I did something stupid

I finished fixing my friend's 1984 GPz550 and the last thing I did was put some oil in it.

Being excited to be done working on it, I totally forgot to drain the oil first. I filled it up with 2.5Qts of oil when it was already full. I didn't realize this until I took it down my neighborhood and filled the streets white smoke from my tailpipe.

I only made it about 200 yards before I turned the bike off and I walked it back home, drained the oil completely, changed the oil filter, and filled it up with 3Qts of oil.

The bike is still smoking out of the tailpipe under load (gets really noticeable around 5500RPM) and it's leaking oil from the muffler joint. The bike didn't smoke like this before I started working on it so I'm wondering if it is just burning off all the leftover oil from when I messed up, but I'm also wondering: did I blow the head gasket by filling it up with too much oil? As far as I can tell it's not leaking at the head, and the amount of oil in the view hole isn't going down.

I read that there's not much bad that can happen since there is a crank case breather to blow off any excess pressure, but I want to consult you all for your input. I took the bike on a short, 20 minute ride and it smoked the whole time. Should I be concerned?

Thanks in advance!

I don't think the head gasket is a concern, my guess is you are just burning oil out of the exhaust. If you have a stock airbox check to see if oil got pushed up through the crankcase vent and saturated your air filter.

Mike

If liquid oil got into the exhaust (and it sounds like it did) it's going to burn and drip for a long time. You might want to makeshift some sort of tube at the tail pipe to direct it downward or it may end up coating the back of the bike. Eventually it will blow out and burn off, but it could be awhile.

Barring anything out in left field you should be okay. If anything bad was going to happen it would have taken place on initial start up. It is probably going to smoke for a good while especially with oil getting in the mufflers. I won't mention names, but we used to mess with new rookie mechanics when they did an overhaul on an engine. Just prior to installing the exhaust pipes to the exhaust manifold someone would sneak over and pour a little bit of oil in each exhaust down pipe. This was prior to cats. Nothing much would happen initially, but about the time he would start setting the carb Lord Almighty the oil in the pipes would start smoking like no tomorrow! Talk about one jacked up new mechanic!!! Wynn's Friction Proofing was also a great substance to use for this, not that I ever pulled such foolishness, but Wynn's smoked more and dissipated much quicker. Our poor service manager drank Mylax by the gallon. Oil took a good long drive to burn out. Ahhh the fun we had working in a car dealership in the old days.....
And the mechanics that has been there for a while knew it was good practice to put masking tape over the exhaust downpipes and put your initials on the tape. That way you knew right quick if anyone fooled around with you.

Rick H.

Just a thought, if there is a lot of oil in the pipes maybe removing them and in a safe well ventilated outside place run some gasoline through the system then let the pipes sit in the sun in your yard for a day or two, that may clean them out (NO SMOKING !)

Thanks for the input guys!

I took the bike on a few more rides before handing the keys back to the owner and it had (mostly) stopped smoking!

This was the first bike I ever fixed for someone else, so it was quite an experience - a lot more stressful than normal.