Cold start issue

[Steve]

... but unfortunately Steve's starting instructions didn't work, just got the sparkplugs spited with fuel-oil mixture. ...

Did you notice the part where I mentioned

Apply "choke". Experience will dictate how much.

Apparently full "choke" is too much for your bike, try something less. Most of my bikes will start with about half "choke", but one does require full.

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[hellize]

Did you notice the part where I mentioned - Apply "choke". Experience will dictate how much.

Yes I did, but did you notice that I said, I have the bike only since a few months. Lack of experience with it, so I went with full choke, which is what you advised in step 1!
Anyway, I will give it a second run with half choke. Hope you're right with it.

[BigD_83]

If you need to apply some throttle to start, my spidey instincts are telling me to check the butterfly valve to see if they are slightly open when the throttle is closed.

That being said, it's time for some maintenance, and to check on a few things as already mentioned

[tkent02]

But don't take the engine apart. It doesn't need rings.

[hellize]

But don't take the engine apart. It doesn't need rings.

And the huge oil consumption?

[tkent02]

Dunno, but get it running correctly first. Carbs especially, valves, ignition. Get it all working perfectly. Even burning a ton of oil it will run very well if everything else is right. Ride it a lot. Then see what it does. It may well end up needing rings, maybe new pistons and a rebore, if that's the case you certainly don't want your brand new rings to be run for the first time in an engine with other problems. You want everything to be working right so you can open the throttle and break the rings in correctly. Running a few months with an engine burning oil isn't such a big deal. Well worth it if it allows you to get everything else working right.

I should have said, "It doesn't need rings yet."

Have you determined when its burning the oil? Smoking on acceleration, or on deceleration? Smoke when you first start it up? A lot of the time oil burning is from old hardened valve stem seals. A lot easier and cheaper to fix. If you are not sure about checking the oil level, could it be you have had it to high? This will cause some to blow out while it's running. I bought one bike with the wrong length dipstick, the guy always put too much oil in it. I put the oil level right and the oil burning was fixed.

Also how many kilometers are on the bike? I'm thinking it may be a lot higher over there than it would be on an old 450 around here. Most of the old bikes sold around here, even on thirty year old bikes, have very low mileage. Probably not the case where you live, if it's gone a long way it's more likely to have a lot of wear in there. If it's over 150,000 kilometers or so it's a lot more likely to need some rings. Likewise if it's been raced a lot, or run out of oil, or really overheated.

[hellize]

It is smoking constantly, but a little more at acceleration. I have no idea, that the dipstick is original or ain't, I assume it is, but I don't know for sure, since it has a few alien parts on it. For example the brake pump is from a yamaha and the clutch lever is from a kawasaki These are donated for sure, because it is written on them.
Its clock shows 47000 km, but I also tend to believe that it is already turned, or its gauge isn't original, since the revmeter and the plastic cover was busted, when I bought it, so it could be that the speedmeter was also busted and replaced.
You feel that right by the way, here it is almost customary to wind the gauges backwards to make the vehicle more appealing. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

[tkent02]

You feel that right by the way, here it is almost customary to wind the gauges backwards to make the vehicle more appealing. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

Easier to pop on a new one off Ebay. They are cheap and change out in a few minutes.

You can get a good ballpark guess about it's history without any odometer.
How worn does the rest of the bike look? Things like foot peg rubber, pitting from rocks hitting the frame tubes, pitting on the fork sliders, the layer of grunge under the engine?
Discoloration on the painted parts of the engine. Little scratches and dings, wear on levers, folding foot pegs, etc?

[hellize]

It is pretty old looking, is 34 years old after all, older than me , but I would still say that it's not that bad. I've been tinkering on it all winter and now besides the oil consumption and occasional cold start issue, it runs quite well. I didn't touched the engine and carburetors.
The first two pics is how it was, before I put my dirty little paws on it. Please don't start screaming, I made no cuts and welds and have every removed part stored away, so it's reversible. But I like it more as it is now.

[hellize]

[hellize]

[1948man]

Maybe you could drain the oil when it is good and warm and measure how much comes out without changing the filter. Consult the manual and see how much is required for an oil change without the filter change. If you drain the oil when your dipstick said you were at the proper level and way too much oil comes out then the dipstick line is bogus. Here is a site that has downloads for manuals as well as a wealth of other information.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

Checking valves, cleaning carbs, etc is all needed and instructions included at the site linked. The dipstick is probably not the big problem but it would be nice to know.