Bike smoking + drinking oil..
 

Please help, I fear for the worst.. my SV is smoking real bad, bluey type of smoke and a lot of it.. only when I first start it up from cold and the smoke goes down a bit with the choke off.. but this can't be normal?? My R6 or ZXR never done this... :?

It's also drinking oil.. a few weeks after I got it I checked and it had NO oil left, so I topped it up appropriately and now the oil is below the fill line. if I lean the bike towards me oil does enter the sight glass.. but it's lost a fair bit of oil..

Is there anything/much wrong?? I'm not sure! It still runs ok.. although I'm not sure it's as powerful as people say it's meant to be..... not sure on what rattles are right or wrong as I know v'twins often make a bit of noise.. but it's the smoke that worries me.

If the engine is fu'ked then how much could I get breaking it? I can't afford to fix it :x

ooops wheelieing strikes another sv...

Sure one of the techies can offer some advice but I wouldn't do anymore wheelies on it

You think it gone pop?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:x :x :x :x :x :x :x :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Well, the blue smoke is your oil leaving by the back door. I don't know what the problem is. Piston rings?

How expensive is that to fix?

That depends on whether you get a garage to do it, or you do it y'self... Hopefully you won't need the cylinders/heads skimming too :shock:

Send 'Rictus' a PM

Would it just be piston rings?

I'm a useless mechanic.. don't think I'd manage to fit new piston rings myself and it sounds like a £300 + job for a garage to do :x :x

My KTM popped after 4 weeks of owning it, the repair bill was over £1100 until I spoke to a bike shop up north that brought it down to £900 with some tuning... I still haven't been able to get the KTM fixed as I can't afford that yet :mad: Am I just super unlucky or what??

Bandit 400 sold cos it was ****
ZXR400 was great until it stopped running, sold cheap
R6 crashed twice
WR400 just never worked so was sold cheap

SV = ****ed?!?!

:evil: :evil: :evil:

Is your bike a 99 registered in 2000 or is it a 200 bike? The 99 ones suffered from oil starvation and had a recal to fit a baffle in the sump i believe. However, the fact that, and im only assuming here, that you spend some time on the rear wheel, then that can also be a problem. It sounds like oil starvation, thats done the rings in If it was white, at start up, then thats valve clearences. It could be your valve seals at the least.

I would rather search out another engine.

Gahhhh :x New engine time?!

Going to get a new engine so it's all good bike again then I'm selling it and getting something that won't go pop when wheelying.. I don't get it though as none of my wheelies are particularily long.. and it's not like I don't look after my bikes?!!? Yes I wheely them but I maintain them well (or so I thought anyway) as I know wheelying is tough on the consumables but that's the price to pay, didn't realise the engine would blow THAT easily :(

I'm prob going to stick the following stuff on ebay soon... don't pester me for them yet anyone :razz: but they will prob be on ebay shortly... 1) black rear hugger 2) gel seat 3) quill emarked road legal race can.. 4) telefonica moviestar paintwork for part ex with some other bodywork + cash if anyone wants it (looks great and gets LOADS of comments at meets etc :mrgreen:) need to decide how bad the bike is first before doing anything too rash.. all I know is I can't afford to get the bike fixed!

You can pick up a decent engine on Ebay for £350-400. Certainly much much cheaper than having the existing one fixed.



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Even if it's *just* those valve stem seals or piston rings?

How much is my fooked engine worth?? it still works :lol:.. not sure how long it'll last for though :twisted:

You are a 1 man wrecking machine :roll:

I wouldn't mind the KTM to play with though :twisted:

Probly is all down to wheelying. Look what happened to my bike. Because of to many wheelies that burnt the oil in the engine. Same way i did mine. Sound likes youve got the cheaper option though. just hope to god you've got nothing wrong with ure gearbox. thats the expensive part!

yea piston rings 99%. obscene amount of labour and even worse doing it yourself. New engine :)

Try some redex engine oil stop leak and sell it. lol worked like a champ with my pug 405

Don't.


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Redex?Thats probsbly what the previous owner did before unloading it.If its as bad as you say, I doubt if any botch job will stop it burning oil.You will have to fix it or flog it as is.

I doubt he did that very much mate :) he's a well known member of this forum and it was 99% my fault as I was doing wheelies???

I break everything I touch mate, I'm useless, completely useless.

p.s. thanks for the tips with the redex :lol: but I wouldn't do that to any one, as that's WELL out of order.. nearly as out of order as the bloke who tried to sell me a Cat B write off bike ( frame should have been crushed ) without telling me! (thank you HPI! :mrgreen:)

Looks like I'm selling the quill can, gel seat, bodywork and hugger just to get some money up and will take it from there I guess.

Also I was told that if it only smokes at start up it's prob the valve stem seals rather than piston rings?? Apparantly piston rings will cause the bike to smoke ALL the time? Not just at start up.

OK first off, when does it smoke? Only at startup or all the time?

If it's just at startup then it could be the valve stem seal/s or guide/s, if it is, you may also notice a puff of smoke on gearchanges and on a shut throttle. Not too dear to fix.

If all the time, then it's most likely bore/piston ring wear. Problems in this area aren't that dear to fix. Assuming you have no other suspicions of engine wear/damage, then a repair should be investigated first by doing a compression test, this will tell you which cylinder is worn. If there's knocking from the bottom end or excess vibration, usually on a shut throttle, then the engine will be dearer to fix than replace.

If there are no suspicions of other damage then oil starvation is not likely to be the cause, if it were an issue then the first area to suffer woud be the big ends.

In the circumstances you have described I think there is room for optimism, you haven't mentioned any other problems so your trouble is most likely one bore, perhaps broken rings, unless the engine is very high miles or perhaps has been run on unfiltered air for an extended period, then it's not likely to be both bores.

Wheelies: Oil starvation can be caused by pulling monstrous wheelies, but as mentioned above, the bores/rings aren't likely to be the first problem.

Get a compression test done first, that'll tell you where to go next.

It's got 39k miles on it ... It only smokes a lot when I first start it up from cold.. can't say if it smokes on gear changes etc as well.. I'm riding it and can't see :lol:

does this only apply to wheelies,cuz i hammer the **** out of my k3 and its only got 1100 miles on the clock! are the sv engines generaly strong?
daz

hmm?
 

Lads, my k5 with all of 3000km on it smokes a bit on start up when cold also.....usually only first thing in the morning. Im assuming its condensation.
My old bandit was the same.
Oil level is fine. Yams make sure you have the bike totally upright when checking the oil level....First time i checked it i went "oh ****"..and then realised the bike wasnt totally upright...level was fine.

But im an optimist! ...maybe in-fact my k5 is ****ed...although ive followed the break-in religiously, never wheelied it....etc etc....

Have you asked the guy who sold it to you about it yet if he's on this site?

A bandit400 may not have the torque and probably cant pull a wheely and has moody carbs if not looked after but that doesnt make it ****.....very very flickable machine and perfect for a first bike. Will hit 110-120 mph stock.....not bad for a detuned gsxr 400cc inline-4 unfaired watercooled bike.

Silly question but you didn't try checking the oil when after you had just switched it off :oops:

Re: hmm?
 

I had a bandit 400 once, but it was ****e.. sold it about a ZXR400 instead.. much better :mrgreen:

When should you check the oil level???

Not straight after turning it off as i believe some is still sitting in the engine, i know it makes a big difference to mine.

I checked oil a couple of hours after turning it off... topped it up , run engine for a bit and checked again.. sitll not showing in the eye glass thingy, bike was upright.. ran out of oil so can't put any more in till i get some more.. never really sure when im meant to check the oil! hot cold or what arghhh

Should be showing oil then after two hours, should be showing after a few minutes. I mean straight after turning off the engine.

The procedure for checking oil is simple: start the bike up and let run for a couple of minutes to get the oil warmish so it flows properly. Turn off bike and wait three minutes (according to the manual and thus allowing it time to settle). Stand bike upright (and I count to ten to allow it move from one side of the engine to the other) and then see if it's visible in the oil check window down by the clutch side crankcase.

If nothing's showing I personally wouldn't ride it.

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There's no reason not to check the oil when the bike is cold, of course the oil will be cold too, and thus thicker, so it will need to be held upright a bit longer to allow the oil to settle.

Two things... One, why would the SV oil-starvation-while-wheelying problem cause this problem? It's starvation at the crank, causing premature wear at the bottom end, isn't it? Could be wrong...

What usually causes ring/piston wear like this?

The other, is that if it calls for a new barrel (ie not just rings) I may have a set for sale shortly... These are scabby as ****, I wouldn't have them on my bike, but the bores and facings seem sound (well, bear in mind I don't know what i'm talking about, but they're not visibly damaged)

general causes are

- very high mileage
- bad break-in process causing ring scuffing
- inappropriate honing if a rebuild
- red-lining from cold
- bad bore geometry if rebored (plus bad honing)
- overheating causing bore distortion (low coolant)
- running on excessively rich mixture giving bore washing
- running without an air filter (road dust = granite/limestone, very abrasive)
- inappropriate gasket stiffness causing bore distortion
- failed thermostat causing cold running
- frequent cold starts
- broken rings (commonly from clumsy fitting)
- chipped ring edges
- spalling of top ring inlays (if used, e.g. chrome/moly)
- broken piston ring lands (e.g. long term detonation)
- second ring fitted upside down
- oil ring expander bent/broken
- distorted piston (e.g. pre-ignition)
- foreign bodies in cylinder (e.g. grit from plug hole)
- overheated piston from blocked cooling jets
- pick-up of aluminium from piston onto bore surface (usually with overheating or pre-ignition)
etc etc :-k

my SV has very high milage, 106k, it uses oil sporadicly, sometimes it smokes on startup, but usually not, sometimes it smokes on hard acceleration or deceleration too, but usually not, haven't figgered it out yet, sometimes I can go 1500 miles without adding and sometimes I have to add close to a quart afer 400 miles. I just add oil when I need too.

all service has been done by dealer per OM, they used to always put Suzuki 10w-40 in now in summer they put spectro 20w-50, when it's low I put in what ever I have on hand, any oil is better than low on oil. I would have to say I use on average 2 qt every oil change/3.5-4k

hey Mate

Thought i would reply in here too!

Right, no rdex was ever used, i never bodge anything, and if i do i never sell it bodged!!

The bike did use sum oil when i had it, but nothing that made me concearned, i never thrashed it though, for fear of crashign it!!

Im sorry to hear that this has happened, its not ur fault, after all its mechanical, so these things do happen, dont take it to heart!

I widh i could help, and im sorry to hear about ur problems, after all it served me v well for thousands of miles!!

how many miles have you done on it Yams, sounds liek u have done 8 thousand, in the last month!!! its bond to use oile in that many miles as it needs changing every 5k!!

hope it all works out if i can help any more let me know

Alex

It has correct amount of oil now, as I topped it up, yet the gear changes have gone really stiff.. I pulled out onto big fast roundabout in 1st and thought ****TT it wont change gear :shock: :shock: so lucky no cars were immediately behind me :x

for what its worth a stiff gearbox on an SV can be sign that you have put to much oil in it

i found that with mine the level looked oK but the gear change was stiff as anything

Heres a quick vid from this morning when I started it up

http://www.cwimedia.co.uk/other/misc/sv650smoke.wmv

Oh and it's not cold at all so it's not that.. :lol: it's sometimes worse than that though :?

So, not wheelies then :)

Okay here's something that's weird. Whenever I change the oil, the gearbox and clutch are a utter pigs for the first ten miles, not wanting to change and the clutch buggering about and stalling the bike when it comes to a standstill.

Then after (as I say) ten miles or so, it magically changes and everything is super-smooth again till then next oil change. I mentioned this to Sid Squid but he (unusually) was completely puzzled and had no answer.


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