It was also smoking (white), both from the engine (burning oil I assumed) and from the exhausts. I also cannot tell if either there is way too much, or way too little oil in that window because it just appears black.

 

to be honest, you will be better off going to the guys house with a bat, asking for your money back lol. it even looks like it had been cleaned previously in your "before" pic due to the paint looking slightly chalk like.

 

and your fuel line to your petcock is kinked... you got ripped off dude. next time you go buy a bike, have a gearhead go with you.

 

now lets be nice here..

The bike is old, so you need to get the valve clearances checked.if you say you think its coming out of the top, that is the valve cover. if you can do the stuff yourself more power to you. the older 250s are easier to adjust. when you open it up and adjust the valves, re-seal it.

clean the entire engine. this way you can better detect. some oil leaks look really big but are actually very small, it just looks that way because its been leaking a small amount for a while and built up.

Actually... honestly, i would strip the whole friggen bike apart. take the airbox out, carbs out. clean the hell out of everything and replace as many gaskets on the engine as you can if you cant figure out where it is coming from.

The oil light is a pressure sensor... if it comes on while your idling, thats bad. The oil was probably neglected and everything is gummed up. Change the filter, take out the oil screen above the oil plug and change that too.

Put in a synthetic 10w-15w 40 or 50. Mobil 1 makes a sweet 15w-50 that i use. Also, Lucas makes an oil additive that comes in a quart. Its called oil stabilizer. put in 1 1/2 quarts of mobil 1 and 1/2 quart lucas. If there was any damage from neglection, this mixture will try and save it as long as possible.

when you do all this, I would try seafoam in the gas tank to try and clean up some of the vlaves and what not.

if you want any clarification just ask and I will continue to elaborate.

and yes, your fuel line is kinked. I would get a replacement fuel filter. bring that tube into autozone so they can match the size and get a smaller length so it doesnt have to loop around and kink like that. but definitely get a new fuel filter as well im sure that is slowing things down.

If I where you, I would replace everything maintenance wise on this bike.

 

First off, a bent fuel line does not constitute getting ripped off. The bike was not running when I bought it and was dirt cheap. I will replace the fuel line, however I believe oil gushing out of my motor is a slightly larger problem.

I just recently got the bike running, it had a carb problem, and I haven't messed with the oil at all. I'm going to clean the engine, replace the oil, and attempt to figure out where the leak is coming from. I'll let you know when I am finished, as well as the results, within the next few days.

Are you 100% sure it's a pressure sensor? If it is what could it mean?

 

First off, a bent fuel line does not constitute getting ripped off. The bike was not running when I bought it and was dirt cheap. I will replace the fuel line, however I believe oil gushing out of my motor is a slightly larger problem.

I just recently got the bike running, it had a carb problem, and I haven't messed with the oil at all. I'm going to clean the engine, replace the oil, and attempt to figure out where the leak is coming from. I'll let you know when I am finished, as well as the results, within the next few days.

Are you 100% sure it's a pressure sensor? If it is what could it mean?

uhm, not enough oil pressure?

 

I am 100% sure. it is not an oil level switch. it could be, if there was so minimal amount of oil in it that the proper pressure wasnt reached. It means something is gummed up in your engine and causing the oil to not move as freely... i think. it could just be a bad oil pressure switch, thats not uncommon also.

 

Well I can't see anything in my oil window, so either it is completely full or completely empty? It has been sitting for almost a day now. From the pictures it looks to me like the leak is from where the silver and black get screwed together. Not sure what that's called, and it's a little hard to see in the pics.

Edit: I mean the cylinder head gasket is where the leak appears to be coming from. Possible?

 

that is probable. did you check to make sure there was oil in the window before you rode it at all...

 

Unfortunately, I did not. Probably should have, but I do know there was at least some in there simce some came out, lol.

uhm, not enough oil pressure?

Thank you captian obvious lol. I was more asking what could be causing the leak because I know bad oil pressure could mean some large repairs but I'm not sure what those are.

 

Drain the oil and refill with the proper amount first. See how it runs then, if it is infact over filled with oil that could cause your problems. Otherwise it looks like your valve cover gasket is leaking, but that wouldn't explain the oil being burned in the engine, for that you'll want to check the piston rings and valves. Sounds like you bought without checking it out first, lesson learned.

 

I believe that the oil is most likely being burned by the exhaust headers. Not actually internal smoke. It is only a minor amount of smoke coming out of the exhaust that might have been caused by sitting for a while?

I bought this bike not working so I was expecting problems.

 

What color is the smoke? white smoke is buring coolant (i believe) a dark dank smoke is oil. you can tell which one it is by the color.

flush and refill the coolant, also put the seafoam in your gas to try and clean things up.
change the oil. see where you get with that.
Just do everything as if the bike was neglected. everything you can flush/refill/replace/check... DO IT

 

dark dank smoke? what the fuck is that? not to be a dick, though i know i am, can you stop giving him advice, please?



oil burns blue.

coolant white.

this is burning oil:

tell me if your coolant is bright green or dingy and a murky brownish color. does the oil foam, is it contaminated with coolant?

a leakdown will tell you where the oil or coolant is coming from. losing pressure into the crankcase is a piston ring problem. into the radiator or overflow tank and you have a blown head gasket. neither of those and you're probably looking at valve seals or worn valve guides.

your first step, as stated, is to drain your oil and replace the filter. refill with correct amount of oil.

 

I'll stop giving advice when I feel like it or if I say something completely wrong. I wasn't off base with what I was saying.
Treat the bike like it was completely neglected... change/replace/clean everything. That's about the best god damn advice anyone could have given him and he didn't hear that from you now did he.
I said oil burns with a dark dank(heavy) smoke. OOOOOOOPS. its the end-all. I didn't know one negative out of a thousand positives would bring out your inner dick

 

I've stripped down the bike and I'm going to drain the oil, fill it up with new oil, replace the oil filter, clean the engine, and run it to observe where the leak is. There is oil in my airbox however, does that give a clue as to the problem?

I'll check the coolant and drained oil as I do so. My bike was only smoking a little with the throttle and it was after it had been sitting for a while. Does that still sound like oil burning somewhere inside the engine?

 

oil in the airbox can only come from one place, the crank case breather. the crank case is vented to the airbox. when the engine oil is overfilled or you have been riding long distance wheelies(i'm sure that's not the case here) the pressure created in the crank case from the pistons coming down on their intake and combustion strokes forces the excess oil out of the vent and into the airbox. if there's enough oil forced into the airbox it will make it's way into the cylinders through the throttle bodies or carburetors. enough oil and you'll hydrolock and possibly do serious SERIOUS damage. the damage can include bent valves, connecting rods, blown head gasket, etc. excess oil can also cause other seals to leak even if the engine doesn't hydrolock.

the moral of that story is do not over fill your engine oil.

depends what color the smoke was. was it blue, white, or dark grey/black. smoke under acceleration: rings, smoke under deceleration: valve guides/seals. does it clear up after the motor has warmed up?

 

I replaced the oil (couldn't replace the oil filter and I rounded the head of the oil filter bolt) and cleaned the engine. It wasn't smoking any longer, and I could not detect an oil leak anywhere. The oil light was off, and even after a ride there was no oil. I have no idea what the problem was, but it appears to have been cleared up.

 

I have the same problem. Can u tell. What did u do to avoid that leakage ang oil light warning

 

over filled. it was probably smoking because the was getting sucked into the motor from the air box on the intake stroke and burned.

 

Rode it a bit more today and it does appear to be leaking again. From the valve cover gasket. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

 

 

fix it

 

That's a good idea; I never thought of that.

 

Its not hard to take the valve cover gasket off. take it off and re seal it. im not sure why you havent done that yet

 

Im having nearly the exact same thing happening to my 2000. There is no oil on the out side of the cylinder just on the back of the engine above the shifter so Im thinking it's not rings or gaskets. Last week I over filled it with oil and it overflowed into the airbox leaking onto that area but I have since drained and refilled it properly (I think). I haven't been able to throughly clean out the airbox so I am hoping the drips I am getting now is just residual leakage.
Not really any helpful info but I thought I'd let you know your not alone.

 

Im having nearly the exact same thing happening to my 2000. There is no oil on the out side of the cylinder just on the back of the engine above the shifter so Im thinking it's not rings or gaskets. Last week I over filled it with oil and it overflowed into the airbox leaking onto that area but I have since drained and refilled it properly (I think). I haven't been able to throughly clean out the airbox so I am hoping the drips I am getting now is just residual leakage.
Not really any helpful info but I thought I'd let you know your not alone.

you skipped a vital step