Scary moment starting my 650 turbo in my basement shop

After rebuilding my Turbo last weekend, I reinstalled it. Reinstalled the carbs I had had to remove to repair a bent butterfly shaft and do a liquid bench balance, and reassembled all of the tubes and connections. I also took the opportunity to do a proper job of concealing the wiring for the light in the boost gage that now resides in the left side fairing.

After everything was completely buttoned up, I connected my 6” corrugated pipe to the exhaust, stuck it out the door and put a sheet of plastic over the opening in the door above to prevent the exhaust gases from filling the house.

The bike sprang to life with a touch of the starter and after finding the “happy place” for the choke lever, settled to a high idle.

Once warm, smoke began to pour from the end of my corrugated tubing. I had expected a certain amount of smoke since I had been liberal in the application of oil to the parts and pieces of the turbo rebuild kit. I had also primed the turbo leaving the return oil line open as I spun the starter(plugs out) until it began to burp oil before reconnecting it. I expected the smoke to end in a few moments. Ten minutes later, it was still pouring out. The choke had been turned completely off for 5 minutes by then but the smoke was really pouring out the end of my plastic piping. I began to worry. Hmmm I thought to myself…”what if the tie wire I had discovered on the drain plugs meant the engine had been dogged?” “What if the rings and/or valves are shot”, “What if I need a total rebuild”. 15 minutes after starting and really the first time I had let it run so long, the smoke blew great smoke rings whenever the throttle was gunned. I had checked the top and bottom ends of the engine as one of my first tasks before disassembling everything, but what if I had made a mistake in my procedures or missed something?

Twenty five minutes after starting showed no change in the volume of smoke, something was wrong and I felt a combination of frustration and curiosity to figure out what. I shut it down and went to remove the corrugated pipe that I had duct taped to my exhaust. “Damn”, the tape had melted onto the pipe….out came my super duper grease cutter and it quickly and easily removed the residual tape. ”Good” I said, then looking up “thank you” to who ever might have been watching.

By now, worry was beginning to take over from confidence as I held this internal tribunal to discuss why I had not caught the fact that this engine smoked like a Steamer. Then, on impulse, I fired up the engine. No exhaust removal system in place…..just an average Joe starting his motorcycle in his house. Everyone does that, right?

Anyway, the bike started right up and not a milligram of smoke escaped from the exhaust. Surprised, I revved it to 3500, then 5000 and sure enough, no smoke at all. Then, leaving it running I stuck my nose to the exhaust outlet….nope, no smell of oil at all.

I surmised that at some point, I had introduced oil into my makeshift exhaust removal pipe and that’s what had been causing all the smoke or it was inherent with the actual composition of the piping but it sure had me a bit nervous for a few minutes!!

I can't wait to receive my newly order grips and to installing something to replace the footpeg rubbers that are shot. This machine needs to go for a ride!!!
jeff

 

Glad you got it fired up hope it runs great and you don't have to mess with it

 

Splendid story, thanks for sharing. We all know the anxiety wondering if we or a PO botched something and the relief when we find the problem was something simple.

FlyGp

 

I was expecting something like, gas, spark, fire! Much better story. Nice to hear you got the turbo running.

 

I was expecting an exhaust backfire that shattered a window...oh well, glad to hear she's running!

 

I had the same problem when I fired up the Turbo I had after a rebuild.
Exhaust pipe was full of oil and mud dobbers had made a nest in it. I had gotten most all of the mud out. Took a while for the oil to burn off.

 

Actually, I think your problem was the duct tape, I used it to hold together a broken exhaust manifold (broke while riding) on a little 50cc bike I built, and the same thing happened, and got me all confused too lol. Boy does that stuff ever put out a lot of smoke.