I think I overheated my Kat!! :(

[mattydb]

Ok, so today before work.. I had my bike out in the sun, and for some reason.. started it to let it idle for a few before I left for work. I got on the phone with my fiance, and got carried away and let the bike sit there running for probably a good 20 minutes. It was in the low 70's out, and after the mentioned 20 minutes, I noticed the bike idling really high. I walked out and blipped the throttle, and it stayed high. I then smelled oil burning so I killed the motor.

There was blue smoke coming up from the engine area under the fairings, and the bike was hot as crap. I gave it a few minutes, and tried to start it again, and it pinged on startup and had a hard time running, so I killed it and left it alone.

I am on my way home right now to check it out.. hopefully it's ok.. but we'll see.

Any thoughts on the oil burning??? I just changed the oil 2 weeks ago to Castrol GPS 10w-40... should I change the oil again after this overheat?

[SweetLou]

I would switch to a motorcylce Specific oil, and do a oil change. I am sure everything is fine, but I would change the oil as you may have burnt off quite a bit, or ruind some of the vescocity of the oil.

[AkBigN]

That doesn't sound normal to me. Overheating at idle? I don' think a motorcycle specific oil is any better. There is not much evidence that is does anything better than auto oil. But it probably should be changed regardless.

[BraadaJim]

Given the ambient temperature and the time I doubt you did any real damage. Mind you it was not a good thing to do but it shouldn't have killed it unless there was already something wrong.
You have turned your oil to poop though and perhaps heated the motor enough for it to expand a little so you may notice the occaisional drop or film of oil now that you didn't have before from unseating gaskets. As long as it wasn't blowing a huge amount of crap out of the exhaust I doubt you did any serious damage.
Oil change, set of plugs, hit all the motor bolts you can get to with a wrench and look for any hoses or wires that may have been sitting in the wrong place and got melted.

Oil cooled motors are made to get hot and the Kats really are pretty bulletproof. I think your probably just bruised and not broken.

[toobalicious]

That doesn't sound normal to me. Overheating at idle? I don' think a motorcycle specific oil is any better. There is not much evidence that is does anything better than auto oil. But it probably should be changed regardless.

yes, it IS normal... there is no air flow at idle... not only does that render the oil cooler useless, but the exhaust heat has no way to dissipate either... prolonged sitting at idle is enough to cause some serious problems... hopefully, the smoke was from a bit of seepage (things expand when they are hot, you know)... that you had fresh oil should have kept anything internal from getting damaged, but you may want to check such things as your ignition pickup, which cannot live under extreme heat... below is a pic of the pickups from a DOHC CB750F... he sterted the bike to warm it, then forgot about it for over an hour... however, these bikes have butterfly choke instead of idle enrich, so it was likely running at 3K rpms for most of that time... a real mess...

but i will cross my fingers for you...
a

[xbubbax]

i would definetally change the oil to a motorcycle spec oil, i put 10-40 in my bike last year oil change and then went to the bike shop and asked them whats the diffrence, because i saw some on the shelf, and he stated it made all the diffrence, a non motorcycle oil has a crossive additive according the shop o go to and i have listened to them and they have worked on my bike.

[TemtnF8]

Castrol GPS IS motorcycle specific. It doesn't really matter, though. Provide me with scientific evidence that motorcycle specific is better than my regular Castrol Syntec motor oil and I'll switch.

[ThAzKat]

I think you will be ok but do what Jim said.

[mattydb]

Yeah, I figured that I should change the oil. I need to get it into the shop for a carb sync and valve adjust... it normally hunts around at idle and has a little stutter around 2k. The bike only has 4800 miles on it.

Thanks for all the help guys. Any recommends on the oil I should go with this time? (I am gonna swap to 20-50 though.. it's starting to warm up around here) The GPS is $4.95 a qt, maybe I'll try the actevo....

[The CyberPoet]

Before you bother changing the oil, pull a bit of it out and feel it by rubbing it between your fingers (then rub a little of whatever unused GPS oil you have around). The GPS 10w40 is an exceptionally robust oil and I seriously doubt that you ruined it even idling for an hour (after 3500 miles in Florida's heat, it still comes out with the general viscosity grade of what went in based on my checks) -- you'll be able to feel it between your fingers if you did ruin it.
I wouldn't try the same thing with a car-grade oil though... Do check your oil level to make sure you didn't burn off too much of it (if you're missing more than 1/3 of a liter, change your oil), and pull your plugs as well to make sure they're not fouled (if she starts & runs well, ride about 10 miles first, then let it cool down and check the plugs -- that will burn off excess build-up that may have been an one-time occurance).

The high idle was just from heat. As the bike gets hotter, the idle goes up. As long as it's back where it should be after the engine cooled, that's fine.

The real issue in my mind would be possible carbon build-up in the cylinder as a result of hot detonation (over 420 degrees F -- enough to burn the oil that was causing the exhaust to smoke blue). I'd run some techron through with the gas (in conjunction with some high detergent fuels, such as Shell V3, Chevron Techron premium, etc) to help clean out any residues or carbon left behind.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet