Gas in Oil HELP

[seeing the sights]

Hi, I'm Joe from PA, I am new to the GS forum, but not new to GS's. I bought a new 1982 GS1100E at the age of 22. I currently have a 83 GS 1100E for 3 years. I went out today for my first ride of the year. Ran great for 2/10 of a mile or so. Then ran very poorly. I rode it for 2 more miles no change. Pulled into my garage and oil was coming out an over flow tube. Thought about it for a minute. I smelled the puddle of oil oh-no gas. Found a post about this on GS forum. I believe that the petcock is bad, easy fix. The post said that if your petcock is bad no way will the carb. float needle valves hold back the leaking gas from a bad petcock. The carbs. were rebuild 3 years ago by George from Texas. So I believe the carbs are not the problem. Just drained the oil it looks like 1/2 to 1 quart over. I am worried about my 2 to 3 mile ride with oil/gas in the crankcase. After the fix will change oil/filter and run for a couple minutes then change oil/filter again. I also pulled the ignition cover off and found a little oil on the bottom of this. Hope no blown seals from having an over full crankcase. So if I can ask you a couple questions.
1- Do you think that replacing the petcock and then checking if any more gas is getting into the oil is the first thing to do [Of course]?
2- Do you think I could have got away with any internal damage to the crank bearings or seals on my 2 mile ride? Thank you in advance, Joe

[posplayr]

Hi, I'm Joe from PA, I am new to the GS forum, but not new to GS's. I bought a new 1982 GS1100E at the age of 22. I currently have a 83 GS 1100E for 3 years. I went out today for my first ride of the year. Ran great for 2/10 of a mile or so. Then ran very poorly. I rode it for 2 more miles no change. Pulled into my garage and oil was coming out an over flow tube. Thought about it for a minute. I smelled the puddle of oil oh-no gas. Found a post about this on GS forum. I believe that the petcock is bad, easy fix. The post said that if your petcock is bad no way will the carb. float needle valves hold back the leaking gas from a bad petcock. The carbs. were rebuild 3 years ago by George from Texas. So I believe the carbs are not the problem. Just drained the oil it looks like 1/2 to 1 quart over. I am worried about my 2 to 3 mile ride with oil/gas in the crankcase. After the fix will change oil/filter and run for a couple minutes then change oil/filter again. I also pulled the ignition cover off and found a little oil on the bottom of this. Hope no blown seals from having an over full crankcase. So if I can ask you a couple questions.
1- Do you think that replacing the petcock and then checking if any more gas is getting into the oil is the first thing to do [Of course]?
2- Do you think I could have got away with any internal damage to the crank bearings or seals on my 2 mile ride? Thank you in advance, Joe

Welcome, aboard; I would think you are probably OK and especially if you did not hear any knocks. The roller bearings don't need that much oil pressure so a little gas will not dilute the viscosity that much to hurt anything. Especially only two miles; that is hardly enough to get it warm.

I would drain it and change the oil/filter as you plan. If the needle valves are a little old (not likely they were changed by George), then they can leak and gas will go into the intake getting into the crankcase. The bigger danger you apparently already avoided; hydolock. Gas in the cyclinder and when you crank over the engine (hydrolock stop) you bend a rod.

Put your petcock on off when idle or sounds like you could afford to replace it. Petcock rebuilds don't always work that well.

[bonanzadave]

Hey Joe, Welcome to the GSRs.

Ill bet your Bike is fine. Follow through with your maintenance plan. Check the air filter as fuel may have entered your airbox too. Did you have the petcock on PRI ? Even the tightest needle valve seats can leak. Before you change the petcock just pull the fuel hose off and check it. Fuel should flow on PRI only. Check the ON and RES position by sucking on the vac hose.

[Steve]

Hi, Joe from PA, to GSR.

Would you mind terribly either changing your font to Verdana or increasing the size of the Times New Roman? The small print is just too hard on old eyes.


Now to your questions:

I smelled the puddle of oil oh-no gas. Found a post about this on GS forum. I believe that the petcock is bad, easy fix. The post said that if your petcock is bad no way will the carb. float needle valves hold back the leaking gas from a bad petcock.

Yes, the easiest "fix" is to replace the petcock. Do not waste your money trying to rebuild it. The success rate seems to be about 10-15% on rebuilding a petcock.

The carbs. were rebuild 3 years ago by George from Texas. So I believe the carbs are not the problem.

In that case, it's time to do them RIGHT. Especially if the bike has not been ridden regularly in the past several months, things have probably crudded up inside the carbs, so they need to be cleaned properly and have all the o-rings changed. Yeah, George might have changed them, but not everybody on this forum thinks all that highly of his work.

After the fix will change oil/filter and run for a couple minutes then change oil/filter again.

VERY good idea.

1- Do you think that replacing the petcock and then checking if any more gas is getting into the oil is the first thing to do [Of course]?

No, you already mentioned the first thing to do: change the oil and filter.
Replacing the petcock is a good second thing to do.

2- Do you think I could have got away with any internal damage to the crank bearings or seals on my 2 mile ride? Thank you in advance, Joe

Maybe, maybe not. Not sure if the 1100 engines are as susceptible to upper-end bearing damage as the 750s. The only way to really know would be to pull the cams and inspect the bearing surfaces. Fortunately, the crank has roller bearings and probably survived.

.

[seeing the sights]

Follow up

Thanks, For all your help. After I sent the carbs to George I heard a lot of less then positive things about his work. So does anyone have any recomendations of a carb. shop that does quality work? The bike had no knocking sound on my 2 mile ride. So I belive I will be fine with the engine. About that 1982 I bought 29 years ago. I sold it in 1984. then in 2008 had a thought about buying same year bike found one localy on Ebay went to look at it. It was my old bike!! I was out bidded, so got a 83 with less then 8,000 miles on it. Thanks for all your help guys.

[1948man]

You can clean the carbs and replace o-rings etc if you are inclined and have the time. Even I did it and I'm no wrench. There is a great tutorial at the BikeClif site. Paying people to work on these old bikes can get expensive. You'll be hearing from BikeCliff

[cowboyup3371]

Thanks, For all your help. After I sent the carbs to George I heard a lot of less then positive things about his work. So does anyone have any recomendations of a carb. shop that does quality work? The bike had no knocking sound on my 2 mile ride. So I belive I will be fine with the engine. About that 1982 I bought 29 years ago. I sold it in 1984. then in 2008 had a thought about buying same year bike found one localy on Ebay went to look at it. It was my old bike!! I was out bidded, so got a 83 with less then 8,000 miles on it. Thanks for all your help guys.

Honestly Joe there's no reason at all you can't do the work yourself. I didn't know much about wrenching on these things either and you know what...it's not that hard (just need to trust yourself).

Welcome aboard....got pics of the bike?

[tkent02]

It's not your petcock, fuel is supposed to flow when the engine is running. If it flows when the engine is turned off you have a petcock problem. You likely just have a float that is stuck, try rapping on the float bowl with something like a big screwdriver handle to see if the overflowing stops. Sometimes they stick in the down position after sitting too long, it's stuck down so fuel keeps flowing, runs into the engine, and into the oil. Either way these carbs and petcocks are a do it yourself operation, don't send anything to Weird George.

[seeing the sights]

update

Hi, Thanks again, The bike sat for 4 months. Then I was going to go out for my first ride of the season. The gas got into the oil during the winter but I was unaware of it till my 2 mile ride. So I belive it is the petcock. Anyway not a bad thing to replace its 30 years old. I am a power plant maintance worker by trade. All big stuff. That little stuff has me worryed I got big Ham hands LOL, thanks