&make=Suzuki&year=1991&fveh=2090If you scroll down on that page it should show you "fig. 12" which is of the air cleaner assembly. Surely you recognise this.... What I want you to do is remove the cover (#2) then lift out the foam filter (#3) and look through the mesh screen to see if there's any liquid in there.
There's not a lot further we can go til you check this out. It's all guesses til then. I'm hoping too that if we've guessed wrong, that you're not doing damage to the engine in the meantime.
If you want to see the breather we've been talking about, pick "Cylinder head cover" from the list below the "Change Vehicle button". This will show you "Fig 1" items 12, 13, and 7 comprise this breather. It bolts onto the engine on top of the ORings (#8) that I mentioned. The cylindrical protrusion on the left of #12 has a hose connected to it that goes to the air box, to dump anything it fills with, into the airbox.
This breather would have been available to you when you removed the tank as well.
4 and 5 looks like the black bolts that you mentioned that you have one of that was loose.
Incidentally, right below that cylnder head cover, is where that picture that I posted, that showed the oil feeder tubes, comes in.
Any idea where they could have come from? They could have just been there since the engine transplant, but I think I would have noticed them before.
It looks like the belly pan has a lip on it. It could have held the bolts. Best to ask Peter this one.
Also, was the water in my petrol the cause of my running problem? It seems that it was, but I can't help but wonder if it could have been due to my oil guzzling problem. Maybe the airbox being full of oil (if it is?) was what was affecting it? The bike ran well for about 10 miles after getting water into the feul, but after stopping and starting, the problem occured. Was it just down to the watery petrol?
If it was the water, it shouldn't recur, unless you do the same thing again. If it was the oil, it will recur, unless you check, and drain that airbox, and fix the breather problem.
I didn't get a chance to go over and see peter today, or get pictures of the exhaust smoke, as the weather was so bad. I did, however, do my 100 mile oil top-up. It took about 270ml of oil. After 100 miles I'll see how much it takes. Hopefully it won't take so much next time, and even less the time after that, until settles to an appropriate rate.
An appropriate rate would be zero need for top up between changes. You have 2 very minor leaks on the engine, it shouldn't be going anywhere.
Topic: Yay!...ish (Read 8580 times)