GS1100 engine trouble

[markqvist]

Yeah, time for a trip to the garage... Meh, was hoping this one would be a little more trouble-free, but then again, I guess it's not really fun before you've had to take something apart

How in the world should I clean out the exhaust system? I guess it's probably slushed with oil on the inside now, which will make it quite difficult to detect if/when a fix to the cause of the symptoms is achieved.

Should I refrain from riding it (slowly and carefully) to the garage? I mean, it's not going to seize up on me all of a sudden because of this, is it? Such a hassle to get a trailer/van here.

[hjfisk]

I would take it out and run it for a good while, get it good and hot ride for an hour or so,now that you have changed the oil and got the gas polluted oil out. Your exhaust could have a mixture of gas and oil in it causing the smoke and until you get it hot enough to burn that off it is going to smoke. I had a gs 750 that got flooded with gas in the crankcase smoked like heck, ran it for an hour or so and got it warm enough to burn the pipes out no more smoke.Also do the other maintance it really should be done on any bike, that sits and especially a new to you bike.

[markqvist]

Yeah, sounds like sound advice hjfisk. I've just never experienced problems like this before, so I'm very nervous that I'll do something that will cause permanent damage. I think I will take it out for a long (but catious) ride and let it heat through and see what happens. I will take it to the garage in the weekend and give it a thorough maintenance. I'm sure it needs some loving. Thanks for the advice and tips everyone! You guys are great and so helpful! I hope I'll be able to give as much knowledge back some day, but for now I'm still a bike newbie. So much to learn!

Again, thank you very much everyone!

[markqvist]

Btw, here's a picture of the bike if anyone wants a look

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. markqvist,

I seem to be a little late with this but let me dump a TON if information on you and share some GS lovin'.

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Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Rebuild Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...



Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

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Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[gearhead13]

If there is that much oily crap there, then the muffler packing is probably soaked with it as well. Do a wet and dry compression test to see if its the rings or the valve seals. Put some easy good miles on it first, warming the engine thoroughly, it might be that oily mess burning off. Also, revving an engine in neutral is bad IMO.

[baz666]

A belated welcome, Mark. I joined this forum a little over a year ago and the folks on here have been incredible; friendly, knowledgable and they know these bikes inside out. If it wasn't for the great people on this forum, I'd have given up on my gorgeous old GS750 more than a few times. You're in very good hands.
baz

[markqvist]

Thanks for the welcome BassCliff and baz666! I'm really happy i found this wonderful place. All you guys are great. So helpful and knowledgable!

So, during the last days, the bike has underwent a major teardown. Here's the verdict: (it's not good, lol)

Compression tests showed an extreme lack of compression on all cylinders, number three had close to no compression, as later discovered due to a valve being stuck open.

The clearance between pistons and cylinder walls is about 0,25 millimeters on all cylinders. Yikes! Cylinder walls and pistons are worn to the extent of it being ridiculous. Compression- and oil rings are almost gone.

One of the valve seats (i think this is what it's called in english) was actually loose in the combustion chamber.

One of the valves were stuck open. I don't know if this is from misadjustment, or if it has simply got burned stuck. There was huge amounts of oil in all cylinders when it was taken apart. Also burnt gunk on all the valves.

A couple of bolts were broken and a couple were missing from the guts of the cylinder head.

Several exhaust manifold gaskets were bad, one completely #"%€.

Exhaust is naturally full of crap, oil and fuel.

So, that was the big scary verdict. Now to the good stuff, that will hopefully see this wonderful bike on the road again soon:

The cylinders are getting rebored as I'm writing this. A brand new, original piston kit and connecting rods have been obtained from Suzuki. Yay!

All the gaskets are being replaced. The top end is getting all the bad valves, seals and seats replaced with new ones. And the broken bolts will be fixed of course

Apart from that, it'll all be cleaned as good as possible, and then to top it off have the oil and filter changed of course. I've been told that I should put mineral based oil in it for now especially, would you guys recommend this as well?

So all in all, it's practically getting a brand new engine So yeah, there goes the savings, but hopefully after this it'll be ready for the next 100.000 kilometers, I'm counting on having this bike for a looooong time. I'm still a bit nervous that something else will be wrong that I haven't discovered, but fingers crossed that I'll be on the road again soon!

Thanks for all your help guys! I wouldn't have gotten this far without your advice and encouragement!

[1948man]

Just a note for when you get it back.... In post #6, I think TKent was referring to the compression showing a low reading, not the oil level in the window reading low. With the bike on the centerstand (or held level if you don't have a centerstand) the oil level should read correctly in the site glass. It seemed in post #8 you might have misunderstood.