smoke where there was no smoke before. A head hgasket?

[Guest]

So I start the bike and a disconcerting puff of white smoke appears to come from the #4 cylinder area.

Is it time for a new gaasket and the joys associated with it?
I have no compression tester so I will have to wait to borrow one.

On the subject of tear-down and rebuild whats the recommended torque wrench for these itty bitty fasteners?

Never did this on anything that was not cast iron and very large.

Its 80 bucks or so for the head gasket and about 16 for the base OEM from Alpha Sports.

While onbe is in that far pulling the jugs and checking the pistons etc. would be a wise action. Would you guys pull the cylinder block if the bores looked OK?

[Big T]

What bike are you talking about?

Why don't you put it in your signature?

The puff of smoke is more likely from the tach drive, it's unlikely you need to tear down the engine

Search for the source of the smoke 1st and save yourself a bunch of trouble