Hi Mr. Breeze. There is quite a history of speculation as to why it smoked like a mosquito fogger on the first startup, last June (2012). In my infinite wisdom I wanted d to revert to the K0 convention of no guide seals on the ex guides. Also, out of a drippy bout of nostalgia, I wanted to reuse the Manley valves that already had 50,000+ miles on them. IT was my dime so the machinist (Ron Scrimsa, RIP) who was highly recommended and with good reputation, accommodated me. He also redrilled my cylinders and sourced a set of 67mm (888cc) ARIAS pistons and rings. (The fisrts Phaedrus was an 888 Powroll Kit. Very primitive but VERY practical and gave 50,000+ miles of excellent service. Wanting to keep the 888cc size but advanced technology led to the ARIAS. Mike even commented on the internal tapering on the pston pins.)
That was back in 2000. So the whole set up sat on the shelf for nearly 10 years. When I reopened the box, the cyls had surface rust, which I honed off with a 3 stone hne, possibly screwing the ring clearance,
Once we decided it had to come apart again, we discovered that the thing had been wet sumping seriously, the pop off vavle in the oil pump was stuck open. In researching this condition, more common on Brit bikes, it was discovered this can cause smoking as well.
So all these things were suspicious. I sent the top end to MRieck for reconditioning. The priority was the smoke, but secondarily an eye towards further refinement and performance. I was an easy mark.
He reconditioned the head, cleaned up the porting that had already been done by RS, new guides with seals all around, new SS valves with OS on the intake since he was there what the heck, new Total Seal piston rings to eliminate the variables, but the pistons themselves are the original ARIAS, sourced another cylinder from eBay, resleeved it for the 67mm bore. He guaranteed me it wouldn't smoke. pretty brave after what I'd been through.
Me and Bruce rebuilt the oil pump. disassembled and super clean. unfortunately we didn't have access to the recently developed "spring and stopper kit" from Elan. The popularity of which testifies to the wet sumping problem that is occurring more often that the original rubber stoppers are aging.
So we'll never know for sure what single thing or group of things caused the smoking. But my experience was that a new, or rebuilt, engine shouldn't smoke. From the factory they don't smoke. An allowance can be given to some cases for a brief break in period. But mine was just too bad.
And now it doesn't smoke.
