Smoking '98 R11RT

[Roger D]

On a recent road trip, I parked my '98 R11RT (50k miles)on the side stand while it faced down hill. The bike was parked for a couple of hours. When I started it up there was enough smoke coming from the tail pipe to kill a horse. The smoke lasted for about 4 miles of riding and then cleared up. This happened again when I briefly (30 seconds) parked the bike again on the side stand on a down hill slant. I looked at the plugs, and as you might guess the one on the left side was oily, while the one on the right was OK. The only other evidence of oil was at the exhaust pipe clamp just in front of the converter. I've been careful to avoid the "down-hill-on-the-sidestand" situation, and so far the problem hasn't reocurred.

 

So is this a major problem? A possible ring job? Is this one of those "they all do that" issues?

 

Any help/suggestions you can offer would be appreciated.

[ShovelStrokeEd]

That is normally a K-bike problem and with those it comes from a different source.

 

On your bike, I would say that either the exhaust valve guides are worn or an intake valve stem seal has failed. More likely the latter.

 

An oily plug won't happen in just that short time you describe. It takes awhile. In all probability, your bike has been burning oil a bit for quite some time, you just haven't noticed it in the form of smoke.

 

I would just avoid the situation that initiated the smoking and not worry too much about it until the smoking becomes a full time thing. BTW, you can check on the intake valve seal thing fairly easily. Have a buddy that you trust ride close behind you on a sunny day. Get on the gas, hard, run the revs up a bit and then coast back down. Trace of smoke out the rear on acceleration? Exhaust valves, on coast down? Intakes. Your cat may just soak most of it up and you won't see anything though.

[Wooster]

Roger,

 

Sorry to hear of your RT's bad habit; most public places forbid smoking entirely.

 

Years ago (80s, say), when beemer smoked after being on side stand it was assumed that piston rings (or at least the oil ring) allowed oil to seep into combustion chamber which then caused interval of smoke on start up: this scenario had smoke for 20, 30 seconds or so. While this occurred more often with K motors, it did infrequently happen with boxers too.

While I hesitate to contradict Ed (mite get same head lock as dog in other post), traditionally, failing valve guides (intake or exhaust) cause smoke going down the mountain (after gassing it, closing throttle causes cylinder's vacume to pull oil into combustion chamber from rocker area which then smokes when throttle is rolled back on); faulty rings cause smoke going up the mountain (while gassing it, oil seeps past oil ring into combustion chamber causing continual smoke as you hold throttle steady).

If it were me, I'd avoid downhill side stand use thereby avoiding any thought of expensive repair.

 

Wooster w/limited mechanical knowledge (only time I saw crankshaft was when friend knocked off a cylinder in crash)

 

Oh yes, if this smoking doesn't noticably consume oil, that's another vote for letting it be