LOTS of white smoke from exhaust, new oil leak

[chrisbock]

Hi there. Ive been re-jetting my carbs on my '81 GS850 for a while now. 6 Sigma stage 3 jet kit didn't have the right sized jets, and after months, Ive finally got some that work. I just got the carbs back on, and my bike started right away, but there was a lot of white smoke shooting out my 4-1 exhaust. Then I noticed there was a dribble of oil seeping from the bottom of my engine case. The oil is coming from a hole without threads on the bottom under the alternator side of the bike. i'm not sure where the leak is at, or where this hole leads to, but I'm just guessing that it has something to do with the white smoke in my exhaust.
I'm a noob, and i stupidly was laying on my ignition switch, trying to get my bike to start out of frustration. It turns out that my jets were just way too small. Would laying on the starter without the engine firing have damaged my engine and caused a leak? If I have somehow damaged my engine out of ignorance, feel free to tell me how stupid I am. Thank you.

[gearheadE30]

White is usually water or coolant...which these bikes don't have. Since the bike was sitting for awhile, it's possible that there was condensation in the cylinders or in the carbs, and that would cause a bit of white smoke when you first started it. That would go away pretty quick though. Another cause of smoke on startup, particularly after sitting, is leaky valve guide seals. If it is a constant thing, as in the smoke never goes away, I guess the rings might be frozen or something, but I'd need a little more background on the bike, where you store it, how you ride it, that kind of thing.

The hole you are describing sounds like the drain hole from the starter, though there are a few holes down there. It's possible that the seal around the starter shaft is bad and is pouring oil out, and then coming out the drain. Pull the cover off the top of the starter motor (2 8mm-headed M6 bolts I think) and see if you can see anything.

Laying on the starter probably didn't cause any problems, but excessive starter usage can cause the starter to get very hot and overheat, which is obviously not ideal. It will also drain your battery pretty quick, which will, if not on a charger or something, put a pretty good load on the charging system once the bike is running. That said, I don't think you did any damage doing it a few times.

[chrisbock]

Thanks for your input. I have my bike in the heated parking garage at my apartment. I haven't ridden it in the last couple of months, and i let it idle for a good minute after starting it up, to see if the smoke was going to clear out of the system. It didn't, and the whole parking garage started filling up, right when my apt. manager was pulling in, hehe. Before I started my re-jetting project, though, I had recently had my valves adjusted and everything was running great, just too lean. I wasn't experiencing any exhaust issues. I'll take a look at the starter and see if the leak is around there. Thanks again

[JJ]

White smoke (sometimes looks blue) from the exhaust is a sign of oil being burned in the combustion chamber. I'd pull the plugs and see what they look like. If you rode it lean for a while, you could have very well burned or even holed a piston. That's like having a blowtorch in the cylinder.

[hjfisk]

Check your oil level sounds like you have a crank case full of gas, and don't run the bike till you check. Then check to make sure your petcock is working properly , might be fuel going down the vacuum line flooding the crankcase and #2 cyl.

[mike_of_bbg]

Would you be talking about a hole right under the starter motor? That would be the "mystery hole", which is really just a drain for the starter cavity. The most common cause of oil leakage there is a tired O-ring around the nose of the starter, but there are a couple other ways oil can get there so it's best to investigate. Leaks past the base gasket are probably #2 on the culprit list.

Yes make sure your crankcase is not overfull with an oil/gas mixture. A thin, overfull mixture like that could be the culprit in both the external leak and the burning smoke. Otherwise you'd be looking at two different issues as one is an external leak and the other an internal problem...

[BassCliff]

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[bbjumper]

Would you be talking about a hole right under the starter motor? That would be the "mystery hole", which is really just a drain for the starter cavity. The most common cause of oil leakage there is a tired O-ring around the nose of the starter, but there are a couple other ways oil can get there so it's best to investigate.

The vent line from the secondary drive is routed into the starter cavity, that's another possibility..

[chrisbock]

Thanks for all the replies. I've finally got some time to get back on the case. I only had enough time last weekend to check the starter compartment, and I did see oil in it. I am re-jetting, after a complete carb clean, because I have pod filters, and 4-1 manifold. All the right reasons to re-jet. Also, the guy I bought it from had put on the pods and manifold, and supposedly re-jetted the carbs. It wasn't running too lean, but it was noticeable. He had put in jets that were DRILLED OUT! He also didn't do anything about the needle adjustment for mid-range. This I found out after opening up the carbs.
While I have worked on my bike for a while, this is the first time I've done any carb work. The Carb Cleanup series was very helpful for what seemed a daunting task. One which I can probably do with my eyes shut now, after all the wrong sized jets I have received. (I would not recommend doing business with 6 Sigma Jet Kits, they can only be contacted through email, send the wrong parts that may or may not even get to your address.)
I'm gonna get a new O-ring for the starter, and change out the oil.
As for the petcock, it seems to work fine. Would priming the carbs after reinstallation have somehow sent fuel down the vacuum line if the petcock was faulty? Thanks again

[hjfisk]

If you got fuel in the vacuum line the petcock is faulty . Did you have gas in your oil?

[chrisbock]

I didn't notice any gas in the oil, but I do think that there was too much oil in the case. The sight gauge definitely showed too much oil. There was no fuel in the vacuum line, either. I cleaned out the starter compartment, which had oil in it, checked the starter o-ring, and did an oil change. That seemed to have fixed the oil leak for now. If there was too much oil pressure, would it have been able to seep past the o-ring?
Also, I know that different manufacturers have different numbers for their jet sizes. The jets that were in the carbs when I got the bike were all 160's that had been drilled out to a slightly larger size. I said as much to 6 Sigma, and they sent me 170's (for all 4 carbs, though the middle two carbs require slightly smaller jets) I was having all sorts of problems just getting my bike started with the initial jets i was sent, 135's being the largest. When I installed the 170's it started right up and sounded upset for being sidelined so long.
My question is this, would the smoke from the exhaust be from too large of jets?
When at idle, there was white-ish smoke, but when revved up to the 6000's or so, i was getting some puffs of black smoke, with tendrils coming from the muffler after I killed the engine.
I have just put in new plugs after gapping them to the larger side, and don't want to ride till I've synced my carbs.