White smoke

[DJones]

8O I replaced my air box with individual filter pods. I am getting alot of white smoke from the crankcase vent tube even though I have a filter installed on it. Is this normal?

[Jeff Tate]

When you say alot of white smoke do you mean like clouds of thick smoke from burning oil or just some slightly visible smoke drifting out ? a slight smoking from the vent is normal. But it shouldn't be noticeable without looking for it.

[Anonymous]

I dont think that changing the air filter to pods would cause smoke from the cranck case vent--was this vent one that wasoriginally hooked up tp the air box before you instaalled the pod filters.if so then you probably had the condition before. and as the other gent said please describe what you mean by the amount of white smoke and does it happen even after the bike is fully warmed up???

[Anonymous]

Does it still do it after 15-20 minutes of riding? Mine does this. It's water vapor. It comes out until the condensation is evaporated. No biggy, you'll get this more if you tend to make short trips on your bike.

Tim

[DJones]

:? Yes, I do make alot of short trips. The smoke is quite visible. I had the valves done about 40 miles ago.

[Anonymous]

:? Yes, I do make alot of short trips. The smoke is quite visible. I had the valves done about 40 miles ago.

what is a short trip?? do you take rides that last more than a half hour?? that is about how long it takes for a true warm up.

[Anonymous]

white smoke

It's got to be water vapor (steam). That's what happens when a water cooled engine blows a head gasket (usually). The coolant enters the combustion chamber, vaporizes and exits through the exhaust as steam. Since your GS is an air cooled engine, coolant is not the problem. However I would be concerned about how you are getting water vapor into your engine. I'm running individual filters on my '82 1100 and don't have any such problem. Have you ridden the bike in the rain at all? Does the bike spend any significant time in a humid environment? These are the only ways I can think of that water can get into your engine. Good luck with this one.

[DJones]

:? Yes, I take alot of trips that are under 30 min. My bike sits in the backyard year round with a cover over it. I will take it out tomorrow and ride for at least an hour and see if that helps.

[Jeff Tate]

OK, I too have the pod filters which means that the vent hose from the valve cover now has a small clamp on K&N filter on it. I have this hose and filter tucked up under the tank and zip tied . It's situated fairly close to the right rear of the tank and after the oil gets good and hot a small amount of smoke can be seen drifting out from there. It's the same as if you removed the oil filler cap from your car engine after a long drive. Oil smokes when it gets hot. A whiff of smoke is normal, billowing clouds are not. A picture REALLY is worth a thousand words.

[saaz]

Oil cooled motors tend to run too cool and too hot...on short trips more water vapour stays in the oil. Change the oil a bit more often if this happens all the time. The standard air box setup tends to hide this. When mine was standard the oil level window used to fog over sometimes due to short trips.