ThunderBaird
Member
Hello all,
So here's what happened: I went out to the bike this afternoon. It sits outside because there are no garages available at my complex
but I make sure to keep it covered. This afternoon in Omaha was 95 ish degrees, and the covered bike was in the sun. The bike got hot. I started her up, went to put the cover away and get my gear on, and when I came back 2 mins later the bike was warmed up, but it was also smoking from underneath the oil pan. There was also a 3 inch oil spot underneath the bike. Needless to say, I was not amused. I waited to see if I could tell precisely where the smoke was coming from, the top of the header right where it goes into the main pipe. By that point there was a scary amount of smoke coming off, so I shut the bike down and ended up covering her back up and didn't re-visit the problem until tonight. Upon inspection (hours later), the rearward end of the bottom of the oil pan was very wet/oily/greasy/dirty looking, and there was still a small amount of a clear oily substance on top of the pipe. The oil spot smelled like gas, so I came to the conclusion that the full tank of gas got too hot and the gas expanded through the overflow tube. The tube empties right behind the oil pan. Right? Right.
My confusion comes with me wondering why there was oil burning off on my exhaust, and why there is so much oily $#*! underneath the oil pan. My thoughts are that the gas ran along the underside of the oil pan and broke up all of the greasy crap there, making an oil/gas mix drip onto the pipe where it smoked to high heaven. Possibly the greasy crap is from the sprocket/chain lube coming through the housing? But if it was a gas/crap mix that was smoking, why would there be a small amount of clear-ish oil sitting on the pipe still? It was thinner than regular motor oil, but it was definitely oil and not gasoline.
I'm hoping that somebody out there has run into something like this, and that there aren't additional steps I need to take to make sure my bike doesn't catch fire the next time I start her up on a hot day.
Any words of wisdom will be very much appreciated! (If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading through that.)
So here's what happened: I went out to the bike this afternoon. It sits outside because there are no garages available at my complex
but I make sure to keep it covered. This afternoon in Omaha was 95 ish degrees, and the covered bike was in the sun. The bike got hot. I started her up, went to put the cover away and get my gear on, and when I came back 2 mins later the bike was warmed up, but it was also smoking from underneath the oil pan. There was also a 3 inch oil spot underneath the bike. Needless to say, I was not amused. I waited to see if I could tell precisely where the smoke was coming from, the top of the header right where it goes into the main pipe. By that point there was a scary amount of smoke coming off, so I shut the bike down and ended up covering her back up and didn't re-visit the problem until tonight. Upon inspection (hours later), the rearward end of the bottom of the oil pan was very wet/oily/greasy/dirty looking, and there was still a small amount of a clear oily substance on top of the pipe. The oil spot smelled like gas, so I came to the conclusion that the full tank of gas got too hot and the gas expanded through the overflow tube. The tube empties right behind the oil pan. Right? Right.My confusion comes with me wondering why there was oil burning off on my exhaust, and why there is so much oily $#*! underneath the oil pan. My thoughts are that the gas ran along the underside of the oil pan and broke up all of the greasy crap there, making an oil/gas mix drip onto the pipe where it smoked to high heaven. Possibly the greasy crap is from the sprocket/chain lube coming through the housing? But if it was a gas/crap mix that was smoking, why would there be a small amount of clear-ish oil sitting on the pipe still? It was thinner than regular motor oil, but it was definitely oil and not gasoline.
I'm hoping that somebody out there has run into something like this, and that there aren't additional steps I need to take to make sure my bike doesn't catch fire the next time I start her up on a hot day.
Any words of wisdom will be very much appreciated! (If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading through that.)
