Smoking Oil Breather

Hi All,
Long time reader here. Hoping someone can answer my question. Recently pulled this bike out of storage. Did a full carb clean and oil change yesterday and seems to be running good. Noticed smoke coming from the oil breather and the valve area that I've not noticed before. I did not spill or get any oil near the value heads so I don't think this is burn off. Is this a normal amount or something to not worry about?

Video of the smoking:

Seems like more than normal. You might want to do a leak down check to see how well the rings/valves are sealing. If there is a lot of blow by gasses in the crankcase that would explain the issue.

Could there be a lot of moisture in the crankcase? If so, the vapor should stop soon after the engine is fully warmed up.

Oh lord. Last project was the starter clutch.. Just my luck. I got my hands on a compression tester and will see what that yields. Any experience with the harbor freight leak down testers?

TexasKZ I wish it was Vapor! This is actually at the end of a 30 min ride around town unfortunately.

What do spark plugs look like

Okay gang- photos are from a 30 minute ride around town. Let it idle for about 30 seconds before killing the engine in the driveway. Pulled the plugs and immediately ran a compression test as well which looked good- unless all 4 of my rings are worn down even amounts. Used a cheap Amazon tester for this. Plugs look to be running lean in the photos. Would lean tuning cause the smoking crank case? Any ideas?

Cyl1- 120
Cyl2- 120
Cyl3- 117
Cyl4- 120

How did you measure the amount of oil you put in? Maybe a dumb question, but there have been quite a few folks who didn't do this correctly and put in too much oil. Ed

Hi 650 Ed,
I used a pan with markings on it from Autozone. About 3.26 Q came out from a good amount of tilting around. Put 3.5 back in so might be a little over. I'd had a leak for a long time while sitting so accounted for some extra loss.

However- after doing some additional reading sounds like I bunged the compression test. The videos on YouTube I watched didn't mention holding the throttle open if I don't remove carbs. So I'll be trying to re-test tomorrow and will report back.

If you haven't already done so, take a look at the lower half of the right side of the engine to see if there's an oil level glass window there. With the bike on the centerstand the oil level (with the engine shut off) should be near the top mark next to the window. If it's above that you may just have too much oil in the crankcase. Picture below (sorry about the glare). Ed

Okay gang- Oil level looks fine. I also re-ran the compression test (throttle fully open this time) and got the following which looks good to me:
Cyl1- 165 (Think my o-ring popped and couldn't fully re-seat at the higher pressure.)
Cyl2- 170
Cyl3- 170
Cyl4- 170

Given the compression I don't think there are bad rings. I have noticed after a longer straight away when coming to a light it wants to hang at 3k RPM. If I put it in gear and ease the clutch a bit it will drop back down to the 1.5k I want. Needs a little love from the choke. When warming up too much choke will bog it down- however once warm adding choke just revs up.


Another thing I noticed- looks like the aftermarket pods that the last guy put on might be covering this hole in the photos. Is this hole just superficial? I've circled the hole in red and the ridge I think that is covering it.

Is there a handy guide to do elimination diagnostics to rule out any air leaks before trying to tune the jets and air mixtures? Or do you all have other ideas on what to look for here.

This is only my second bike and first one I'm really trying to do all the wrenching on myself. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

That port in the carbs needs to be open. It effects how the slides function.

Your compression is excellent.

Hanging idle means lean. Either a vacuum leak or the idle mixture is too lean.

What jets in the carbs? Pods drastically affect the carb jetting and the bike won't run properly with the stock jetting and pods.