white smoke from left side of engine

i recently fixed a leaking transfer tube in my carbs, and then bench synced them with the paper clip method. i put the carbs back on the bike and started it up and after about 5 minutes of letting it run while trying to establish a good idle i noticed a little white smoke coming from the alternator/front clutch cover area. what could this possibly be coming from? this never happened before tonight. the gas is pretty laiden with seafoam since i didnt want it to varnish on me since the bike has been down for a couple weeks. im not sure if that has anything to do with it. also ive noticed the area on the head around the #1 plug gets wet after the bike is running for a couple minutes. im pretty sure its oil. maybe these 2 problems are related im not sure

on a side note i think my battery is bad. if i fully charge it for 8-10 hours itll last about a week before it wont start the bike, and if i charge it for about 2 hours when it wont start the bike itll start the bike and last a few hours, but the next day it wont start the bike. does this sound like my battery is bad? i would expect that a good battery lasts more than a week before losing so much charge that it cant start the bike.

sorry for rambling i just cant seem to figure out how to get my bike running again

 

I'm afraid you'll have to give us a bit more to go on. The alternator is on the left side of the bike, the clutch cover is on the right. On the 550 anything that drips underneath the carbs (like the carbs themselves or the camchain tensioner) will run forward and then off to the sides. On the left it will run down in front of the alternator; on the right collect in front of the clutch. (My '81 has a camchain tensioner leak, I'm very familiar with the "drippage path.")

"Area on the head around plug #1 gets wet" doesn't sound right; are all your plugs properly torqued?

Your battery does sound as if it's beginning to get a bit tired.

 

sorry i meant front sprocket cover not clutch cover. i torqued all the plugs the same - finger tight then an extra 1/2 turn and only the #1 plug has that problem. i need a battery with 8AH right?

 

1/2 turn after finger tight might be ok with new plug gaskets but it is WAY too much for a used and crushed gasket. 11-14 ft/lbs is a very light torque. Closer to 1/16 of a turn on used gaskets. Hope you don't strip a hole doing that.

 

plugs were new

 

You said "white smoke". Usually white smoke is water or coolant, black smoke is excessive fuel, blue is oil. Since you have an air cooled bike I must ask if you're sure of the colour. If it's blue you might have diluted oil from fuel getting into it. Oil is relatively inexpensive. It might be an idea to change it now that you have corrected the fuel leak. I know the indication of the leak was external but is it possible that it was leaking through the carb and into the intake system?

I just edited this as I reread the original post and you mentioned heavily ladden with Seafoam. Seafoam will cause smoking itself if it is too concentrated in the fuel. This product is for long term storage and shouldn't be needed for a few weeks of inactivity. It is a good product but like everything, used in moderation and following directions. Maybe drain some fuel out and top up with gasoline.

 

I agree with JFStewart. I am new to bikes but as a rule of thumb white smoke is water usually a head gasket but in this case air cooled.

 

Before you go and get a new battery, you need to check your bikes electrical and charging sytem. From some of your other posts, it appears that your regulator rectifier is fried and is burning up your battery. It won't do you any good to go and throw a new battery in there and have it wind up burned in just a few days.

Also, what kind of charger and at what settings are you recharging your battery? If you are using a regular old car charger with excessive amp settings, you are destroying battery yet again.

 

Depending on the Outside Temperature and the Relative Humidity; you could be seeing the Exhaust Fumes of a Rich Mixture.

I've seen a few days where the Dew Point is just right and the Bike will idle just right ... and you can watch Smoke Rings getting machine-gunned out and lingering a bit before dissipating and causing fog.

 

i got a manual 1A 12V charger from pep boys so the charger isnt destroying the battery. since i live in vegas where its outrageously hot ive been told by mechanics that the high heat can foul gas in as little as a couple weeks so i was just being cautious by adding seafoam. its possible the leak is actually coming from where the collector box meets the slip ons. i usually run it without the slipons but since ive been tuning the carbs threw them back on so i wouldnt kill my ears, and didnt really tighten them down fully. im not 100% on the color it was dark and i was working by the light of my garage opener but it looked white. i know that seafoam causes smoke so that is probably the source of that, ill just run down the tank since its almost empty and get frash gas.

how would i test the rectifier to see if thats the problem?

 

Measure the Voltage at the Battery with the Bike running at 2,500 rpm's.

You should be looking at 14.2 -to- 14.5 Volts.
Outside those Specs > Low = Alt Brushes or Regulator
Above Specs = Bad Regulator.

 

Actually, on the 550, you will only see about 13.3V at idle and up to about 3000 to 4000 RPM. Above 4000, you should start to see about 14.4 to 14.7V. If you are over 14.8V at any point in the RPM range, your R/R is toast.

 

yesterday when i was testing the battery while the bike was off it showed something around 13.0 and as i left it connected it slowly started climbing until it hit around 15. does that mean anything or is my tester just potentially bad

 

What kind of meter do you have? If it is analog, you may just need to zero it before you take readings with it. Whether it is analog or digital, check your car battery with it. Readings should be similar in the vehicle. low to mid 13s at idle, and about 14.8 when you rev the engine.

 

What you are describing sounds like a battery on charge. Were you connected to the charger at the time it went to 15volts? A fully charged new battery is about 13.6 volts (2.2 volts per cell). This charged voltage will drop as the battery ages to 2.1 or 2.0 volts per cell. A fully discharged battery will be 10.2 to 10.5 volts. Typically 1.7 volts per cell.

The charger will produce 15 or 16 volts to ensure that the electrical pressure (voltage) is high enough to push back into the battery as its voltage increases due to the charging process. The internal resistance of the battery rises and that causes the voltage to rise in proportion.

 

definately was not charging thats why i wondering if my tester is bad i only paid like $10 for it

 

If you don't trust your tester, you need to have it calibrated it or at least check it by using another meter on the same test. If both are the same the meter is probably OK. If the battery has been in some way damaged by overcharging, it is possible for readings to go unexpectedly high. If this condition settles down after a time everything might be alright. Time will tell.

 

Just to get back to your original comment on the white smoke... it isn't uncommon to see this for the first few minutes untill the engine warms up. I made the fatal assumption that this was after a warm up period. I apologize if you were unduely concerned. I sometimes forget that not everyone has experienced these conditions.