1 exhaust blowing white smoke

I noticed this today at a stop light. Facing my motorcycle, this would be the right exhaust. It had a good amount of white smoke blowing out of it, but stopped, or seemed to stop after I was driving. It also wasn't blowing it when I stopped at the next light but started after I sat there for a min. And it might be my imagination, but the rpms were bouncing around just a little in the 1st 3 gears. If say I was at 3k rpm they would fall about 200 rpm and bounce back up, back and forth. It may have been doing that all along, and I might have just noticed it when I saw the smoke. Anyone have any idea what might cause this, or is it something to even worry about?

 

Your Valve guides (or somethjing V similar) are Gone
Classic symptom.. idle at a light then accelerate away inna cloud of Blue.

Mebe a guide seal replacement might cure it.. but redoing a cyl head on an old motor often 'takes out' the bottom end due to renewed stresses on old tired parts. Genuine concern/problem area.. rebuild or ignore

G'luck

 

gotcha, is that pretty normal wear for 11500 miles?

 

If the smoke is blue - I'd agree valves but white may just be condensation in the pipes evaporating - in which case it isn't smoke but steam. If it is just moisture, you should see the smoke eventually go away after a decently long ride.

This is common in bikes that are kept outside or in high humidity areas and when they are ridden short distances or infrequently.

Take that sucker for a good long ride and see if it goes away.

 

My only thought is that WHITE smoke is more often water in the exhaust or combustion chamber, whereas BLUISH/WHITE smoke indicates burning oil.

 

hmm, could be moisture considering I keep it under a tarp, washed it, and the humidity was 100% the past 2-3 days

 

Well when I got on it to come home today it no longer read rpms, just sat on 0. Ran fine, got it home and saw that the cable had come unscrewed, maybe someone is trying to sabotage me, just went over this stuff on Monday because my fuel line to the carbs ruptured, turned out the guy that owned it before me used a vacuum line hose instead of a fuel hose.

 

Both my speedo and tach cable have unscrewed themselves before, simply because they were not tight enough. No sabotage here, I think...

 

Aye, was just joking around bud

 

One important part has been overlooked. Is this an aircooled Maxim or a water cooled Maxim X?

 

air cooled I would guess. It is a maxim 81 xj650.

 

Yup - you're one of the airheads with us 8)

Have to check the screws on both the tach & speedo cables pretty regularly - mine come loose almost constantly. I've given some thought to actually using some threadlocker on them....

 

You really ought to go for a ride with a wingman trailing you and see what's going on, there, as you ride.

Interestingly enough ... I recently did some ColorTuning and we stopped thinking there was a fuel leak.
Nope.
Not Fuel ... water!

If you got a tankful of high-percentage Ethanol-added Regular ...
It very well might be ... steam!

I hope it's a fuel related ... or, Mixture related issue.

Look at them plugs.

If it looks like they've been Steam Cleaned ... you buy better gas and tweak.

 

My opinion is that you are speaking of condensation!
Isn't It too strange to see oil smoke on 11500 miles?! :?:
OK, I know that everything is possible but...
Ride few hundred miles and you will know. Check oil level regularly. If piston ring is stuck or broken on that piston You will notice excessive oil consumption.

Regarding this tacho cable... You have to listen engine. With just a little effort it is normal to hear rpm oscilation, even 100 rpm.