Drained the oil today because the previous owner had it way over filled (haven't even gotten to ride it yet because of the lack of maintenance that has been done) and near the very end the drips coming out were turning white in the oil. I know this means there's moisture in there or water but should I be concerned that it's more than just condensation? I haven't had the bike up to running temp yet. Just been playing with first gear starts in the garage and letting it idle. So the most it sees is about 160F before I shut it down and then it gets to about 30 at night here still. Also there's some oily blue smoke when it's warming up, doesn't seem to be as much when it gets a bit warmer but could this be because of the oil being over filled? I'm hoping this bike isn't a ticking time bomb thanks to the idiot I bought it from(prolly shoulda looked at it more on my part but I was excited). Thanks for taking the time to read.

 

what year and model is the bike? Blue oily smoke, is it really the blue oily smoke or is it white condensation?

 

It's a 2001 F4I 600 13k miles, some of it is the white condensation but I could clearly tell today it was blue. You can smell the oil in it and it filled the garage. I shut it down and restarted it about 3 minutes later and it went away. I also held a white rag over the exhaust while it was running to see if I could catch any oil but it was clean.

 

Check for oil in the coolant.

 

Same milky substance? I know that's what it is for cars but this blue honda coolant or whatever it is perplexed me at first. I can't imagine the head gasket or anything would be bad at 13k miles but I guess you never know. I'll check it tomorrow.

 

If the oil was a soupy mix of oil and coolant then your head gasket would be toast, but a few dribbles i would not be concerned with.

 

Overfilled oil=too high oil pressure=gasket stress=water oil exchange at gasket (not always, but worth checking just to be sure!)

Even a brand new motor can fail in this situation. Typically in a motorcycle engine, due to the higher compression, the oil is forced into the coolant, not the other way around.

 

Yeah thank god the guy I bought it from only put 2k miles on it and just changed the oil, the guy that had it before him had it serviced at a shop so hopefully it really hasn't been over filled for that long. But it was literally just very small drops in the oil. The rest was all brand new and not a hint of white in it until the very very end when it was dripping. But I'll still check the coolant. Thanks for the suggestions. It runs flawlessly so fingers crossed.

 

Sorry for the double post but I thought I'd update. Changed the oil today and refilled with 3.3 quarts of Rotella T full synth and no more blue smoke or noxious exhaust fumes. Pretty happy about that.

 

Glad to hear it Kev... Hopefully it doesn't give you any more trouble! Happy riding!