A bit of help............ please

2108 Views 17 Replies 6 Participants Last post by ash, Jan 17, 2003

Darraghmc

Discussion Starter · Jan 16, 2003

Right , i took my bike out for a blast a few days ago , it was warmed up nicely and i was driving it hard , anyway got back to work parked it up. after work i came out and noticed a few drips of oil on the ground , i drove it slowly for the 2 miles home. anyway once i got it home i had a look at the oil and there was very little left (i had changed the oil three days previously) but also there seemed to be water in with the oil !!!
does anyone have any idea what the hell i have done to my bike ????
a friend of mine thinks i might have blown a head gasket.
I'd appreciate any help you can offer.

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ash

· #5 · Jan 17, 2003

You may have not seated the oil filter properly, if you didn't oil the o-ring on the filter, it may have kinked when you tightened it up.
The easiest way to check for a head gasket failure is to look in the the coolant expansion bottle. If the water looks like its got washing up liquid in it, then theres a chance the head gasket has gone. As for water in the oil, if the heads intact, its from condensation and will cause the oil to emulsify (a mayo like substance will form in there) To cure this just give the bike a really good run and get it nice and hot. A compression test will tell you for sure if the gasket has gone.

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ash

· #7 · Jan 17, 2003

did'nt see the last post, That much coolant in the crankcase isn't good. But then again oil floats on water and should be the other way round ?.

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ash

· #9 · Jan 17, 2003

The water should really be the same colour as the coolant (which is green or blue if this is the case. The expansion bottles arent very big so a loss would show on the level straight away.
I would have thought that water in the engine would have serously affected the performance.

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ash

· #11 · Jan 17, 2003

The condensation would have got there through the crank case breather, Its called emulsification and if left will block the oilways into the head. The only way to get rid of it is to get the bike hot enough to burn it off, It is caused by making short journeys in cold weather

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ash

· #13 · Jan 17, 2003

I would think that the oil loss was caused by either the filter not sealing or a faulty union within the oil system(unlikely), if this isn't apparent, dig the tank off and look in the airbox, you will see if the breather is depositing oil in the filter. (the breather pipe is the large bore pipe leading into the top of the airbox from behind the carbs) There is also a chance that a blockage within the crankcase breather system to cause a large volume of oil to be lost in this way (it syphons up when partially blocked) and it would end up on the dirty side of the filter in the bottom of the airbox. I would guess there are drain holes in there as well so this could be a possible place for the oil to appear from.
When you check the oil, try and be consistent where you do it (on level ground) and allow the oil to drain for 5 minutes before sighting the glass with the bike vertical. This may sound obvious but different manufacturers state different methods (some ask for a measurement after killing the engine whilst the oils still in the head).

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ash

· #16 · Jan 17, 2003

Agree with Rob Lee, If I take my bike to work in the winter, I take the long way home every other day to avoid this.

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ash

· #18 · Jan 17, 2003

The only solution to protecting your asset is to put your self out and give it a decent run getting it hot for an hour or so every weekend or don't ride it until it warms up. There is no quick fix unfortunately for this. At least if you know what the problem is you can deal with it. Either that or get a moped for your commute and save the bike. Winter makes a real mess of the japanese bikes, They just aren't built to cope with it.

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