Number 3 from left wont fire

[natemoen]

You say the smoke is getting less though as you run it? I had what looked to be oil coming out of my exhaust as well when I was burning oil in mine. The crap dripping out may not actually be oil (well it is but its not like it is pumping liquid oil out) but more a mixture of carbon, moisture, and oily deposits from the oil smoke.

If the smoke is lessening the more you run it then get a few extra plugs, your plug socket and put them in you pocket, get on the bike and go ridding. Stop every so often and swap plugs and keep riding. I had three sets of plugs and carried them all with me and would swap them as needed when I would ride.

[James England]

Each time I clean the fouled plug I get about 10 minutes of run time with white smoke (getting less and less now) then the plug fouls and I am back to a 3 cylinder machine.

What's getting less and less... the smoke, or the running time?

Have you checked your engine oil level again?

[Larrym]

Bold Measures??

What's getting less and less... the smoke, or the running time?

Good one James.

I saw that one too but I didn't have the courage to ask.

[dashingEMT]

The smoke is getting less. BUT I am now out of plugs, so gotta wait til I can get more. Is it possible the cylinder is just full of crap that it needs to be "burnt" out?

[dashingEMT]

You say the smoke is getting less though as you run it? I had what looked to be oil coming out of my exhaust as well when I was burning oil in mine. The crap dripping out may not actually be oil (well it is but its not like it is pumping liquid oil out) but more a mixture of carbon, moisture, and oily deposits from the oil smoke.

If the smoke is lessening the more you run it then get a few extra plugs, your plug socket and put them in you pocket, get on the bike and go ridding. Stop every so often and swap plugs and keep riding. I had three sets of plugs and carried them all with me and would swap them as needed when I would ride.

This very well could be the case...its not raw new oil, more like soot, oil and gunk nasty (yes that is an official motorcycle term HA!)

[natemoen]

Get yourself a propane torch and a wire brush. Heat the plug up till the ground strap is red hot and then the crap will burn off and the give it a scrub down with the wire brush. Cleans them up well enough.

[James England]

The smoke is getting less. BUT I am now out of plugs, so gotta wait til I can get more. Is it possible the cylinder is just full of crap that it needs to be "burnt" out?

I would check your engine oil level right now. From what you've said about smoke, you may have burned most of it, hence the smoke getting less. Is the oil level correct in the sight gauge... yes? No? Check it.

From what you've said, this problem suddenly happened as you were riding and the engine running, right? So, it won't be because #3 cylinder is full of "crap"... I mean, what would it be and where would it suddenly come from? And only into one cylinder? All the time?

Sudden events like suddenly chucking out white smoke and oil from the exhaust pipe are not generally due to wear.... they are due to an event of some sort (unwelcome variety). Something's happened in the engine, IMO


Just read what you put re it not being oil..... rub it between your fingers. Does it feel like oil? Or feel like soot?

[Larrym]

Place Ya Bets...

dashingEMT,

Ok... I"m in.

If we're talking about symptoms interpretation without actually doing an "inside the cylinder inspection/evaluation" then....

My concern is that this may not be a "static" scenario where the "oil contamination" process is done/over. In the "static" view then after the cylinder itself has been purged/cleared then there'll still be oil/smoke in the exhaust header/muffler. It may take some time/heat/air flow for the exhaust system to clear out.

The "indicator" that I'd use to indirectly determine if the cylinder was receiving a continuous fresh supply of contaminants/oil or if the flow of contaminants had ceased would be:

(Drum-roll optional...)

The spark plug.

The engine is basically a huge air pump and likely to cycle through considerable amounts of grunge, goop, and all manner of "Yuck" in a relatively short time. The plug would clear as an indication that the "contamination" process had stopped.

The plug would continually show evidence of fouling/contamination as an indication of an ongoing contamination process.

What do the plugs say and KEEP saying?

[cywelchjr]

I'll have to disagree a little with everybody here. Not that there might be a problem with the engine, but the compression is pretty close for the type of symptoms we're talking about. It sounds to me more like the carb is fouling OR a spark plug wire problem. I would do the easiest check first, swap the wires between 2 and 3 and see if the problem moves, if it does, you found the problem, if not, you know it's not spark plug wire related.

Then if it's not the plug wire, check the carb to make sure it's not flooding the carb, a flooded cylinder can look almost exactly like an oil fouled one, and I've having a hard time seeing it being oil based on the smoke getting less (but yes, DO check the oil level). But IIRC this is also a "new to you" bike, so it could be a carb problem that's been ongoing (carbs have caused more than one owner to become a PO) problem that's gotten crap into the exhaust that with getting hot is burning out of the system. My XS400 did a LOT of smoking until the rings reseated, if it sat for a while, they WILL need to reseat before the compression will come up, as they will have gotten at least a bit stuck in the grooves and won't be moving like they should yet. Some have had good success with ATF or marvel mystery oil in the cylinders for a few days letting it soak and then cranking it with the plugs out (you will get it all over, so put a rag over the holes) before starting it up, and if there are mosquitoes around you will be doing the neighbors a favor when you start it up what with all the smoke it will put out, but the rings may well free up with doing that.

[James England]

Anyhow, I was riding today and lost a lot of power all of a sudden.

Again, to clarify based on the previous post re the bike standing for ages etc. How many miles had you done, approx, before the oil thing? Were you riding the bike back immediately after purchase? Or had you had the bike a while and done a few miles before this started?

If you've done a few miles and had no problems until the smoke thing, then it will not be lack of compression (which is a gradual thing). You've already said you have a spark on #3, so it won't be that, if the spark is regular and reasonably strong. Your plug is quite obviously fouling up and stopping sparking because of this. You clean it, or replace it and, hey presto, the cylinder fires again until it gunges up again.

So... how many miles did you do on the bike before you "lost a lot of power all of a sudden"?

[natemoen]

I also am not ruling out catastrophic failure, but there is no sense in starting there, start with the easy things and work to the big things.

[DGXSER]

Diospite James correct statement that oil typically shows up white and not fuel, I do know for a fact that I was helping another XSsive work ont heir ride and had a lot of carb issues (first run in with the "bastard" 80s carbs). Anyway, we had black liquid running out the pipes, but it was really gas soaking up the carbon out of the pipes and running out. And once we got that clear, man did it POUR out the white smoke for a few trips round the block or so.

Anyway, I am suggesting that the poor running and fouling and all is really carb related and not oil related or compression related. If you had bad enough rings to put THAT much oil in there, your compression would suck much worse than it does. Only time I have seen one drip oil out the pipes was when that same XSsive lost a valve head from its stem into the engine and it ate a hole clean through the piston.

[James England]

Yes, I don't mean to be the prophet of doom on this one. Originally, it was described as oil coming out of the pipe and white smoke which boded badly.

If it is loads of unburnt fuel giving the inside of the pipe a nice clean, you'll have to extremely careful when trying to run the bike that the fuel/air mixture in the pipe doesn't ignite.

Are you able to post a video clip somewhere for everyone to look at? Or pix of what's coming out of the pipe. And the plug.

[CaptonZap]

Oop's, wrong pew

[Larrym]

And we are......Where???

'Scuse me....

Can Someone tell me where we are right now in the troubleshooting process???



Frankly, this one has been a little difficult for me to follow/keep track of. Are we waiting for dashingEMT to perform some "test/evaluation" and report back? Possibly more "Peer Review" and discussion until a consensus on what to do next is reached???

I'm Pretty much clueless on my end right now....