Hi all, noticed my K2 engine was using a little bit of oil and then noticed a slight trail of white smoke behind me that I became engulfed in when stopping quickly at some lights after giving it some. It's not a lot of smoke, just enough to be noticed and of some concern. It's not water vapor either before someone asks. No smoke on start up on cold engine, once it warms up and you rev it a bit you see the hint of white smoke in the air. Pulled the plugs - #1 oily #2 lean #3 not as lean #4 rich, yeah fantastic. Bought a compression tester, #1 138 psi #4 112 psi. Hmmm ok, did it again, same results even on a different day. Put some oil down #4, compression up to about 120 psi. Couldn't test #2 or #3, tester wouldn't fit there, adapter problem and we'll leave it at that for now.
While I was in the bike repair frame of mind, decided to pull the carbys off and check valve stems for bad guide seals, tell tail sign on the valve stems, no oil on the intake side, couldn't be bothered taking the exhaust off. I heard from an old timer that if you get the engine hot, take the air box/pods off and while running WOT and then spray a fine mist of water in the carby. This acts like super heated steam inside and can clean the inside of the cylinder and maybe fix a stuck piston ring. Blew a bit more smoke after that and plugs went black. It may have cleaned some of the crap out, still the same compression readings. At least it's consistent readings. Oh, too much water can be bad for the engine, hence a fine mist and little of it.
Due to time constraints, I didn't check the valve clearances, they were set about 600 miles ago. Stock engine, slightly higher compression due to reduction of material on the bottom of the head.
Any ideas now?
