1985 Suzuki GS 1150E with new Wiseco 1229 kit breathing too much vapor

[Guest]

Hi Everyone, I am a long time Suzuki GS and a Suzuki GS1150 fanatic. I am new to this site. I have a 1985 Suzuki GS 1150E with new Wiseco 1229 kit with about 450 miles on it breathing out way too much vapor. It has a new K&N Filter pod, jet kit, and vance and hines 4 into 1. The bike was built by a local shop but it took over 4 months and we are not on good terms to say the least. I will not be going back there. The bike sounds awesome, runs strong and I've been very easy on her breaking in. When it gets warmed up it has a lot of vapor coming out of the valve cover vent tube. It drives me nuts. I added a much longer tube, and a filter at the end, but it still has quite a bit of vapor coming out of it. I just ride around my house on weekends and don't plan going to the drag strip or racing it except for maybe the occasional light to light.

Should I put the oem air filter back on it to repurpose the fumes as designed? Are there other solutions?

I've been screwed over by 2 too many mechanics on my bikes in the last 2 years. I'm new to wrenching and committed to figuring this stuff out.

Thank you very much!
Lee

 

[dorkburger]

Hey Lee. I was wondering if / when I'd see you here.
Some people install a vented catch can with a drain to ocassionally drain out oil / vapor that builds up, or do as you did and just install a long hose.

The reason of why so much vapor may be of more concern, but then again, I don't know the nature of overbored engines and the added volume of air getting pushed around inside the crankcase.

 

[Nessism]

Much of that vapor is blow by gasses. I'm not sure how a big bore kit affects that if any. One concern is your comment about being easy on the engine during break in. How to break in an engine is almost as controversial as what oil to use, but there is a significant number of people that recommend against easy break in as far as the rings are concerned. Rings need combustion pressure to push them out and into the cylinder wall and bed them in and babying the engine isn't the best way to do that. Hopefully the vapor is just normal and the rings are sealing well. You might want to do a compression and/or leakdown check after the engine has 600 miles or so on it. The rings will be as well sealed as possible by then I think.

 

[Guest]

FWIW I have a 1100 cc Wiseco piston kit in my GS1000 and had a LOT of blowby mist coming out of the breather until around 750-800 miles on the clock. It took a while for the rings to seat. No problems since then with mist coming out that stock breather and I don't run a hose/filter from the stock breather. Also not saying this is the case with all high compression/overbored engines, but I found that even after the break-in I experienced a lot of new oil leaks from unexpected places (stator cover, breather cover, cam cover, etc etc) which I chalk up to increased crankcase pressure caused by blowby from the high compression pistons. I added a secondary breather to a vented catch can which relieved that issue. YMMV

Are you running an oil cooler? These high compression kits IME create more heat than stock so they require an oil cooler to be installed to keep the oil temps within normal parameters.

Also FWIW, I believe in a hard break-in so I made many runs from idle up to the upper rev range, then used engine braking to slow down to force the rings to seat. Change your oil & filter early and often during the break-in period and ride it hard.

 

[Nessism]

FWIW I have a 1100 cc Wiseco piston kit in my GS1000 and had a LOT of blowby mist coming out of the breather until around 750-800 miles on the clock. It took a while for the rings to seat. No problems since then with mist coming out that stock breather and I don't run a hose/filter from the stock breather. Also not saying this is the case with all high compression/overbored engines, but I found that even after the break-in I experienced a lot of new oil leaks from unexpected places (stator cover, breather cover, cam cover, etc etc) which I chalk up to increased crankcase pressure caused by blowby from the high compression pistons. I added a secondary breather to a vented catch can which relieved that issue. YMMV

Also FWIW, I believe in a hard break-in so I made many runs from idle up to the upper rev range, then used engine braking to slow down to force the rings to seat. Change your oil & filter early and often during the break-in period and ride it hard.

Your supplemental crankcase breather is interesting. Is this sort of mod a common thing?

 

[Guest]

Your supplemental crankcase breather is interesting. Is this sort of mod a common thing?

Seems de rigueur on OSS etc for hotrodded GS engines with overbore/high compression kits and now after experiencing a lack of oil leaks on my engine I know why.

 

[Guest]

Hi Glen! Thanks for recommending me here. I greatly appreciate it and your help. I'll take a picture or video of what I'm talking about with the vapor. I like to hear it could just require more break in time.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for chiming in. Nice bike!!! Maybe the bike needs more hard break in time. I leaned on the side of caution and didn't take it over 4k rpm. I have not seen other leaks yet but it makes sense why they would / could happen. Where is your secondary breather? I didn't know that was an option.

I have the stock oil cooler. It has not come anywhere near running hot.

I run the Shell diesel oil in it.

I'll run it hard and hope the rings can still seat and it's all proper.

I have another post with my 84 GS1150 ES blowing some smoke with less than 500 on the break in on 1229 kit with stock airbox. I need to ride that one harder too.

 

[chris]

Hi Everyone, I am a long time Suzuki GS and a Suzuki GS1150 fanatic. I am new to this site. I have a 1985 Suzuki GS 1150E with new Wiseco 1229 kit with about 450 miles on it breathing out way too much vapor. It has a new K&N Filter pod, jet kit, and vance and hines 4 into 1. The bike was built by a local shop but it took over 4 months and we are not on good terms to say the least. I will not be going back there. The bike sounds awesome, runs strong and I've been very easy on her breaking in. When it gets warmed up it has a lot of vapor coming out of the valve cover vent tube. It drives me nuts. I added a much longer tube, and a filter at the end, but it still has quite a bit of vapor coming out of it. I just ride around my house on weekends and don't plan going to the drag strip or racing it except for maybe the occasional light to light.

Should I put the oem air filter back on it to repurpose the fumes as designed? Are there other solutions?

I've been screwed over by 2 too many mechanics on my bikes in the last 2 years. I'm new to wrenching and committed to figuring this stuff out.

Thank you very much!
Lee

Hi Lee, I think it's great that you are committed to doing your own work , in my opinion that is the only way to go plus these bikes are easy to work on. Your 1229 kit has a compression ratio of 10.25 to 1, which is mild by today's standards, it seems odd that you are experiencing excessive pressure in your vent. I am surprised you can notice it with a filter in place, I have a similar set up with a kN automotive filter and the gases are virtually unnoticeable. You did not mention if you had any head work done. If it were my bike, I would check the valves and do a compression test. A phone call to Wiseco would not hurt , you put new parts in your bike and it should run like a new bike.

 

[Guest]

Where is your secondary breather? I didn't know that was an option.

The secondary breather is coming out of the clutch cover in the picture above. Hope your rings seat soon. If not, you may have to rehone the cylinders and install fresh rings.

 

[1948man]

https://www.rideapart.com/features/254125/how-to-break-in-a-new-motorcycle-engine/

 

[GregT]

This sort of thing seems to be becoming more common. It has no relation at all to an "increased volume of air being pushed around" as with a four cylinder the crankcase volume stays effectively constant.

The only reason is poor ring seating.

Which IMO comes down to two reasons.
A poor bore and hone job. Sadly as old school engine reconditioners become fewer, this is more common. Pick your engineer carefully, ask around, get recommendations.
Poor running in technique - often combined with the wrong oil for running in. I will always do the break-in using mineral oil. Never synthetic - or semi synthetic.

 

[chris]

This sort of thing seems to be becoming more common. It has no relation at all to an "increased volume of air being pushed around" as with a four cylinder the crankcase volume stays effectively constant.

The only reason is poor ring seating.

Which IMO comes down to two reasons.
A poor bore and hone job. Sadly as old school engine reconditioners become fewer, this is more common. Pick your engineer carefully, ask around, get recommendations.
Poor running in technique - often combined with the wrong oil for running in. I will always do the break-in using mineral oil. Never synthetic - or semi synthetic.

HI, I have a interest in this thread because I plan on installing a big bore kit in my bike and I hate to see someone having trouble with a rebuilt top end. I just have difficulty believing that a engine can fail because the op took it easy. If that were the case the motorcycle shops would be full of warranty returns. I live in a motorcycle destination area, twisty mountain passes. Every summer I see many new riders on new bikes riding slower than granny in a 1980's dodge k car. Which brings us back to poor workmanship. I will probably crate my block up and ship it to APE because they probably bore more four cyl. blocks than the local machine shop. It would be nice if some other members that have installed big bore kits would chime in. I have only done complete rebuilds on motocross engines, top end and cranks. All I ever did was two five minute heat cycles at idle, a 20 minute ride, after that it's race time.

 

[GregT]

My race air cooled fours or twins, a warm - through on the stand before a 15-20 minute track session varying the revs - using maximum toward the end of the session.
But never loading the engine up at low revs.
You're ready to race at that point. Compression will be the highest you'll see it. Now keep it there.

I have over the years built up a number of good local contacts for things like a bore job. I know they'll do it right - and they know it'll be put together right.

As far as failure because of taking it easy goes....Yes, an air cooled engine can easily glaze the bores under those circumstances. And back in the day the only thing stopping it being seen more often was the oil quality. It wasn't good enough to glaze bores. But when the synthetics came out...
Modern water cooled engines are better temperature controlled. They can be idled around all day and not get out of their happy zone. Progress I suppose.