Help! Am I totally screwed? Oil in the Carbs..

[corvas]

I am a hardcore believer in DIY - but cars, motorcycles, etc are pretty foreign to me.

Anyway, I just did some basic maintenance in preperation for a cross country journey on my '81 GS850G (from lawrence KS to Santa Fe NM to portland OR via the pacific coast highway . I followed my book through the processes which included cleaning and oil saturating the airfilter. The book recommends using "special air filter oil" or using "clean motor oil" if you don't have any. I was cheap and opted for the motor oil since I allready had some laying around.

This lead to dissaster as now there oil in my carbs which is making the mix way too rich, causing misses and hesitation at 4k+ rpms, fouling the plugs very quickly with burnt oil gunk, etc etc.

I took some bad advice from my dad and a friend who said that it would just burn out. So I road tested it a bit and felt it clearing out. I decided to hit the road, assuming that it would continue to clear out as I drove it. After a few hundred miles I noticed it was getting progressively worse. I tried using a spray carb cleaner to no avail. It continued to get worse and my top spead steadily fell from 85 to 60 over the couse of a few hundred more miles.

I made it to Santa Fe where I have a friends garage at my disposal...

I plan to clean/rebuild the carbs but I suspect that more work is gonna have to be done. I absolutely cannot afford to have a mechanic tackle this for $70/hour considering I have been on the road and flying by the seat of pants for the last 2 1/2 years. Do I need to overhaul the engine? Is there a product that could clean this gunk out? Or should I hunker down, get a job and house here in Santa Fe, bite the bullet, and have a mechanic do this?

Any help, advice, jokes to lighten my mood, ideas, etc would be greatly appreciated!

thanks.

[Billy Ricks]

The oil that's already run through shouldn't hurt anything other than maybe a set of plugs. Even those will probably clear up. Take some paper towels and squeeze as much oil out to the foam as you can. All that's need is a very light oil residue left behind. Change your plugs and see if performance picks back up. If not the carbs were probably dirty to start with. The homepage for this site has a Carb Cleaning Section in the Menu. No need to spend much money doing the basic stuff yourself. A valve adjustment wouldn't hurt either. There's plenty of info here on how to get it done.

[runewolf]

Ditto! My brother did the same thing to (mine now) GS750 about 10 years ago. He put so much oil on the filter it was dripping out of the airbox lol! Pulled and cleaned the airbox, intakes and filter up, changed the sparkplugs and ran some seafoam through the bike, good as new!

[nabrams]

I don't see how an over-oiled air filter element could possibly cause severe damage.
Have you tried simply buying new plugs and replacing the air filter element with a new one (not oiled)?
If that doesn't solve your low top speed issue then you've got a different problem, unrelated to the air filter element.
Progressively lower power accompanied by fouling plugs: Sounds like compression getting progressively worse (go ahead, ask me how I know). Now for the $40 bucks it's gonna cost you to buy a compression tester, I'd say it's worth knowing what's what, one way or the other. Low compression is most often due to insufficient valve clearance (but may be due to a head gasket leak, bad rings, etc.). Once again, not rocket science to check that out.

[Nessism]

I agree with the others, blot out the excessive oil from the filter with paper towel, wipe out the inside of the airbox and put the filter back in. At worst, you may foul a plug or two. No need to pull the carbs apart. If you want to be real anal, spray some carb clean through the carbs while they are still on the bike. If the bike still runs poorly, its due to another issue.

[bwringer]

Over-oiling is a common problem with 850G air filters. The good news is that you probably haven't hurt a thing aside from the spark plugs.

Basically, you have over-oiled the air filter, causing it to restrict airflow far too much. This makes your bike run rich and fouls the plugs.

Simply remove the foam filter element and clean it with hot water and lots of dish soap. Don't do this in a kitchen sink while anyone's looking -- you'll have to distract them somehow.

Dry gently with compressed air or let it sit overnight -- don't install it with ANY water remaining inside.

Now that the filter is dry, the very slight, nearly undetectable film of oil that's left is all you need. Install it and be happy.

And replace the plugs. You'll need NGK B8-ES, stocking number 2411, at any Pep Boys or Advance Auto for $1.79 each. I have never had much luck with cleaning fouled plugs.

[Commodus]

Over-oiling is a common problem with 850G air filters. The good news is that you probably haven't hurt a thing aside from the spark plugs.

Basically, you have over-oiled the air filter, causing it to restrict airflow far too much. This makes your bike run rich and fouls the plugs.

Simply remove the foam filter element and clean it with hot water and lots of dish soap. Don't do this in a kitchen sink while anyone's looking -- you'll have to distract them somehow.

Dry gently with compressed air or let it sit overnight -- don't install it with ANY water remaining inside.

Now that the filter is dry, the very slight, nearly undetectable film of oil that's left is all you need. Install it and be happy.

And replace the plugs. You'll need NGK B8-ES, stocking number 2411, at any Pep Boys or Advance Auto for $1.79 each. I have never had much luck with cleaning fouled plugs.

Yep yep, great advice. You just over-oiled, people do it lots and it doesn't hurt anything.

Relax! Hehe. :-D

[themess]

Sounds like compression getting progressively worse (go ahead, ask me how I know). Now for the $40 bucks it's gonna cost you to buy a compression tester, I'd say it's worth knowing what's what, one way or the other.

Harbor Frieght is now selling an el-cheapo compression tester for $4.95.

[minime]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PNEUMATIC-AIR-OPERATED-SPARK-PLUG-CLEANER-REMOVE-CARBON_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ34999QQihZ015QQitemZ250131575750QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

Your friend for cleaning plugs.

[corvas]

wow!

thank you all for your advice.

what a relief! i can't thank you guys enough for the information. i am so glad i found this forum. what a life saver!

i was completely freaking out since my whole life is literally on my motorcycle.

thanks again.

[runewolf]

You'll not find a group as great as this! Just wish more of ya all lived closer hehe.

[first timer]

sounds like you plan lots of miles on that bike, you may want to change your gear oil in the rear.

Brian want to chime in?

[bradleymaynar]

Just to flog a dead horse, the first thing I thought of was plugs after reading your original post. You were basically running two-stroke gas in a four-stroke engine. Now had it been the other way around....

Let us know how things turn out.

Brad bt

[bwringer]

Coupla clarifications:

Getting oil into the carbs won't hurt a thing, nor will oil in the gas. You could actually dump quite a bit of oil into the gas and never notice much difference.

However, running rich because of a partially clogged air filter for many, many, many miles will eventually lead to carbon deposits (from excess gasoline that can't burn completely) on the valves and on top of the piston. These deposits will have to get pretty thick over several thousand miles before they cause much trouble.

Detonation (AKA knocking, heavy pinging, pre-ignition) is one symptom of excess carbon buildup -- the carbon deposits trap heat in red-hot pockets, causing the fuel mixture to ignite prematurely. Things have to get very, very bad to get to this point, though.

In your case, which I think is maybe a couple hundred miles of running like poop, I don't think these deposits could be nearly thick enough to cause trouble.

Your spark plugs are almost certainly fouled and should be replaced, but once you correct the air filter problem and things are running normally, the normal detergents in gasoline will eventually clean up the excess carbon over the next few thousand miles. You can, of course, treat a few tankfuls with Sea Foam or fuel injector cleaner to help the process along.

Oh, and like I said earlier -- make sure the owner of the kitchen sink doesn't see you clean the excess oil out of your air filter with her dish soap...

[corvas]

yeehaw!

ok.

i took all the good advice.
cleaned the airfilter,
sprayed out carbs,
changed the plugs,
and added some seafoam to the gas.

and , badabing, it runs great! actually it seems to be doing better than before the problem came up. i probably got rid of some old gunk in the carbs in the process cuz my bike has never ran so good.


yeehaw!

i can't thank you guys enough for the advice!
thank you thank you thank you!