Hey guys. I just bought this 1986 Vf100R. Of course I bought it over the internet. I’m in Ky, the seller is in Connecticut. The video posted by the seller is here.
As you can see, it doesn’t smoke at all in the video.
It was delivered to me on Saturday night. I rolled it out of the trailer, started it and drove it up the driveway to the garage. My wife said, “It was smoking.” I thought that what she probably saw was the warm exhaust in the cold air, it was about 35 degrees outside and humid.
Tonight I started it in the garage and sure enough it instantly smoked white and dripped liquid that looks like clear liquid from the holes in the bottom of the pipes. I thought it was just condensation.
I’m thinking that it has at least one blown head gasket. Can either of them be replaced without removing the engine?
And I see a gasket set on Ebay . Will this gasket set cover everything needed to complete the job?
Well, guys. That was about an hour ago when I started it and it smoked. I just went back to the garage and checked the coolant level and it is full to the cap. I started it and it didn’t smoke at all. Now I’m thinking valve seals. I thought it was white smoke, my wife says she thought it was blue smoke.
Or do these carburetor-ed motors just smoke on cold start? Could it simply be condensation?
My brother purchased a VF1000R that had been sitting in long term storage. It too was very smokey when he had it running. He sorted it out with an engine oil flush product and a couple of oil changes in quick succession. That fixed it. The rings may have been a bit sticky.
Yeah, I’m thinking it may be alright, that it may just be condensation, crossing fingers. It was definitely water coming out of the exhaust and running out of the two holes in the pipes. The wet spots on the floor dried up in only a few minutes and it did quit smoking. I’ve never seen a blown head gasket stop leaking, they only get worse. And like I said, the coolant is to the cap. I couldn’t put a teaspoon more in there and the reservoir is full too. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Are you sure it’s smoke and not steam??…..Water dripping out of the exhaust drain holes is a bit of a giveaway of water in the system. Front head can be removed in the bike but the rear head cannot. These bikes rarely blow head gaskets unless it’s been cooked pretty bad. If it’s only got 12k+ miles on it….it’s unlikely the valve guide seals are worn. Are any of the normal oil seals leaking, countershaft oil seal, shift shaft seal, clutch pushrod seal..?? Give the engine a good flush with oil/seal conditioner and then replace the oil…good quality mineral 10W40 or 20W50 oil is best for these old animals…synthetic oils weren’t really a thing back in the mid 80’s.
Well guys, good news. I think it was just paranoia on my part. This morning I rode it to work. I was about 40 degrees outside and it did do it again. But this afternoon after work, it was a little over 60 degrees and it didn’t do it at all. I ran a few errands on it, and had shut it off and restarted several times. It did not (edit) do it again.
And boy, oh boy, is it a joy to ride. I did put some heat into the engine, I got it up to 90mph for about a three mile stretch and put about 35 miles on it.
In town around 25mph the temperature gauge would climb to about the center of the range. Above 55mph the needle would drop down to the bottom 25% of the range and stay there. The faster I rode it, the low the temperature ran.
It ran flawlessly, sounds so quiet, ran so smooth, had instant starts at the touch of the button, and the suspension is a real joy over railroad tracks, bumps, etc.
This is my first sport bike. Its weight and handling will take some getting used to, but I’m loving it. Power on demand is awesome.
If you choose to call it that, you may. I’ll just call it a sport bike. I just call my other vehicles what they are. I don’t refer to them as the decades they were made.
In their day they were to dogs bollocks of sports bikes, nothing faster…These days if we’re honest… they would get eaten alive by a garden variety R6/CBR/ZXR/GSXR600. We don’t care though…we know what they are and love them all the same.
Oh, I didn’t buy it because I thought it was fast. It cannot compete with the new technology. I bought it because I always thought that they were beautiful machines and when they were in dealer showrooms I couldn’t afford them. This is one that I have always wanted.
