So, Kerry and I spent most of the day swapping out the engine on my gs500.  we used Blueknyt's method, using a floor jack to remove the old and install the new.  Contrary to his assertion, we had much less trouble getting the new one in than the old one out.  We determined that one of the most important things to remember when using this method is to get the balance point right where the jack supports the engine.

So, new engine installed, put everything back together... this took me about 4 hours or so, but I think we got everything hooked up how it's supposed to be.

When we first started it up, we had to crank it for 30-45 seconds, maybe more, before the engine started.  when it finally did, it sounded to me like it was only running on one cylinder.  Next thing we know, blue smoke is coming from the front of the bike.  Pulled the spark plugs, they looked good, but swapped with the ones in my old engine just in case.  (the plugs from the new engine looked a lot better than the old, actually)

I took a short video clip with sound so you can hear the sound the engine was making... was hoping to catch the smoke too, but the camera didn't pick it up.  (Quicktime required, sorry)

http://home.comcast.net/~rmbateman/imagelib/enginenoiseandsmoke.mov

Our thoughts:

Despite the location I pointed to in the video clip, I'm not certain that's where the smoke was coming from. the more I look at the clip and remember things the more I wonder if there is a problem with a gasket in the exhaust headers (I think that's what you call where the exhaust leaves the head. =])  it's certainly noisy enough, and one of the gaskets (we think it's a gasket, anyway) looked kinda strange.  don't think we took a pic, though.

Wondering if it could be the head gasket?  no oil leaking out so far, just smoke.  haven't ridden it yet, though, I'm a little scared to try.

Almost sounds like the description Srinath gave me of "monkeys hammering on your eardrums), but I did check valve clearances, though the oil inside when it was shipped was so filthy there might have been gunk in that messed up my measurements.

My questions:  Could this be just a problem caused by oil sloshing around while the engine was shipped UPS across the United States to reach me?  If I ride it, will it hurt anything?  Might it help?  Does fuzzy logic tickle?  Wait, strike the last one.

Any help would be very much appreciated.   I WNAT MY BIKE BACK! :x   =]

Man, you Utah guys are just putting us to shame
Kerry with all his picture posting (huge help) and now richard with his streaming video.

What next? Wait, I take that back.
Keep up the good work guys. I hope your problems are short-lived.

Hi,

I swapped out my old engine last month after the big ends started going.  Likewise I had loads of smoke when it first started running from around the same area as you say.

I figured it was the result of it being hauled around the UK in the back of a courier truck and just rode it round the block a couple of times.  Smoke went away quickly and now everything is sweet!

Try seeing if your smoke burns off, it's problably just oil getting where it shouldn't be after shipping!

Did you put new copper exhaust gaskets in?....You can get away with re-using them occasionally- but they are supposed to be a one time deal...Once you take the exhaust off they recommend replacing them...

When you say smoke is it a puff or more like oil burning off ? You moved teh camera so fast it was hard to see (tho at one brief  moment i thought i could see a stream of exhaust.

It's hard to tell from the clip what the noise is but when you first start it up (cold) ...put your palm over the exhaust outlet and listen/ see if the noise changes. It sounds like one cylinder having an exhaust leak ...kind of...again hard to tell from the video....

I'd swap out the exhaust gaskets first- if you're lucky that's the problem...

Kerry and I discussed it again briefly today in church, and he mentioned that it was probably stored with oil in the cylinders (aparently that's how you're supposed to store it.  shows what I know. :-/).  We're thinking that's probably what the cause of the pufs of blue smoke are... just oil burning off.

And yes, we did re-use the exhaust gaskets... and one of 'em looked a little strange, so I bet that's the problem.  I guess I might have to drive to work one more day and pick up some gaskets while I'm there, then see if I can't replace 'em tomorrow night, see if it fixes the problem.

Yeah if you have the exhaust off and are storing it...a squirt of oil in the cylinders is a good idea....even for just  winterizing its a good idea.  


It didn't sound like it had any bad mechanical noises...it was probably the gaskets.

I noticed you said it had dirty looking oil in it Richard. I hope you swapped that too. I hope all goes well for you.  

I did change the oil.  =]  I had purchased oil to put it in before to see if the engine would start or if it was seized, and since that oil hadn't been hardly used, I drained the oil on the other one before I took it off and put the oil in the new one after we got it in.

Recomendations as to whether or not I could get away with riding it with a bad gasket there?  I haven't ridden in 2 weeks, and it's been fantastic riding weather for most of those 2 weeks.  I don't want to hurt anything, though.

I guess I coiuld also try to replace the gaskets with the one that were on the old engine, since I still have those, until I can get new ones.

Quote from: richardI did change the oil.  =]  I had purchased oil to put it in before to see if the engine would start or if it was seized, and since that oil hadn't been hardly used, I drained the oil on the other one before I took it off and put the oil in the new one after we got it in.

Recomendations as to whether or not I could get away with riding it with a bad gasket there?  I haven't ridden in 2 weeks, and it's been fantastic riding weather for most of those 2 weeks.  I don't want to hurt anything, though.

I guess I coiuld also try to replace the gaskets with the one that were on the old engine, since I still have those, until I can get new ones.

I would not ride it with the bad gasket, unless the leak is VERY minor. As I understand an exhaust seal leak will cause it to overheat or run lean. I can't remember which.  :dunno: Perhaps someone else can verify this.

hmm.  I hadn't heard that about the exhaust leak.  I double checked everything and found that the bolts on one side on the exhaust weren't completely tight, so I tightened that down and it got rid of a lot of the noise.  then I rode around the block and noticed that A. the bike wouldn't run except on prime (probably something wrong with the connection to the carbs, I'm thinking), and B. the bike was handling funny on turns.  I knew some of that was probably the oil that was still on the back tire from when it all drained out of the old engine, but it seemed more than that.

As it turned out, we hadn't tightened the bolts holding the engine in place as much as I had thought we had     I knew there were a few that needed to be tightened to the tork rating, but I guess I missed the fact that they weren't even finger tight.  Well, this is why I didn't take her very far on the first ride, right?

So I tightened all the bolts to tork setting real quick (was hoping to ride ot a friend's house, and maybe take it to work tomorrow if the problems were minor enough, I don't normally do any motorcycle work on Sunday), and started her again.  the noise was almost back to normal, just a tiny bit louder, and it backfired much more frequently.  

After riding it to my friend's house, I think it's running pretty well, just need to replace those gaskets and that should (I hope) clear up the last of the problems.  Wow it was nice to be riding again.  I think I'll take it to work tomorrow, and there is a suzuki dealer close to work that I can pick up some new gaskets from.

ok, from the clip, i Deff heard an exhaust leak,  so double check your gaskets, now hands groping the engine to get it out, and crated, and out of the crate and into the new resting place, LOTS OF MONKEY PAW PRINTS.  i have yet to have any engine installed, bike,car,boat,truck, even Lawn mower, NOT smoke from strang areas when fired first fired up, often takes abit of running to cook off all da smudges. go with the fresh exhuast gaskets first thing, they are cheap enough.   now, when i had to do my CB shaft bearings i went ahead and did my valve clearances and recleaned and did a mechanical check of carb sync.(used a thin sliver of wire as a feeler gauge under throttle plates, works well) much easyer with engine on bench then in frame.

Richard, did the photo of the left intake valve come out well enough to post?  I'd like to hear some suggestions on the best way to clean that yucky-looking stuff out of there....

While I'm at it, here are a couple of the pics I took.  No, I didn't take very many (sorry!), but Richard's camera has some close ups and a side-by-side shot of the "new" engine with the old.

Here's Richard with his half-Hitler smudge moustache, looking rather tired.  And we haven't even pulled the seized motor yet!  In the lower left-hand corner you can see part of the valve cover on the new engine.  We were impressed with the shipping container:  a pair of Tupperware-type tubs with some sort of foam block spacers.  Hey ... it worked.  



Here's the poor frame looking sad and bereft - between getting the original motor out and the replacement in.
(No, the front wheel isn't really that small - it's the camera angle.   )


EDIT: Changed links from sisna.com to bbburma.net

I'd forgotten about those pics, Kerry... thanks for the reminder.

first, just from curiosity sake, this is a pic behind the cover on the righthand side of the bike, after removing the wires... the crankcase, I think?



could that have been causing any of the odd problems that I'd had with the old engine?  just curious, in case I sell the bad engine to someone for parts.

This is a pic looking inside the intake valves.  One of them looks a little better than the other... is this something that A. is a problem, and B. can be solved?  and if so, how?

right side looks good, left had alittle water in it.

I just rode the bike to work today (40 miles or so), and it seems to be running great now!  I installed the new exhaust gaskets last night, and that took care of the backfiring and noise problem.  This engine has a slightly deeper sound than my old one, interestingly enough.  I still need to find a way to reroute the throttle cable, which is stretched too much, and figure out why it only runs in PRIME (suspect a pinched or disconnected vacuum hose), but I RODE TO WORK TODAY!!!

it's so nice to be back on two wheels.

Now I just yoinked a 15T front sprocket from cozy, and maybe I'll take the plate from the old engine and do a timing advance on it and see what difference it makes, while still being able to go back to the old to compare. =]

For now, I think I'll hold onto the engine so that Hi-T can play with it (he has some interesting ideas), but I may be parting it out  if he decides that it can't be rebuilt.

Maybe now it's time to look into rejetting...