Here's a good laugh - long

You'll either laugh or cry...

1982 XJ650 Seca, took it to work on Friday to go golfing with some buddies. A customer of mine rented a school bus to take us all to a fancy course for some holes and food - and drinks. Didn't we spend all day on the links.

Well we came back very sunburnt and some of us came back VERY drunk (not me, I don't drink and ride.) Regardless, a 2-1/2 hour bus trip with a bunch of screaming drunken idiots after a scorching 12 hour day of golfing wanted me to get on my bike and get home. But....

Bike stalled! and kept stalling! What do I do in my infinitie wisdom? I check the oil sight glass. At what do you know, at 11:30pm at night, I can't see the level and assume (see how I wrote assume?) no oil. So I call a buddy up and say "Hey, I'm out of oil - hook me up!" and he does. The bike still stalls!

I give up. Grab a company vehicle and go home for some badly needed sleep. I go back the next day with a buddy and a truck to haul her home and bike starts up!? I drive it home with my buddy following. Get it home and my buddy says I blew the engine - couldn't see me for smoke. I DISAPPEARED IT WAS SO BAD!

Well you guessed it. SEVERE oil overfill. I'm guessing at least double. Afer some reflection, turns out I had the choke full on and was flooding the engine when I gave it gas, stalling. So...I pulled the air filter (dripping oil), cleaned the airbox, pulled the carb boots and carbs and am in the process of cleaning the carbs. Need new air filter, new plugs, good carb clean and a degreaser for the entire back end of the bike!

Painful isn't it? Proves to show that no matter how intelligent we think we are - I'm an idiot.

Rob

 

My brother did the same thing in a misguided attempt at doing an oil change on my Max. "Doesn't it take 5 quarts like a car?" Same problem but the symptoms never went away even after setting the oil level correctly. Think I've got cracked rings now.

 

That sucks Robert. I hope I'm a bit luckier than you and your brother.

Rob

 

Kind of along the same lines, my wife (girlfriend at the time) had an 89 Beretta. It was the first car she ever owned. Apparently her dad forgot to instruct her on the ins and outs of oil maintenance. She checked her oil (good thing) and needed to add oil. She pops the top and proceeds to add quart after quart of oil. Why, you ask, because she never saw it fill up to the top.

Seriously. Luckily she got rid of that thing not long after that. I think I drained about 8 quarts out of the thing that night.

 

A Good tip......next time one has to do a oil change and has a extra 10 minutes to spare , remove the clutch cover too and use a contton bud stick or two to clean the sight glass...

Ya'd be amazed when its clean how easy it is too see whats in there.

 

You don't need to pull the carbs. Hook-up an auxillary gas tank and flush-out the oil through the fuel-bowl drains.

Fill the aux tank with a couple of bottles of fuel line or fuel injector cleaner.
Open the drains and let-ot anything in there until the dripping stops.
Put the drains back in and hit them with a flush of the cleaner.
Slosh the cleaner around a little bit by getting the bike off the work stand and rocking it back and forth.
Drain.
2nd Flush ...
Close fuel bowl drains.
Mix 50/50 gas and injector cleaner.
Start bike. (May need new plugs if the ones that were oil fouled are still in there.)
Run bike at close to 35-hundred revs to allow cleaner to clear out both primary and secondaries.
Switch to straight gas.
That ought to do the trick.

 

To my experience, the oil never entered the fuel bowls, only the air box. Never found it in the carbs (save the air venturi, but a quick wipe with a clean cloth removed that). Hope there is no damage Fraps, I'd be very unhappy in your shoes right about now.

 

Here is another thought. What (and this is armchair engineering here) possible damage could result from the crankcase being over-serviced with oil? I've wrapped my mind around it a few times but I cannot conceive of a single issue beyond overpressurizing the case. Any thoughts? I have yet to confirm bad rings on the motor my brother screwed up but given the symptoms, I drew a conclusion. Am I in error?

 

Well, I already pulled the carbs last night and it wasn't too bad. Thanks anyways Rick. The float bowls didn't really have any oil in the mix. Oil was found on the piston valve and jet needle but a wipe down and compressed air fixed that up. What I find interesting is that the bike didn't smoke until I lit it up a bit.

I think that the increased vacuum from the higher rpms caused the oil in the airbox to get sucked into the air jets and main body through to the combustion chamber and it started to smoke. When I was in the lower rpms (which was often) there wasn't enough vacuum to suck a lot of oil into the engine. I don't think anything in the top end was damaged but I have yet to run the bike.

Rob

 

Here's a hint for any other newbs that might not know, from a rook who came within a whisker of committing the same grievous oil sin. When you check your oil level window make sure the bike is standing straight up. I checked mine right after I bought the bike while it was on the kickstand and it showed NO oil in the little window. I checked again when I had it on the other stand (don't know what it's called ) and it was completely full!! WHEW!! That was a close one!!

 

Well - the beast runs. Seemingly with no ill effects. Thanks for all the suggestions and not pointing and laughing too hard!

Rob

 

If the oil is deep enough for the crank to dip in it can be whipped into a foam. Foams do not pump or lubricate well!

 

Windage is a consideration as well. Thanks. I'm still going to pull the pistons on the old motor and confirm my suspicions.