Good day Guys,
I have just joined the VF1000R club by purchasing a project, the bike has been stood for probably 4 years before it was last started. I re-commissioned the engine by removing the carbs cleaning and re-fitting, lubed the cylinders, cranked the engine by hand to check it was not seized and/or had stuck valves. I then cranked the engine without starting to get oil pressure up. Compression was checked all to be a minimum of 9 bar (130 PSI) and plugs refitted.
After this the bike fired on the button, it was clear after checking the water temperature that the bike was burning oil at any RPM and not just on overun (oil stem seals). So before I pull this motor apart I just wanted an insight to what other owners have experienced with the Vf burning oil. If it is the bores/rings what are the options (I know I can get standard rings) also what are the options on mains and big end bearings which appear to of gone out of production.
Any thoughts/opinions greatly appreciated to a new Vf owner.
Hi longclose first I must ask what the mileage is and these bikes are not renown for smoking badly, my fe had bunged up carbs so I removed them and cleaned them and refitted them and when I restarted it she was running okish but was not quite right and the bike smoked a bit and kept on smoking even after 40 minutes of running, so I replaced the plugs and leads and recleaned carbs and found one carb was flooding directly into the engine so bought new float seats and valves and restarted her, the bike smoked again for about 25 minutes but found this to be old fuel in exhaust system mixed with old carbon burning off, usually worn valve stem seals will cause it to initially smoke but would soon clear, rings usually when worn will smoke on the over run and during gear changes, I would replace carb float seats and needle valves and have carbs sonicly cleaned I could do the carbs for you if you remove all parts as long as you are in England, hope this helps
Hi longclose,
Due to not running for 4 years, it’s a possibility that your oil burn situation is due to stuck oil rings. I’ve encountered this before and found that if you remove the spark plugs and inject an ounce or so of Marvel Mystery Oil in the combustion chamber, hand crank the engine a few times, leave sit for a day or two, there is a chance that the oil rings will loosen up. After this you can install the plugs and start the engine and just let it idle. It will smoke some as it burns off the MMOil. This process may need to be repeated a couple times. I also drain about a quart of oil from the crankcase and replace with roughly the same amount with Marvel Mystery Oil or a quality automatic transmission oil (is highly detergent) which will get to the underside or the oil rings.
As ‘paul 810’ discussed there can be issues with the carb float needles not seating properly and dumping raw fuel which will make for a rough idle and cause smoking.
Regards,
Gene
I had same thing last year with the boldor I rebuilt, it too hadn’t run for a number of years before I got it started, when I did, the engine ran smoke free with the old oil in and had good compression, but when I put new oil in it it blue smoked, I removed the exhaust to have a look at the exhaust valves, they had previously been clean and dry, they were now showing signs of oil running down the stems, the bike still showed good compression, so I assumed it was just the stem seals that needed replacing, BIG MISTAKE, after removing and rebuilding the cylinder heads, new stem seals, re seated valves, it still blue smoked…
So, removed engine again, complete strip down, turned out to be the oil scraper rings stuck in, the compression rings were only just in service limit too,
My thoughts are that the bike ran smoke free with the old dirty oil in as it couldn’t get past the oil ring, but the new clean oil did, and I also think oil getting past the oil ring gave a false compression reading…
finally, after all that, I started the engine, the blue smoke was swapped for grey smoke, which turned out to be the pilot screws which needed adjusting.