Smokey Exhaust

I just got back from a 2min ride around my block. First ride Ever!! and it felt great!

Except for this....once I bring the bike to a stop, I notice the exhaust are smoking from the ends.

It's not blue, but white...but than again, it's not so white that it would indicate an anti-freeze leak.

So here's the rundown.

Carbs cleaned and sync'd. Anit-freeze flushed and renewed with Honda-freeze pre-mix for bikes.
Oil change and air filter change.

Everything is oem, including the exhaust, filter, and carb jets.

I've been doing a ton of start and stopping with the bike in my garage from making all adjustments and fixing problems left and right, I've noticed that just from the bike sitting at idle, it drips a nice amount of pure water from the exhaust pipe holes that leaves me a little puddle from a cold start. About the size of a persons foot....if he's wearing a size 11:redface:

And then, from the trip around my block, I park the bike in my driveway and at idle, she drips only 2-3 drops of water just sitting there for 1-2mins.

Granted, she was about 1/2 way to full operating temps. And would it matter that I haven't set the pilot screws yet with a RPM gauge??

What could be the problem?? And it's a 84 VF500 with 7k on the clock.

Any help is much appreciated as she's ready for the road, but I don't want to risk any damage if this problem is actually something serious!

LL

EDIT: My father brought this to my attention. Since I was using a mechanics stick light, the smoke seemed a little on the gray side and the smoke smelled like a strong CO2.
Is Anti-freeze suppose to smell funky when it's burned??

 

I have an 86 500, if I saw white smoke and water dripping out of the mufflers, I would be pulling the heads off it right now! I'm no expert on these interceptors but a blown head gasket is a blown head gasket and the symptome you describe are just that. Ive been a professional mechanic all my life and for more years than I would like to admit, and in my opinion you need to pull the motor and remove the heads. probably someone overheated the engine at one time. look for cyclinder wear as water entering the engine will wear out the cyclinder very quickly if it was going on for awhile. that's my opinion and who knows, I'm wrong quite abit and giving you a lounge chair diagnosis maybe one of them.

 

Burning antifreeze smells "sweet". A few drips of water from the exhaust is normal from a cold engine, but nowhere near a footprint size puddle. I'm thinking head gasket too. Check the color of the oil also. If it looks milky, coolant is in the oil. Keep a watch on the coolant level. If it goes down, trouble.

 

Waterpump leaking from the drip hole AND a bad headgasket.

With your symptoms, I'd do a simple compression check and if a cylinder fails, that strongly favors replacing the headgasket.

 

No sweet smell, just the smell of CO2. Water is not dripping from the water pump. Everything is nice and dry! Thank goodness....

Coolant level maintaining!!

Compression check is in order but the last time that I checked the front 2 heads (cause they didn't involve taking the tank off) were 170+ and one thing that I have to check for is the tops of the pistons...cause if I see any whiteness on them that would indicate a water leak...Right???

My micro worm light broke last year and Sears doesn't carry them anymore, hence, I'm not able to look down the cylinders.

Would I be able to tell if I'm burning water just by looking at my plugs??

Someone also told me that I would be seeing a lot of water bubbles popping in the radiator and that my temperature gauge would rise faster if I had a head gasket leak??

Dipstick is nice and clean with a tint of normal motor oil. But than again, oil rises to the top of water cause it's lighter right?

And don't get me wrong, this whiteness that's coming from the mufflers is not like a smoke bomb white, but like a fine mist of gray to white. Even lighter than when cars warm up in the winter.

Man I'm hoping for no water leak, cause 3 years ago, the head gaskets were replaced with OEM. The cams and chains sound Excellent, but could there be a crack in the water jackets??

LL:frown:out:

Edit: Is there anyway for me to upload a video clip??

 

You said the temp was only 1/2 of normal. Which may not be enough to dry the pipes out. Especially if the last couple of times riding you never really got it hot enough to dry them out completely. May be normal build up of water. Take it out on the highway and run it for awhile and see what happens. Otherwise I'd say head gasket seepage and not a big breach. You may not see water in the oil because not enough is going in to the cylinder to get past rings but enough to smoke a little. Do a coolant system pressure check. That should tell the story.

 

If your coolant level is maintaining then you should be OK. Usually, the coolant leaks into the combustion chamber and is passed through the exhaust valves and out the exhaust.

Occasionally the pressure from the combustion pushes air into the coolant passages - which then show up as bubbles in your radiator.

If you had coolant in your oil, it would turn milkshake brown.

If you had a headgasket leak, your temperature would rise because the coolant is no longer under pressure. Coolant under pressure has a higher boiling temp than coolant not under pressure.

The tops of the pistons are probably black with carbon. Most are.

I would look at the sparkplug tips. If one is "cleaner" than the others, it usually indicates that the coolant is leaking into that cylinder.

Smell the water? Does it smell like antifreeze? Did you just wash the bike?

 

Yep, temps were only half way. And I've never taken her out long enough to have her fully warmed up.

So, in order to see if I have a water leak, I need to get her fully warmed up, so I can see if the exhaust will clear up, see if any plugs look to clean (looking at the piston heads is a waste of time I guess?) and have a look at the oil for a water leak.

I'm thinking of draining all the oil so I don't miss anything.

All exhaust valves were nice and black with no whiteness or corrosion.

Anti-freeze is new and still smells like new. Bike has never been washed.

The exhaust system has been sitting outside in the garage for over 3 seasons. That's a long story...

And I can't find a tester cap that fits my bike!! Thats another reason why I can't check my Acura's coolant system because by chance, they both have the same size radiator cap.

No automotive store carries this. They can't even order this..

I'm gonna go mark my coolant bottle with a marker at it's current level. I don't want to miss anything.
This is my first water cooled bike, and it might be my last but boy was the ride AMAZING!!!:ncb::bootyshake2:

LL

 

The clue is that you did a lot of stop starting in the garage before the first run and that was very short anyway.

I think you have a build up of codensation in the silencers. When you start the engine, the warm gases turn the condensation into water, which in turn runs out of the silencer drain holes. The amount of water vapour is dependant on ambient temperature and air humidity content.

It takes a good run, maybe 20 miles or so to get everything hot enough to evaporate all of the vapour. Give it a good run and I bet the problem goes away.

 

I agree with the above - my 750 will blow a huge amount of steam out the tailpipe right after startup some mornings, and will weep a little water from the connection at the slip-on.

Always goes away shortly thereafter, and my coolant level has never budged.

I think a good hard run should cure the problem, but keep an eye on that temp gauge! If it starts to creep past 5/8, shut her down!

 

Oh yeah - another way to see if it's water coming out the end is to take a small mirror (like a wife/girlfriend's compact - they love it when you steal their stuff to use in the garage:tongue and hold it over the tailpipe when it's doing it's steamy/smoky thing.

If it's steam or coolant, it will fog up the mirror. Leave it there long enough(especially if a cold pack/ice cube is held against the backside of the compact), and the moisture will condense to the point that drops will form. Let them settle into a clean white paper towel and see if it's colored. Just water vapor will only "wet" the towel (and smell kind of "exhausty"), where as coolant will discolor it (and smell an awful lot like coolant).

If it's smoke (like burned oil or gasoline vapor), it won't fog up the mirror.

 

My goodness, all your ideas sound fantastic and something I will definitely try later today! My helper will then be available. I'll post later tonight the results, and I'll definitely try to swap a mirror

LL

 

Well, after doing some testing, I'm still without a clue.

No more foot side puddles, but after she's warmed up fully, I still get a drip or two from the mufflers.

The mufflers still didn't feel like they were getting hot...just warm.

And all cylinders have been sync'd and are firing nice and hot evenly!!

So, after a 10min ride, I came back home, and she was just puffing a little smoke, so I shut her down, and looked her over top to bottom. I did find I have some oil residue on the back of my motor that is starting to drip off and burn on the collector box. So that explains the smokey engine:biggrin:

I let her cool for 5 mins and started her up again, but this time, she wouldn't smoke at all! It took nearly 7mins of idling just to get a little puffing.

I then took the mirror idea, and I got the mirror to fog up, but after nearly 4mins I wasn't getting any drops to fall in the paper towel. They were clinging!!

So I wiped the mirror and it was pure water! With the smell of CO2.

I'm just going to pull the plugs, and I should know by then, that if the bike is using any water.

Dropping $75bucks for plates and insurance on a bike that might be using water, is not practical. I hope this clears up with the trips around the block.

Here's my last thought, could water in the oil start to smoke or does water have a higher boiling point than oil??

Thanks again for all the help. I'm sure I'll be posting more this week of further problems.

LL

 

What does CO2 smell like? My mig welder uses CO2 but it has no smell at all.

 

Any water in the oil will heat up and burn off. And how would that much straight-up water get into the motor anyway.

Check the crankcase breasher reservoir by draining the tube at the bottom of the bike. Careful, it's some nasty smelling sh$t that comes out...

 

"So, after a 10min ride, I came back home"

Ten minutes is not enough ride to really get things dried out. Take it out on the highway and run 60-70mph for fifteen minutes or more. Then it should be dry and you'll see then. Your not really getting the exhaust hot enough in a 10 minute putt unless your running 80plus may be. If you just rode around town it won't do it in ten minutes. The motor is up to temp but the exhaust isn't hot enough to evaporate all the moisture it sounds like you have in them. You exhaust starts to cool when it leaves the heads and gets cooler the farther back it goes. You have to get the pipes hot and keep them that way for awhile.

 

There is nothing wrong with the bike as you describe it.

The poor thing just wants to be ridden so go and ride it. The condensation will go with use.

 

I have been riding it longer each and everyday (without tags:frown and I must say, every time I bring her to a stop after each longer ride, she then starts to toot some smoke, but only at idle.

And every ride, it becomes less and less each time by very little.

So, with these rides back and forth, if I don't loose any water from my reservoir of which I marked with a dry eraser marker, then she'll get tags and insurance......... Look out world.....here I come:sportbikesmile:

And I just found out that my insurance for the bike is going to be $450 for full coverage for the full year. :boom:

Thanks everyone!:wave:

LL

 

Smoke is still white and not blueish?? Right? What's the history of this said bike? Do you know? How old is the fuel? Inquisitive minds want to know. Do you spray for bugs on the side

 

Why full coverage?

I pay $160/yr. for liability only, with a "rider" that stipulates I park it in the winter months. Not that a ride on a warm January day is out of the question...:wink: