White smoke and running rough

Hi all... took my XJ750 Seca out yesterday, had ridden it a few days earlier so hadn't been sitting long. Temp was around 68. As soon as it started I had white smoke coming out of the exhaust and it was idling rough. After a minute or so I turned the choke off, still smoke still rough. Thought maybe there was a valve hanging up so continued on with my plan to take an hour ride. For the first maybe ten minutes the bike ran rough and had greatly reduced power... maybe 60 percent or so. After about ten minutes I got to an open stretch and opened it up in 3rd gear.. felt it kind of surging, then something popped... in a good way... felt it surge forward, throttle was responsive again, no more roughness. Rode it again today and everything was normal. I'm just curious what happened yesterday. Hope you all are having a great week. I should add, when it's a little cooler out the bike naturally warms up a little slower but it's never taken this long to smooth out and never reacted this way when cold.

 

Was it sitting outdoors? Had it rained?

 

did you get a frost?

 

your valve seals might be shot letting oil get in the chamber maybe on the plug. once it got warmed up, it cleared itself out and the plug started firing.

 

Bike sitting for a week this wonderful fuel we have today ...ethonal can break down quick without fuel stabilizer ...possibly causing problem jets to become gummed up . Run some sea foam and call me in the morning...Jetfixer lol

 

If you pull the plugs you should be able to see if you lost a valve seal. One of the plugs would have some oil residue on the cylinder that lost the valve seal. Good luck

 

I always use the fancy high octane shell premium fancy Ferrari gas... Always ethanol free. Or down at the yamahonda shop they sell an additive to deal with ethanol. Since I use gas flavored gas, I didn't bother to check the price.

 

White smoke isn't caused by burning oil.

 

tell my bmw that
technically it's blue but to everyone in the neighborhood, it's white. anti-freeze makes real white smoke

 

I agree the smoke or steam to the trained eye you can tell. With my X when valve seal went out, I could tell it was blue smoke because it hung in the air. I couldn't really tell from the smell, but then again I might not have a dialed in sniffer. I think that steam seems to dissipate faster then oil smoke. IMHO

 

Thanks for your responses. There has been no frost, bike has been sitting in the garage and I haven't washed it recently. Good idea to pull the plugs.. I'm going to do that right now.