Considering rebuild or ...

[rowlingleicastone]

So given the age of the GS platform, I knew age would catch up to mine sooner or later. My bike's running, starts up everytime no issue, idles no problem. Occasionally upon shutting off the motor, a trail of a faint white smoke would exit the exhaust. This began to happen more and more, to where it does it everytime. I took her for a spin yesterday, all went well, but as soon as I got off to open my garage, I noticed that faint white smoke was now coming out rather profusely as the engine was running. I hadn't noticed any particular drop in performance or troubles otherwise, but I reckon it could be the piston rings are finally shot. So if I'm gonna take it all apart and have it touched up, I'd like to know more or less what I'm getting myself into. I know rebuilds are opening a whole can of worms, but does anyone have any advice in regards to what paths I can take from here? I'm not in a desperate hurry to get her tip top again, but I'd like to plan for some kind of project and get an idea as to what I need to do. I figured I'm gonna replace rings, hone the cylinders, valve stem seals even, I'd like to make sure everything is squared away as it should be for a rebuild. Mine is an 81' GS1100, I'm not familiar with renowned or reputable rebuild kits, process, specs. Recommendations are much appreciated. I wasn't planning on reboring it, if I have it honed will I need to change the piston size to something slightly larger, or could I get away with a kit that's more or less 1100cc? Thank you everyone for your input!!

[unfocused]

Don't put to much into it thought wise. Through your description, I'd bet you need valve guides/seals.Unless you have 100k miles, you shouldn't need any piston/jug work. This is of course if nothing is noted during disassembly.

If you pull the cylinder head, plan on sealing the jug even if you don't do any piston work. You WILL disturb the base gasket. Make sure you have a ball hone just to clean up the cylinders.

Kits i've seen - pistons, gaskets and carbs. Not much else. Search Ebay, Z1, APES umong others.

I have a 79 1000 8V that appears to have never been opened up. It poofs like yours from time to time so I'm deciding which direction to go.

If you do decide to open her up - familiarize yourself with valve adjustments and cam timing. I just did a top end on a 77 750 and these are the two things that will give people issues.
I have years of mechanical experience so I managed well.

[Suzukian]

White smoke would mean gas, carb/fuel system issue. I wouldn't consider any kind of heavy work till I rebuilt the carbs.

[Brendan W]

How much oil is the bike using?

[rphillips]

I was wondering about the "white" smoke, I'd always thought oil smoke blue fuel smoke black. I don't remember seeing white from a bike.

[Suzukian]

A lot of gas could be black, but just a little is unburnt hydrocarbons, that might cause a backfire in your muffler, and you would see a grayish white smoke come out the tail pipe. If it was water cooled, then that would more than likely be radiator fluid, but this bike is air cooled.

[Rob S.]

Does anyone know exactly which model we are talking about here? "81 1100" doesn't tell us shaft or chain, 2 valve or 4, does it?

[rowlingleicastone]

It's a 16 valve, chain driven, 56,000 approximately on the dash. Given the way it's presently set up, the previous owner wanted to try to do the whole pod filters & 4 in 1 with no baffle. So it doesn't really run all that great. I already found an airbox and an exhaust system. I was planning on rejetting the carbs and going back to stock specs. As of now it hasn't been burning too much oil at all really, and there aren't any severe oil leaks I'm aware of, but now that it's smoking more, that could change the oil consumption. It hasn't even been 1,000 miles since my last oil change, I've only had the need to top off the oil by just a little bit.

[Big T]

You need to do a lot more diagnosis before you start taking the motor apart.
Does it have good compression?
Have you done a leak down test?

You should swap in the stock components and check your oil usage before you drop $1,000 + on a top end refresh

[Suzukian]

X2 on that. Good advice.

[rphillips]

Top off the oil by just a little in 1,000 shouldn't create much smoke. Like they said, more checking before thinking rebuild.

[Big Block]

It sounds like a tune up issue. I wouldn't tear down the engine unless a compression check is done and you have a weak cylinder or two.
1:compression check.
2: valve set, perhaps valve seals as well.
3: install correct exhaust and air inlet system.
4: rebuild carbs to original specs and sync.

I don't like tearing factory engines apart if they don't require it. If you do, a lot of the replacement parts you can find these days are not as good as the factory parts.