quick oil change question..

[Ti]

changing my oil today and the oil coming out of my engine smelt more less like gas and was coming out like liquid, more less.. i have dropped my bike a few time (2x to be exact) and i think i read before if u do that gas can get into your oil, but not 100% sure on that.. but, ill like to know is there anything else that can be causing that gas in my oil??

[Anonymous]

Your floats not working and you leave it on prime....

But if your bike runs fine, then thats not the problem. Oil can smell like fuel. Change your oil, then keep an eye on the level...if it increases, then maybe you're getting fuel in there.

[md86]

Yeah , gas can get in your oil in a drop , but unless left on it's side for a while , shouldn't be a TON in there .
Like JP said , crappy floats can do it . So can worn rings . But it'd run pretty rough if that were the case ....

[Ti]

hmm.. well the bike actually runs pretty good.. it does pops a little on deceleration, so, i dont know if that is saying anything.. yea, i might have left it on prime 1 time but the oil did have stronger gas smell then i though.. would it be a good idea to run the bike with this new oil for a week or so then change it to see how it looks??

[The CyberPoet]

hmm.. well the bike actually runs pretty good.. it does pops a little on deceleration, so, i dont know if that is saying anything..

Popping on decelleration simply means the idle setting on the carbs is a bit too lean for the current exhaust. Has zero to do with your oil.

yea, i might have left it on prime 1 time but the oil did have stronger gas smell then i though.. would it be a good idea to run the bike with this new oil for a week or so then change it to see how it looks??

Not a bad idea in general. If do you believe that you have gas in your oil, let the oil drain for about an hour, and also remove the oil cooler and drain it manually before refilling the bike's oil.

This is a perfect example of when a Fumoto would be a god-send: you could pull just a half-cup of oil next week instead of draining pretty much all of it out again.

--------

Just to make sure you understand what we think is happening (and what causes it):
In each carb, in the bottom, there is a metal chamber (the bowl) that acts like the water tank on a typical home toilet. Just like in the toilet, there is a float in the carb's fuel bowls. When the fuel gets low, the float opens a valve to permit more fuel into the bowl, then closes that valve when it gets to the right spot.
The problem is that these floats can easily get stuck in a "refill" position during a hard drop or crash... In which case, it's always sucking more fuel in than it can use, and the excess runs out into either the airbox or into the cylinders (and from the cylinders down into the oil).
The petcock controls fuel flow as well, stopping the flow when the bike is off, EXCEPT when the petcock is switched to PRIME (in which case it allows fuel to flow freely all the time, and counts on the floats in the bowls to prevent too much fuel from flowing).

So the question then is:
Is one of your floats locked in a refill position, and not totally flooding you out because the petcock is doing it's job when the bike is off?

And the answer is... if you suspect it to be true, it's probably true.

Drain your airbox hose and tell me what you find -- that will probably confirm what the actual situation is (unless you aren't using an airbox on your bike anymore).

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[KatanaSoldier]

Ti, brother get the FUMOTO, you will not regret it. The best 20 something bucks you can ever invest in your Kat! Changing your oil after that will be as simple as turning on your water faucet.

[NewKatRida]

Ti, brother get the FUMOTO, you will not regret it. The best 20 something bucks you can ever invest in your Kat! Changing your oil after that will be as simple as turning on your water faucet.

whats a Fumoto?

[Anonymous]

http://www.fumotovalve.com/

[The CyberPoet]

whats a Fumoto?

A petcock valve designed to replace your standard drain plug, and built in a way that it can handle the extra-hot oil we get in the Kats without a problem. The latch mechanism has a spring to hold it in the footer part of an L-shaped passage -- push it in against the spring and rotate, and the valve will open to let oil out.
Because of the design and the placement, you have to cut part of the oil pan ridge on the 98+ engines to spin the valve all the way in (see pics below), but once installed, you don't even have to take off the belly pan to get the oil out of the bike. And it removes the most common user-maintenance failure on the Kats -- stripping the oil pan with the standard drain bolt by over-torquing it.
Because it's a petcock, it also has the advantage of being able to drain just a small amount of oil if you want, to get a sample or do a partial oil-change. When I'm on a long roadtrip, I drain out a liter and put in a fresh liter of oil every 1000 miles, thus always ensuring that some oil is definitely up to the task...



Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[Spedee]

Running the choke longer in cold weather climate seems to make our oils smelly.

[Ti]

will any of the fumotovalves fit on the kat as long as it's 21mm or is there a specific one to get for the kat??

[The CyberPoet]

will any of the fumotovalves fit on the kat as long as it's 21mm or is there a specific one to get for the kat??

Your drain plug doesn't have a 21mm hole -- it has a 21mm head on the bolt.

The size you need to match is the drain thread size, and that's M14-1.25 (means Metric 14mm, 1.25 turns per mm), which means Fumoto F-111 is the correct fitment -- unless someone retapped your pan at some point.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[KatanaSoldier]

The cheapest place to grab one is from here:

http://www.lubricationspecialist.com/front/showcontent.aspx?fileid=105&gclid=CP32n_344IoCFRgXgQodLk4uwQ

[DoubleD]

Because of the design and the placement, you have to cut part of the oil pan ridge on the 98+ engines to spin the valve all the way in (see pics below), but once installed, you don't even have to take off the belly pan to get the oil out of the bike. And it removes the most common user-maintenance failure on the Kats -- stripping the oil pan with the standard drain bolt by over-torquing it.

What would be involved on a pre-98?

[The CyberPoet]

Anybody install one on a pre-98 yet?

I think it should just screw in to the pan, although you might need to add another crush washer if it won't go in far enough because of the inverted-V shape on the drains of the pre-98's...

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet