White Smoke on Decel

Hello! I'm new here, but am not new to KZ's. My first bike was and is an '81 kz 550 LTD. I've had it for six years and about 15000 miles, and really enjoy it! However...

Over the winter I re-ringed my pistons, along with adding Vance and Hines 4-1 exhaust. I had already installed pod filters and rejetted (Dynojet, I think 108 jets) the carbs.

Lately, when the bike's warmed up and I'm engine braking before stopping, I'm getting a cloud of white smoke. Scary. I also see white smoke as the revs come down if I rev the engine while sitting still. There is quite a bit of popping when I engine brake too.

I paid close attention to the shop manual instructions for re-ringing, making sure all the ring seams were in the right place, and that the rings were in order. Where is my white smoke coming from? Thanks!

sounds like you need some new valve seals to me.

yep,if it was rings i would expect it to smoke under a load.smoking when idling or backing off sounds like valve guides or seals to me too.

A leak down test will confirm what we suspect. New valve guides and seals need to be done Hopefully the all the valves are ok. you described the classic serario it starts with smoke at start up and eventually gets to the deacceleration cloud. hey it gives good presence at the stoplight right??

Possibly guides and seals as has been noted but the seals in the Versah gasket kits tend to harden and act old real quick. The guides may well be just fine but the valve seals may be the only culprit. These seals are intended to allow SOME oil by to lube the innards of the guides and valve stem but if they harden, MORE oil than intended gets by and can cause some smoke in the combustion chamber. USUALLY valve seal smoke is most noted on bike start up and not at stop lights... Not sure if a leakdown is needed. Test compression since you reringed and then do a "wet" compression test after. If the new rings are sealing, you can pull the head and pop in some new valve stem oil seals if your combustion chamber (plugs) are getting oily. You can check the guides while in there... stick a valve in after disassembling the head and rock the valve stem in the guide. Should be minimal lateral movement.

Can you be a little more specific on the smoke color? The reason I ask is oil related smoke is not usually white, to my experience. Also, what's it smell like, the smoke that is?

Hmm...

The smoke is definitely white, not blue, not black. As far as smell goes, can you make that a multiple choice question? I haven't sniffed it for the last couple of rainy days.

Thank you all for your help! Very informative. I'll post some pictures of my 550 eventually.

That white oil made me think fuel also.
oil makes grey to black smoke
gas makes white to old lady hair blue smoke.

How many miles on the motor since you put new rings in it, and did you hone the cylinders?

I've put a couple of hundred miles on since the rings were changed. No, I didn't hone the cylinders. Yes, I should have, but I thought they looked okay, and was in a time pinch to get things back together.

The smoke did burn my eyes, by the way. I read somewhere else in this forum that fuel smoke does this.

So far it sounds like I need to do some carb adjusting (including synchronizing; anybody know any homemade rigs for doing this?), and if that doesn't fix it, I need to check the valve seals and guides. As a last resort, I need to see if my re-ringing job was bad. Right?

i always thought fuel was black smoke;)

Installing new rings in a used bore is a really good way to burn oil and lose compression. You could probably get away with pulling the cylinder off and honing it if it's not tapered to much.