gas in the crankcase

[rtabish]

ok.....in my own defense, i have zero experience with the fuel systems on mid-90s Katanas, so i had no idea what PRM was, or what any of the other positions might do. apparently i am not the only one, since a lot of people on here seem to have problems with the petcock positioning.

this is the first time i have ever done this sort of thing, though i have seen it done before by others. i let the bike set for a couple hours last night with the petcock turned to PRM. this not only let the carbs overflow and leak gas out onto the ground, but also seemed to let a BUNCH of gasoline into the cylinders which then bled past the rings and into the crank case. i found this out this afternoon when i went to drain out the oil for my first oil change on this bike and got about a gallon and a half of very thin, gassy oil!

my question is, obviously, what are the chances i did no damage to anything internally on the bike, and what is the safest way to approach this without creating a bomb out of my bike?

i currently have the fill and drain plugs open and the oil filter off, in hopes that any gas still inside the engine will dissipate overnight and i can refill the crank case with oil and install a new filter.

hopefully, having admitted my faux pas and willing to take the ensuing grief for my mistake, someone will stop laughing long enough to give me some reassuring advice. thanks.

[wepainters]

You should be fine but you have a problem with a float somewhere either not set right or sticking as even with it on prime it shouldnt do that.

But mine does now as well .

All last year i ran my bike on prime as the p o sanded off the indicators on fairing i had no idea what postion was what

anyways change the oil and filter good to go

[rtabish]

i have seen this in bikes that have sat for a long time. the needle valves will not seat right because they have dried out. had i taken the float bowls off and cleaned everything up right, i may have missed out on this little bit of fun.

[DreKat]

I had the same thing happen to me about 3 years ago but I left the bike on PRIM all winter long
I drained out all the oil and then filled the bike with 10W30 oil (it was the only oil I had in the garage at the time) to the Full line then let the bike idle for 5min. I then drained the oil again, replaced the oil filter and then added 10W40 and again started the bike and let it idle for a few mins. I have no problems with the bike since that happened.

Did you start the bike before you realized that you left the bike on PRIM all night long?

[rtabish]

Did you start the bike before you realized that you left the bike on PRIM all night long?

it wasn't all night, just a couple hours. the gas tank was full [almost 5 gallons], and would have drained out if i had left it on all night. the gas all over the floor would have made a bit of a problem too, i suspect

no, i didn't try starting it. good thing, too. all i had to do was change the oil and filter, but i wanted to strip off the bodywork first to get an idea of what i was dealing with on this bike. when i finally got around to pulling the drain plug out of the pan, the bike was pretty well stripped down.

the reason i got to thinking about what position the petcock was in in the first place was i had been reading the FSM i downloaded from here. while going through that, i found a page on the fuel system that described where the petcock was supposed to be turned to. i thought PRM was for "primary"...never occurred to me that it would mean "prime" or what it would do. as much of a safety concern as this might be, i wonder if this subject shouldn't be a sticky for people unfamiliar with this set-up.

[franky_402]

don't feel bad I figured prim meant primary as well, I'm ised to dirtbikes that have res,on or off so I figured prim meant peimary reserve and then an off position. You will be fine just change the oil and ride

[rtabish]

i just drained out everything, and left it open. coincidentally, i was busy for the next few days, and didn't get back to it. when i did, all i did was add oil and a new filter. i figure any fumes that may have been left over got sucked up through the PCV, anyway. it started and i got to ride the bike around the block a few times. it didn't blow up [i think, hard to tell]. i was more concerned about what kind of crud may have been dislodged by the thinning effects of the oil, so when i get the bike back from the mechanics [carb rebuild and sync, valve adjustment, and a good once-over from a more experienced eye] i will change the oil again for good measure. this time, i know where to turn the petcock.

on a sort of related note, while the bike is in the shop, i took the opportunity to take the gas tank down to flush it at a local radiator shop. funny thing happened.....when they ran their stuff through the tank, they left the petcock on the tank, and their stuff ATE the petcock! i have never heard of this before, and neither had the shop guy. now there is a big hole where part of the metal body used to be. either their mix is too strong, or the metal at that point was made thin by wear. odd....am i getting a sign about this bike?

[akarob]

Unless your float valves are leaking, your fine. It's a safety but the float valves should be doing their job just fine, don't sweat it.