Left exhaust White smoke? I'm BUGGIN out

Hondacb550man

Hondacb550man

New Member
If your willin to read 8), let me tell the whole story...

When I first bought this 74' Honda cb550 the first carb body was bad and didn't run. I replaced it. On the 4th carb, the float needle isn't on the right height, but I semi-bent the float to the right level. After, I tried to run the bike, and it took a bunch of kickstarts. At this point the bike was near of gas so I went to a gas station to fill up. I asked the clerk for a container to fill up, and she hot-water washed out a hardsurface cleaner jug, it looked clean and I filled her up. Once running, the bike did not hold an idle, but when rolling the throttle i was able to keep the engine alive. So the bike was rideable, but it had a high RPM, and couldn't idle correctly. The bike will start with the choke closed/barely open, and idle screwed in, but then I have to open the choke for it not to die. I thought it might need a carb sync so I hooked up the brass plugs and tubes and went for it. The carbs look pretty synced already but now the bike is a shit storm.

I started the bike (while figuring out the carb sync), high rpm, spouting white smoke, loud as shit like there's now engine wear on the left side, and after I cut the engine the left exhaust was smoking white. I waited a few hours, started the bike again and its spewing white smoke from the left exhaust.

Now I'm freaked to run the bike because of possible engine wear. I'm thinking about getting a mechanic, but if this is something simple like emptying the tank's possibly tainted gas and puttin new gas and resyncing it, I'm for it.
 
Have you checked compression?
Do you have a manual?
Pods?

High RPM at start up is normally a sign of air leak, maybe one of the carb clamps is lose, or the manifolds were dry/hard and now are not sealing.

While smoke is oil.
black is gas

If it was sitting for a number of years the rings could be not sealing right or more likely the valve seals are toast
 
I checked the compression a couple weeks ago, before I replaced the first carb, and it was fine.

I have airpods, but they aren't on the bike currently, just cause ther a bitch to take on and off. I didnt know they could make a difference?

The first carb needs a O-ring replacement most likely, I've noticed the carb is sometimes wet around bottom plate and carb so that's possible..

But I've heard that about white smoke and oil before, I just don't know why oil would suddenly get in the engine. The left cylinder sounds awful now that it's smoking.
 
Could be the Left cylinder has a slight misfire due to oil fouling? I'd pull the plug and see what it looks like. If its oil fouled it'll be pretty easy to tell. If it is oily, i'd do another compression test to see if something happened on that cylinder, like maybe a cracked ring?
 
Alright for sure. I get off work in an hour so I'll check the plugs. What causes a ring to crack in the first place?
 
You are trying to run with nothing on the carbs?
Pods take ALOT of tuning to run right, and even then its at the sake of performance.

What is the sound like?
Just because it was fine doesnt mean much, things break....and they were working right before they broke....

Do you have a manual?
It will walk you through setting the bike up step by step.
But is of less use once variables such as pods and such are added, thats why a bike should be made to run 100% stock before adding "mods". Even more so for a newbie that is still learning
 
After I got it all synced up I was going to put my air filter pods back on, I thought they just cut emissions from the choke valve, but i mean if they make a difference on how the bike runs then I'll put them back on during the process.

It sounds like shit on the left side. Like hard banging I think. really loud short vibrations.

Yeah I've got the manual, the pods are how it came when I bought it.
 
First thing you have to do is check the compression. Just because it had pods on it when you bought it does not mean it was jetted properly for them. The engine would run dangerously lean without rejetting, and you could have even burned a hole in that piston.

The pods have nothing to do with emissions. They are air filters that keep airborne dirt from entering the engine and ruining it. The original airbox is also designed to quiet intake noise. It's design invariably restricts air flow, and the carburetors are tuned for that restriction. When pods are installed, there is greater airflow, so the carburetors must be re-tuned or the engine will be far too lean. Stock jetting with no air cleaner at all will be so lean an engine will barely even run.

From everything you posted, it sounds to me like you need to take the bike to a shop that is qualified to diagnose your problem, and possibly rejet your carburetors. Not an easy task, because most shops won't even work on the old metric bikes.
 
You can not set up carbs with nothing on the end of them and then install filters after the fact.
Pods suck, and cheap ones are even worse.

Before we get to far off topic, there is no magic "install these jets" anyone that says so is wrong, and it's even worse to see people selling "pre jetted" stuff.
To do it right you will need two to four complete sets if brass and a few pulls on a dyno
Sad but alot of guys don't know the difference and are fine to put around on poorly tuned motors just to have the cafe look
 
In addition to the other comments:

There's a quick way to tell if you are running dangerously lean in either cylinder... your exhaust pipe will start to turn yellow right where it is attached to the head. If it's running REALLY hot, it'll go from yellow to blue, then you're in trouble. Been there.

Running it with or without pods doesn't make much difference. The difference happens when the switch from a factory air box to pods happens. If the bike has not been re-jetted since then, you will never get it to run right. Jetting isn't that difficult, in fact, most kits come with instructions.

White smoke... does mean oil is getting into the combustion chamber, and that can happen in a couple ways. You piston rings could be majorly shot, your valve seal could be leaking, or even your valve guide could be damaged. In either case, you'll have to tear down the head to diagnose the problem properly. The severity of your problem will require you to get the head off, even to just make sure things aren't seriously damaged.
 
If compression checks out OK and you're still burning oil and revving high, the problem is likely to be in your valve train. Worn valve guides, valves, and/or valve stem seals will all cause the problems you're experiencing.

At closed throttle, the lower pressure will cause the intake stroke to suck air from the valve train, past the valve stems, and into the combustion chamber. This added air causes the bike to rev higher. Furthermore, because the air comes from within the valve train, it has a very high oil content and will smoke like a mofo.
 
The thing that concerns me most is the comment about that noise. Smoke and high idle can be fixed, but noises tend to get worse. It could be a loose valve adjustment or a shot big end, but that's the first thing to diagnose and fix.

Let's start with simple things. Is that noise from the top of the motor or the bottom? It can be hard to tell, so if you don't have a stethoscope, use a large screwdriver. Place the tip on th engine and your ear against the end of the handle. Move it to different parts of the engine to see where is noisiest. A video might help too.
 
Put fresh gas in it, emptied the carbs so that the new gas replaced the old.

Fixed the broken o-ring from the first carb.

Put my airpods back on bike.

Checked my sparkplugs and they seem fine. No oil.


Here's a video of the current state of my bike, just recorded a few minutes ago:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcOOjI5y8mk&feature=youtu.be


The bikes def a wildcard. Usually it starts (after a kick or two), and RPMs real high and loses its idle. But this is the current state of the bike. To get it chugging, i have to mess with the choke, thats why theres a pause of couple kicks.
 

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I'm sure you checked this but is your battery putting out a full charge? When the engine turns over you can hear that it slows itself down which means your aren't getting any combustion in the cylinders. If you've checked that the carbs are getting fuel and the bowls are filling properly, I would next check your ignition. I didn't hear any knocking that you mentioned earlier. It sounds like it turns over well and that you have decent compression, it just seems like it's not firing.
 
Give it a shot of starting fluid. It sounds like it is not getting enough fuel to start. Maybe the enrichener circuit is clogged or not being actuated on one of the carbs, and combined with being too lean to begin with, it is keeping it from firing up.
 
Alpha I tried spraying it with starter fluid, but no go.

caferacr it's not charged 100%, its prlly at 40% but I'll plug it in when I can. Yeah the knocking or smoke wasnt there, it wouldn't even run. Is combustion in the cylinders a solely battery issue?



Woke up this morning and some fuckface shithead flipped my bike.
Minor damage to the frame, gastank and right handlebar grip. I'd be on a crusade, but it wasn't as bad as I expected n today, I started the bike, got running first time and idled but its still crazy high rpms and gets worse as I open the choke. The left exhaust did fireball once. Sometimes it'd start uping the rpm just by itself like I was rolling the throttle.
 
Just read the manual it and it will walk you though the right way and the right order to get it running as it should
As stated, normally surges in RPM are due to air leaks, there are a million threads on how to check for this, but given the info so far I would assume that something is plain installed wrong or set wrong. get the manual and set the points timing, carb settings and valve, after you know that everything is 100% as it should you can start to trouble shoot the bike, that is if there is still a problem.
Weak battery can cause the bike not to start, Most SOHC4 Hondas will not start with a dead battery at all.
 
Hondacb550man said:
Alpha I tried spraying it with starter fluid, but no go.

caferacr it's not charged 100%, its prlly at 40% but I'll plug it in when I can. Yeah the knocking or smoke wasnt there, it wouldn't even run. Is combustion in the cylinders a solely battery issue?

Woke up this morning and some fuckface shithead flipped my bike.
Minor damage to the frame, gastank and right handlebar grip. I'd be on a crusade, but it wasn't as bad as I expected n today, I started the bike, got running first time and idled but its still crazy high rpms and gets worse as I open the choke. The left exhaust did fireball once. Sometimes it'd start uping the rpm just by itself like I was rolling the throttle.
Click to expand...

No, the battery has nothing to do with the amount of compression in the cylinders, sorry for the confusion. I mentioned the battery because if its not running on full juice, especially with 70s air-cooled bike, it will not start easily, or run at 100%.

Someone flipped your bike?? How'd that happen?

High RPM would get worse with the choke open because you're just feeding more fuel into the engine. This might be a stupid question, but have you adjusted the idle speed knob to the factory setting ( close to it would be fine )? Does the engine run smoothly at the high idle? If not, I'm wondering if you have a timing issue. Fireballs coming out of the exhaust is either an extremely lean state, or your timing is off.
 
When the choke is open it feeds more air, not fuel
RPM goes up as te motor leans out, not when it is to rich
Fireballs need fuel to form, can be a sign of poor timing or rich
 
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