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Spilling fuel, oil, and running on one cylinder

3.9K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  LittleAce  
#1 ·
Anyone ever broke their bike giving it a bath? 97 ACE 1100 with 17k on the odo, 1500 of which I've put on. Never leaked a drop of anything and has performed flawlessly since I've owned it. Washed it this weekend, soap and water. Something came up and I had to move my bike real quick, so I fired it up and noticed it sounded a little odd, but these things spit and sputter when cold anyway. When I go time later I decided to take it up the road for fresh gas, thinking maybe somehow it had gotten water in the fuel. Sounded odd again until I got on the throttle coming out the driveway, ran like a top for the next 3 miles. Guess I was just paranoid.
Filled up, headed back, made it a quarter mile and I lost a cylinder. Pulled off to let it sit for a second, when I tried it again it took forever to crank and, upon firing, started spilling gas and oil out of the bottom of the crankcase. Something was coming out the exhaust, white smoke of some kind. Decided to see if it would make it back, wouldn't stay lit for anything until I wound it up near the rev limit. Backfired then ran just fine until I defueled, lost a cylinder again. Once it did it's sputtering trying to wind up the rpm, it smoothed out and ran fine. Put it on the bike lift immediately.
Then it got weird. Once it cooled, I fired it up, fire on both cylinders, and it didn't leak a drop of anything. Put it down on the stand to check oil, no gas as best I can tell. Fired it up on it's side, back to one cylinder, it leaks about a cup of gas from directly above the stand and a large drip of oil about 4" behind it. There's oil in the tailpipe.
Carbs were my first thought, but that wouldn't cause oil winding up places it shouldn't. Something internal like a ring wouldn't be intermittent. Anyone got a place to start?
 
#6 ·
If you're losing that much gas, it's probably coming from the carb vent tube and a sign of a sticking float. Check your crankcase for a high level and the smell of gas. You can hydro-lock your engine at worst and score a cylinder at best from too much gas in the cylinders. Don't run it anymore until you figure it out.
 
#7 ·
You could have gotten your ignition wet some where and could have gotten your air filter wet which might cause you to get excess gas in the carb. Take a leaf blower to it then let it dry out good then check it out.
 
#8 ·
If all this started after a wash my guess would be you got water into the air intake and air cleaner housing and it may be sloshing around getting picked up into the engine. There is a drain tube below on many bikes and that would be a place for liquid to come out.

And if it went through the cylinders causing the misfire, and out the exhaust, the dirty water can look like oil as it washes off the carbon soot in the pipes.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Got a chance to tear into it today, here's my findings. I'll try and address everyone's suggestions, thank you all by the way. I found the overflow drain, is that supposed to have a cap on it? Looks kinda factory, either way not where my leak was coming from. Still don't really know about that, I've got a service manual on the way. It appears to be coming out a line that runs right under the radiator and bolts to the front of the crankcase cover, but I couldn't confirm. Air cleaner area was spotless, and everything was plenty dry by the time I examined it. Fired it just to make sure it didn't suddenly start behaving, no dice.

Started with draining the oil, no evidence of gas whatsoever. Moved to the plugs, replaced all 4. Forgot all about a compression test, I'll have to do that tomorrow. It was the rear cylinder that was giving me problems. Fired it up to make sure the plugs weren't the problem, no luck.

Pulled the tank with the thought of pulling the carb as well, that will have to wait for another day. Pulled the little intake boot, the right hand/passenger side inlet was very dirty. I assume this is the side that fuels the rear cylinder but I could be wrong. The clamp that held that side on was screwed completely together but still not tight on the boot, so I assume water could have entered that way.

While it was exposed, I pulled the 2 lines feeding directly into the carb, shot some cleaner and compressed air through both. Floats moved freely, but had a noticeable "hard spot" about halfway through the travel on both. Robbed the boot off my parts bike, cleaned everything I could access, and reassembled. Fired as soon as the air made it out of the lines, both cylinders, running normally (as normal as a cold start can sound on a shadow). No leaks of any kind, whether upright or on the side stand, no smoke in the exhaust.

Put my hand down to the pipes out of habit, the rear cylinder is running nice and hot and the front is cold and spitting raw fuel. The warmer the bike got the less it put out, but there was still a noticeable difference in temperature between the exhaust gas. I'll take it for a test run tomorrow, but it appears to be "fixed".

Now, what to do to keep it from happening again. I'm gonna go ahead and say it was a something in the carbs that stuck, quite possibly from water entering the at the boot. Didn't run right until I cleaned it. I had toyed with the idea of a jet kit, and now I feel like it would be a good idea to pull the carbs out this winter to clean/sync. This bike does have straight pipes on it, no baffles, and I have no clue if it was rejetted to match. The messed up intake clamps tell me someone has been in there at some point. If I pull the carb anyway, could you guys recommend a kit to put in it? Or would it be better to just clean it and throw some baffles in the pipes?