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GS1100 engine trouble

  • Thread starter Thread starter markqvist
  • Start date Start date
M

markqvist

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Hi everybody! My name is Mark, and I'm new to this forum :)

I just recently bought a GS1100 EF (well, actually it's a 1000, with an 1100 engine from '84). It's an awesome machine, but meh, I should have taken the warning signs more seriously when I bought it. It was blowing white/blue smoke quite badly, but I was like.. Hmm, ca't be anything too bad, I want it :p So, after getting it home for a closer inspection, things have gotten worse. It's smoking even worse now, so I took out the oil to first look for hints there. The oil smells of gas, so there's definitely gas leaking into the sump, and that's probably also where the oil get's into the combustion chamber. The smoke has a distinct burnt smell to it, so i'm pretty sure it's not water/antifreeze, but really oil. While taking out the oil I also noticed an oil leak coming from right under where the exhaust pipes come out of the engine block.

So, from my meager experience, what I can imagine could be the problem here could be:

- Damaged/gone cylinder rings
- Damaged pistons
- Damaged cylinder walls
- Blown gasket (but which one? I don't know what the one where oil seems to be coming from is called in english, duh :p)

Has anyone had similar experiences, or can offer me advice? I'm really not hoping that this will call for a total engine rebuild :( But if that's it i just guess I'll have to bite it and do whatever I can myself, and then let someone experienced enough do the rest if it really comes down to having the cylinders rebored or scary stuff like that :(

Apparently, the engine should have had a rebuild about a year ago, so this is worrying me quite bad! I'm thinking that maybe I just shelled out a lot of money for something that's almost beyond repair :(

Any help, suggestions, advice or thoughts will be highly appreciated!

Cheers,

Mark
 
Here is an image of where the oil was leaking from. It's coming from right under the exhaust pipe to the left in the image
 
The oil smells of gas means your petcock needs replacement, or maybe rebuilt. It could possibly mean it was left on prime for a long time. At any rate the oil is diluted to the point that it is ruined. Oil will seep out of any tiny leaks a lot faster when it is thinned by gasoline, maybe with good new oil it won't leak too much.
Fuel in the oil will also cause it to seep past the piston rings and valve stem seals resulting in smoke...
Don't run it until you get the oil replaced with new and the petcock issue sorted out. In fact don't run it until you have all of the long neglected maintenance caught up. Very typical for a bike that sits idle for years to have a few issues like this, if they are not taken care of the bike ends up not running and sitting a few more years.

Cliff will be along to show you a list of useful information...
He's really scary.
 
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If it turns out that you do need an engine rebuild but don't want to tackle that consider finding a replacement engine.
I'd start with members here,someone may have an engine.
 
Thanks for the advice tkent and Rover!
I already replaced the oil with new one :) It says it needs 10W-40, but I decided to go for 10W-50 instead. Hope that was not a bad decision! The bike was left in a garage all winter and only had one short run before I bought it, so maybe if the petcock has been left on prime, gas has been seeping into the oil all the time it's been sitting? I will go check the petcock now. How should this be done correctly? Something about sucking on the the vacuum line? Should i remove the fuel line first? Oh, so many questions! Sorry for being a noob here, I'm just eager to learn, and maybe buying this bike was a bit above my current skill level ;)

Problem with finding a new engine is that I live in Denmark, and there's not too many of these bikes around here in good condition AFAIK :(

I'll also try and take out the plugs to see if that gives out any clues. Is there anything in particular here I should look for?

Guess it's also time to get a compression tester and try that out.
 
Slow down, go step by step.
As you say it's hard to find engines, don't ruin the one you have. Do all of the maintenance, get it right before you ride it.
A compression test can be helpful, but it can give wrong information. A bike which has been sitting will read low, even if everything is fine inside the engine.
 
Yeah, I guess slowing down is a good idea here. I'll try not to bee too eager. Just checked the petcock:

Took of the vacuum line from the carbs and sucked it hard. No fuel coming out, so I guess this is fine?

What I did fine though (One thousand stupid points to me for not noticing this before now) was that the petcock was sitting on prime. Called up the previous owner, who said that he put it on prime when he took it out of the garage a week or two ago. I'm suspecting it might have been sitting there longer though.

But one thing is for certain, it's been sitting on prime for at least 10 days, some of the time where I have been riding it. I have done between 60 and 100 miles on it like this. I must sadly admit that I have pushed it quite hard two or three times, but only for very short bursts. How big is the risk that I have done permanent damage to the engine from this?

Could I be lucky that the bike will survive with an oil and filter change, and then running it carefully for a little while? What would you recommend here. I already changed the oil today, but not the filter. Should i run carefully for a few miles with the petcock in the correct position, then change the filter and oil (again), and see if that cures the problem?

Or is there some other path that I should go down before even riding it at all?

Also, any comments on my idea to use higher viscosity oil (10W-50 instead of 10W-40) would be appreciated! Wise or stupid? I figured that using a thicker oil would help preventing oil from entering the chamber.

I really appreciate your advice and comments! You guys are great!
 
Also, thanks for the advice on the bike reading low if it has been sitting. I was really scared when I found nothing in the glass, and the previous owner just responded with "Yeah, that glass never really worked for me, I just pour a bit in occasionally". Yikes...

He said that he had just added an extra quart after taking it out of the garage. There was no reading what-so-ever in the glass, so I added an additional quart. Still nothing. After a little while a tiny bit.

And when I took it all out today, i measured it, and it was 2.7 liters. Which is crap, since it's supposed to hold 3.2 liters. And this was after apparently about two liters had been added!!

Jeez, I'm so nervous that the previous owner unknowingly and slowly wrecked the entire thing :S
 
Again, slow down, do it all. Adjust the valves, check into everything, make sure everything working correctly, charging system, brakes, all of it. Then ride it. Good news about being left on Prime, it sounds like the petcock is not bad after all. 10-50 oil probably isn't necessary, but has it stopped smoking with the new oil in it?
 
I only ran it for about a minute ofter changing the oil, got nervous and shut it down. It was still smoking (petcock was NOT in the correct position at this point, only noticed it just now). Only smoking at high revs thought, almost nothing at idle. Or to be more precise:

- At startup a bit of smoke, stops after about 5 seconds
- Nothing visible at idle, or barely visible. Smells a bit burnt though.
- Revving it moderately makes it smoke noticeably.
- Revving it hard = lots of smoke. It's not extremely thick, but lots of it comes out.

It's also misfiring a bit, only at high revs though. How long should I run it to get any effect from the oil-change and pet-cock being put in the correct position?
 
John, you are awesome! I will definitely try that before trying to replace the gasket!

On another note, things are starting to get real funny. I started up the bike and let it run for a while to see if the new oil sans gas and petcock in the right position would make any difference. It ran for about 10 minutes total. So far no difference. Still thinks it's a smoke machine when revved.

One thing seems to have changed for the worse though: I now have oil coming out of the exhaust. Not burnt oil aka smoke, but actual, black sludgy oil spluttering out of the pipe! Yikes!

Well it's not really "spluttering out", but theres a thick layer of oil at the exit of the pipe, here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVe4Vc8z8D0
 
7981GS said:
:eek: :eek: :eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah, the expression of those smileys very closely resembles my face when I saw it. Buggers... Should I take this as the definitive "hint" that I should pull the engine apart and look into the bowels to figure out what's wrong? I don't suppose there's much else I can do now, apart from looking at the plugs to see if they're all slushed up. Is there any other way that oil could get in the exhaust than from the combustion chamber?
 
Valve guides/seals or pistons/rings. Perhaps even a head gasket leak.
I am pretty sure, that about covers it. :(

Daniel
 
Yeah, time for a trip to the garage... Meh, was hoping this one would be a little more trouble-free, but then again, I guess it's not really fun before you've had to take something apart :p

How in the world should I clean out the exhaust system? I guess it's probably slushed with oil on the inside now, which will make it quite difficult to detect if/when a fix to the cause of the symptoms is achieved.

Should I refrain from riding it (slowly and carefully) to the garage? I mean, it's not going to seize up on me all of a sudden because of this, is it? Such a hassle to get a trailer/van here.
 
I would take it out and run it for a good while, get it good and hot ride for an hour or so,now that you have changed the oil and got the gas polluted oil out. Your exhaust could have a mixture of gas and oil in it causing the smoke and until you get it hot enough to burn that off it is going to smoke. I had a gs 750 that got flooded with gas in the crankcase smoked like heck, ran it for an hour or so and got it warm enough to burn the pipes out no more smoke.Also do the other maintance it really should be done on any bike, that sits and especially a new to you bike.
 
Yeah, sounds like sound advice hjfisk. I've just never experienced problems like this before, so I'm very nervous that I'll do something that will cause permanent damage. I think I will take it out for a long (but catious) ride and let it heat through and see what happens. I will take it to the garage in the weekend and give it a thorough maintenance. I'm sure it needs some loving. Thanks for the advice and tips everyone! You guys are great and so helpful! I hope I'll be able to give as much knowledge back some day, but for now I'm still a bike newbie. So much to learn!

Again, thank you very much everyone!
 
Btw, here's a picture of the bike if anyone wants a look :)

gs.jpg
 
Greetings and Salutations!!

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. markqvist,

I seem to be a little late with this but let me dump a TON if information on you and share some GS lovin'. :D

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Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Rebuild Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...

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Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike! :D

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