I cleaned my bike a few days ago and haven't been on it since. This morning I started it up and saw quite a lot of smoke coming from the left exhaust connection leading to the engine. One of the bolts is rusty so when I did my clean I squirted a little WD40 on it because I want to at some point take off the exhaust, sand it down and give it a new paint job. Could it just be the WD40 burning, thing is, I live in Florida, its hot and the WD40 would have evaporated by now wouldn't it?
I left the bike running for a few more minutes, as the engine got hotter more smoke appeared.
Didja disconnect the pipe or just clean it connected?
It's very common for smoke to appear after you've sprayed some kinda cleaner or chemical on the pipe... I would let it run for a bit - maybe go for a ride to your local grocery store and pick up a 6-pack. By the time you make it back home you should be fine.
Rolly
The pipe was connected when I cleaned the bike. I didn't actually clean the pipe, just sprayed WD40 around the top connectors.
WD-40 is a mix of various substances, some of them highly volatile, others not. It does contain a certain amount of oils that should not evaporate at all but stay in place and lubricate. That's the stuff that creates smoke now.
Bad thing is, burning oil may leave polymerized, resin-y residue in the bolt threads, which then reverses the rules of redneck mechanics.
(Those being:
If it moves, and shouldn't, use duct tape.
If it doesn't move, and should, use WD-40.)
Yeah, if it persists for more than about a minute it's not external but engine. Put your hand by it, on a cold start, is there exhause leaking out??
You know that there's gaskets between the pipe and the cylinder right?
They only tolerate being tightined once as they are soft and deform to seal, grab some new ones from a dealer, or someplace like Denniskirk.com..... metric bike section. They only cost like 2$ each.