Smoke under heavy acceleration..
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Road Master
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,053
Likes: 39
From: Central Florida
Smoke under heavy acceleration..
Last year, while riding in groups, my friends indicated I had a stream of smoke coming from my bike occasionally while riding, not real noticable but enough that it caught their attention. This year, they tell me they smell a burning oil type of smell while riding behind me, and several times under hard acceleration they said a big brown cloud came out.. I can't see it while driving, but thats how they described it. The bike is a 1996 Road King Classic with about 18,000 miles on it. I am going to bring it in to the dealer this week, but want to get some ideas of what people think it might be before I have them check it out.. the better informed I am the better!
Most of my friends say the rings are going, which seems to be too soon on a bike with 18,000 miles, although it is nearly 10 years old. I don't have a real good history of the bike but the previous owner did store it in a climate controlled storage area at the dealer each year, and did have regular maint. done as far as I can tell.. so I don't think it was abused. I did switch the bike from stock HD oil to Mobile 1 V-Twin, and some peopple say thats not a smart thing to do to an older bike? I dunno, I feel better with full Synth. I don't notice any major oil loss, its been maybe 1500 miles since my last oil change and the dipstick is dead on where its supposed to be.
Any ideas here? I realize the only answer may be to bring it in and have them look at it but opinions are appreciated.
Most of my friends say the rings are going, which seems to be too soon on a bike with 18,000 miles, although it is nearly 10 years old. I don't have a real good history of the bike but the previous owner did store it in a climate controlled storage area at the dealer each year, and did have regular maint. done as far as I can tell.. so I don't think it was abused. I did switch the bike from stock HD oil to Mobile 1 V-Twin, and some peopple say thats not a smart thing to do to an older bike? I dunno, I feel better with full Synth. I don't notice any major oil loss, its been maybe 1500 miles since my last oil change and the dipstick is dead on where its supposed to be.
Any ideas here? I realize the only answer may be to bring it in and have them look at it but opinions are appreciated.
Tourer
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 390
Likes: 1
From: Ozark, AL
RE: Smoke under heavy acceleration..
Pull and check the plugs, sounds possibly rich to me. However, I'd also check the fluid levels in the Trans and Primary. If your oil level is fine, then doubt it's a ring thing.
Road Captain
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 688
Likes: 0
From:
RE: Smoke under heavy acceleration..
I agree with tripl8 sounds like valve guide seals. Usually when upshifting you will get a "puff" of blue smoke everytime you shift. This will be especially noticable under hard acceleration. Usually if you have bad piston rings the engine will smoke all the time even at idle. Your choice of oil will make little difference. Once the oil gets past the valve guides into the combustion chamber its burned and pushed out the tail pipes so your friends riding behind you can enjoy it too.................BG
Road Master
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,061
Likes: 5
From: Fort Worth TX
RE: Smoke under heavy acceleration..
Well the big brown puff would be fuel, a bit rich . The oil smell could be seals, rings, Do a compression check, a leak down check is even better. Many times I see that the cylinder has a few small marks in the cyinder allowing just enough oil to smoke a bit but not really use enough to see from oil change to the next. It really does not take much oil to get into the chamber to smoke and for other to see out the pipe.
Cruiser
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 219
Likes: 0
From:
RE: Smoke under heavy acceleration..
ORIGINAL: HDWRENCH
Well the big brown puff would be fuel, a bit rich . The oil smell could be seals, rings, Do a compression check, a leak down check is even better. Many times I see that the cylinder has a few small marks in the cyinder allowing just enough oil to smoke a bit but not really use enough to see from oil change to the next. It really does not take much oil to get into the chamber to smoke and for other to see out the pipe.
Well the big brown puff would be fuel, a bit rich . The oil smell could be seals, rings, Do a compression check, a leak down check is even better. Many times I see that the cylinder has a few small marks in the cyinder allowing just enough oil to smoke a bit but not really use enough to see from oil change to the next. It really does not take much oil to get into the chamber to smoke and for other to see out the pipe.
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