Trouble Trouble Trouble

[BZ]

UGH...

Finally got my 80 XS1100 back together, seen it was very very low on oil so I put 3 quarts 10-w40 O'reilly's brand. started missing, spewing oil somewhere on top of the transmission and smoking honorably. The only thing I could thing of is that I put too much oil it in. changed the oil this time now it is not throwing oil out but is still smoking and running poorly.

Any Ideas?

[motoman]

UGH...

Finally got my 80 XS1100 back together, seen it was very very low on oil so I put 3 quarts 10-w40 O'reilly's brand. started missing, spewing oil somewhere on top of the transmission and smoking honorably. The only thing I could thing of is that I put too much oil it in. changed the oil this time now it is not throwing oil out but is still smoking and running poorly.

Any Ideas?

Centerstand or held known vertical to check that oil window, but you alrady know that by now. Put so new/cleaan plugs in, ride it a bit and see if it'll burn/get rid of oil residue out exhaust and whereever else it should not of gone to. Thourgh, complete lubrication is good, but don't think some 3quarts overfull is what was intended.....

[Rasputin]

I guess my first question would be how did you check the oil? Second would be why you added 3 quarts? Did you check it after adding 1 or 2?
Sounds like you have not checked the oil correctly and have drastically over filled it. Now that you have changed the oil how are you checking that it is the correct amount? Did you change or drain the filter as well?
If you managed to get oil in the exhaust tubes it will smoke for a while till it burns out of there.
Is there any chance that it was full of gas as well and the sight glass looked clear because of contamination? Just a few questions for thought.
I always check mine on the center stand with the sight glass.

[skids]

Check that cam chain tensioner plug for an open hole. Oil can migrate along the fins and fool you.

[Bonz]

What Rasputin said... What predicated 3 qts being added in the first place? 3 qts isn't enough for an oil change and filter. Answer that first, then we can help more from there.

[BZ]

I guess my first question would be how did you check the oil? Second would be why you added 3 quarts? Did you check it after adding 1 or 2?
Sounds like you have not checked the oil correctly and have drastically over filled it. Now that you have changed the oil how are you checking that it is the correct amount? Did you change or drain the filter as well?
If you managed to get oil in the exhaust tubes it will smoke for a while till it burns out of there.
Is there any chance that it was full of gas as well and the sight glass looked clear because of contamination? Just a few questions for thought.
I always check mine on the center stand with the sight glass.

Bike was on side stand when I first checked (first mistake) view glass looked to have noting in it added 3 quarts of oil and it looked full in the glass. after a short trip to the end of the driveway I found out I goofed... bad.

looking at this. I drained the oil out. The oil did not have a gasoline odor to it. I added only 2 quarts after draining the system because that's all I had left. the filter was removed and checked it for metal and other contaminants, there was none. Filter was not changed at this point in time, will order one as soon as I can. I have pulled and cleaned the sparks plugs after draining the oil.

[IanDMacDonald]

Lucky u did not do any more damage . . .

[Rasputin]

Ok, first thing to do is make sure you have the correct amount of oil in the engine. Check it as described in your link. Be very sure before you run it again!
The fact that it does not smell of gasoline does not make it so, with the possibility that there may have been up to 6 quarts oil in there. Any estimate of how much you took out? The gas in the oil thing is just a check to be sure and not a diagnosis at all.
It probably spit up from the crank case breather and will be ok. I would change the filter just for giggles and peace of mind. Just wanted to be sure you did not pull the middle drive drain and then add to your engine oil as that is a common mistake made.
When an engine is over filled the oil can get into strange places such as the air filter and down the exhaust pipes. These can take a while to clear out and smoke will be evident for a while. If it got sucked up into the air filter then this may have to be cleaned or changed depending on what you are running.
Over filling should not result in any permanent damage as long as it is not run for long periods of time.
Mostly thinking that you can correctly fill the oil and run it for a while and everything should clear up if it was running right before. Hope that works for you!

[TADracer]

Not going to add anything to what the others have told you except...

Get a manual! These machines are wonderful but a bit picky so you need a manual to know what you are doing and the order to do it.

[trbig]

Along with the other stuff, I wouldn't suggest 10w 40 oil either.

[skids]

Along with the other stuff, I wouldn't suggest 10w 40 oil either.

...oh I just knew it would turn into another oil thread!

[Eveready1100]

+1 on what Ras said about the air filter. It will probably be soaked in oil, so the bike will behave like it's running with the choke on. Besides buying a new filter, if it's the stock one, just wash it out in petrol and let it dry and refit it (till the new one arrives)
Just curious about the oil on the top of the transmission cases, though. Check the crankcase breather hose is actually still attached to the barb on the case, as it may have gotten blocked with oily muck than blown off through crankcase pressure.

Don't sweat it though, mate.
I've done it myself years ago after an extremely early morning pre-ride check (half asleep, I mean) then went on a scheduled bike club ride where I'd covered about 140 klms before the symptoms became apparent when climbing a mountain pass with smoke billowing from the pipes and missing badly. Aborted the rest of the days trip and limped home. After washing the air filter out, and draining out the excess oil, took it for a run and all was good.
So your trip to the end of your driveway is hardly likely to have done any permanent damage, unless it was done at redline.

[BZ]

was just dirty air filter, removed the air box and it smoking issue almost vanished, still had a bit of a miss fire so pulled the spark plugs again, got to the number 3 cyl and the thread came with the spark plug. looks like some one had "repaired" the thread once before and well it did not last. guess it time to pull the head and send it to a shop but at this point I'm a little fed up with dumping money into this bike and with it getting colder I'm just going to put the project on hold till next year.

[fredintoon]

Hi BZ,
get back to what you can check.
Drain the oil in the crankcase to see how much comes out.
Drain the oil in the filter bowl because you should be using 20W50.
Check the air filter for oil contamination.
Refill with 3.5 US Quarts of oil.
test drive.

[IanDMacDonald]

BZ- Plenty of time left to get that bike going! The head takes an hour to remove. As far as the thread repair, helicoil? Dunno. I never over-tighten my spark plugs just for that fear.