Smoke out of headers

[Barca04]

ok so im driving today and i pull into a parking lot to take a break and im inspecting my bike and i see smoke is out of the headers. Ive had these headers on for a while now and it has never done that. could it be a bad seal between teh headers and the engine. what do you think?

[Eric]

Perhaps could it be oil leaking onto the headers? From the cover over the cams maybe?

[Court93kat]

Who knows what it was smoking. You will have to get under there and look to see if you can see any oily residue leading down to the headers. Did you run through any water entering the parking lot??

On a side note. If that is you in your avatar picture, I hope you have more gear than just a helmet. Especially if you are riding like that very often.

[The CyberPoet]

I'll ask a couple questions:
Was the engine hot at that point?
Were you running at very low speeds or stuck in a traffic jam just before you pulled into the parking lot? As in, might the engine oil have over-heated?
When you restarted again later, was the symptom there again?

I'm guessing it was an overheated engine smoking out some oil... if so, you'll want to do an oil-change ASAP.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[zique]

I've had it happen before where the gasket between the headers and block just gets worn, but I'd check for any kind of oil residue first (like stated before)

[Barca04]

first of all thanks your responses. Right before i pulled into a parking lot i was stuck on a red light. I was on the way back from a long ride. I was planning on doing an oil change this weekend. After i was at the parking lot for like 5 mins i restarted the bike and it didnt' start to smoke again. Im just gonna take the covers off and do an inspection of it. hopefully its just a worn gasket. and while im at it change the oil.

[Special K]

Yeah...........oil and filter change, look for loose covers, check all bolts, oil line connections, etc. Good plan! 8)


Man.............must be tough to do LONG RIDES THAT way


8) 8)