Water (white smoke) coming out of the exhaust system...

Pablo · 09-10-2007, 1:38 PM

Hi guys,

I'm back from a 5 day trip around Macedonia (former republic of Yugoslavia) and had to tow my 2001 SP1 for last 400 kilometers... The problem happened on the last day of the trip, when I noticed lots of white smoke coming out of my Leo Vinci pipes when I fired it up...

The bike hasn't been overheated (I always monitor the engine temperature rather carefully and it is always at around 76-85 degrees Centigrade) and it wasn't abused that day at all (I was in a motorcycle rally with more than 400 bikers, doing 80-90 km/h most of day). I have always driven the bike at around 2k rpm until it got to the working temperature, but I did ride it hard after it is completely warmed up (the bike is built for that, right

).

During that day, I've started the engine and I noticed lots of white smoke coming out (not blue or dark smoke), but the engine was running just fine. I've stopped it in order to check the oil level - level was at the max and the color was brownish, slightly transparent (I'm using Bardahl XTC 20w60 since the bike was brand new, without any problems). I fired it up and continued driving slowly to check what's happening, since my first thought was that it was something bad with the fuel...

After a mile of riding, the smoke disappeared and I continued riding it for around 100 kilometers, without any noticeable changes in engines behavior. However, when I was about to stop, the white smoke came right back pouring from the exhaust... At that point the engine temp started to rise and I had to pour more water into the cooling system, which proved that it is definitely wasting water... After that I've called my friends with a trailer to tow the bike back to Belgrade.

The good thing is that the bike still works just fine (which confuses me a little) and the oil doesn't have any water inside (no bubbles or milky layers). I'm guessing that its a blown head gasket or (worse case scenario) one of the heads have a crack somewhere inside...

Do you guys have any thoughts about what may have happened and/or had some similar problems on your sp1/sp2/rc51 bikes?

BTW, I forgot to mention earlier that the bike has around 48k kilometers and didn't have any engine problems so far.

Thanks,
Ivan

Rider · 09-10-2007, 5:16 PM

Ivan,

Did the engine overheat at any time the previous day? Did you have to sit stationary with the bike idleing for a long time? Maybe the funs did not cut in and it overheated witout you noticing... Then next day after it cools down and starts again, the warped head gave the sympoms you are describing...

Did you wash the bike with cold water immediatelly after stoping? That would cause a warped head too....

All in all, it seems that you do have a blown head gasket. Sorry for the bad news...

nedro · 09-10-2007, 5:49 PM

Sounds like head gasket to me. What type of coolant are you using? How often have you changed it?
Idi, napravi odma! Nemoi yezabavat.

Pablo · 09-19-2007, 9:17 AM

Hi guys, sorry for my late reply.

Bad news. It turns out that the front head has a crack just under one of the valves, in the valve seat (its still being analyzed and I don't know exactly which valve is it - exhaust or intake)... So, I'll have to find and buy another one, which is a problem here in Serbia (South-East Europe) since here we have only 3-4 SP1/SP2's in the whole country... Valve clearance is just right (0.16 for intake and 0.30 for exhaust, if I remember correctly...).

I'll probably have to check somewhere in Germany for a front sp1 head...

The bike really wasn't overheated that day and it did have a good antifreeze liquid inside, so... But ok, it happens. I'll ride my VFR until the beast is alive again

aussie-sp1 · 09-22-2007, 8:05 AM

Look on ebay in the UK. I have bought parts from a motorcycle dismantler there.