Rough Ride and White Smoke - Gen I

I have an '04 with approx 12K on it.

It has not seen a lot of action the last few riding seasons. In preparation for this season I changed the engine oil and shaft oil. Engine oil appeared normal with no milkiness.

It ran rough on start-up and had white smoke coming out of exhaust. After it warmed up condition would dissipate.

I attributed it to bad gas, so I drained the tank, added a can of seafoam and topped off with fresh gas.

Did a long ride and used that entire tank. After first 10-15 minutes of that ride the bike ran like new and very strong.

A few days later I started it up to see if issue resolved, but had the issue again.

I'm hoping the issue is that there is still condensation somewhere in fuel system or injector issue. Bike has a power commander III that was installed by previous owner. I have never adjusted it.

Any recommendations on how to confirm/resolve the issue would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

White "smoke" might just be water vapor from condensation in the exhaust. Unfortunately, it could also be from antifreeze - that would qualify as a BAD thing.

Any particular smell? Coolant levels remaining OK? The fact that the engine oil looks OK is a hopeful indication that coolant isn't going where its not supposed to go.

Good luck!

('04 with 12,000 miles?!)

What Ross said. If it is coolant getting into the exhaust it will smell sweet. More likely it is water vapor. Various seals can dry out after a long period of non-use, but that would be more likely to cause a drip rather than coolant going directly into the exhaust.

Yes, antifreeze is my fear..coolant levels seem fine, has never overheated and have never gotten engine warning light....

Vapor doesn't seem to have the "sweet" smell that others have described....

the fact that it seems to run normal after a while has me thinking that its a fuel/condensation issue and not something worse; if it was losing coolant somewhere I wouldn't expect it to run normal most of the time?

White smoke comes from burnt oil.Perhaps the oil rings of the pistons are stuck..04 with 12k means that this bike has stay in the garage for a long time..Perhaps the compresion and oil rings are stuck..If the white smoke after some minutes disappears when the engine warm up,then your engine works fine,it is normal especially when the humidity is high.

Also try to disconnect the PCIII to see if there are some differences..

Pull and inspect your spark plugs. If you have something getting into the combustion chamber that shouldn't be there, your plugs will let you know.

see if you can find a cylindar bore camera to peek down in there if you have the plugs out....

Maybe someone in your area might have one ??!?!

A 'lopey' start-up is normal (fuel enrichment mode); does it run smooth as soon as it comes off idle.

So far it sounds normal.

If the "smoke" disappears after a couple of minutes running it is simply the water vapor produced by combustion. It disappears because the exhaust soon gets it hot enough that it doesn't immediately condense when it exist the exhaust. Remember that an enormous amount of water vapor is produced for every gallon of fuel burned.

If the coolant level remains normal, then nothing to worry about. You would smell it if it were either oil or coolant.

Hello all- Just wanted to report back that the issue has finally been resolved...I was still getting intermittent white smoke and engine running rough, so I drained the entire tank again down to the reserve, and let it run all the way down and then run out of gas.

I added 1/3 can of Heet, 1/2 tank fresh gas, and rode it for 60+ miles in 70 - 80 degree temps. No loss of coolant and no foamy/milky residue on oil filler cap.

I also changed the coolant and did not appear to have any oil in it. That said, looks like i have finally resolved the issue and learned my lesson the hard way about proper winterization storage.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback and comments.