mine is only a guess John as never owned one and only based on general past knowledge. Unlike all our twins a 3 (or 4) cylinder can sometimes mean that the bores are as low or lower than the sump extreme face when rotated 90 degrees along wheelbase giving the possibility that oil could pool in the lower part of the bore (of lowest cylinder obviously) providing a possibility, greater I would think if still running that it could get drawn onto the combustion chamber side of the piston rings. Either way I look forward to stumping up
Chris I can understand that a small quantity of oil could get into the combustion chamber side of the piston rings as a result of the engine laying on it's side, but if it did I would have expected it to be quickly burnt up as the engine ran. This was smoking for about 10 miles!
Most pistons have 2 compression rings and an oil scraper ring, that leaves two areas for oil to collect and wouldn't burn off so quickly. Just an opinions. Steve
Steve Understand that but how many cc's of oil could accumulate there? I had a considerable amount of smoking for about 10miles!
Have you got a breather from the crankcases to the airbox? That would be my bet, oil in the airbox as it was on its side and soaking through the filter. It's takes a very small amount of vapour to be drawn through to smoke.
Nick I have just been looking at my workshop manual. There is a breather from the crankcase to the airbox.
this bit I do know! - did you ever do the full Redex down the bore as recommended by the manufacturer in the 60's/70's? Best one I remember was my TR5 - you would squirt an oil can about 5 squirts down each bore in turn and churn engine over a couple of turns with a bit of cloth blocking the spark plug hole (real messy job). Then it was plugs back in and leave overnight. In short, if you did it today you would get stopped by the Police. It took a while to take effect but I can remember a VW Beetle behind me emerging from the almost total smokescreen I had created. Never mind 10 miles, this took about a week to die down which was more like 60 and all from 5 squirts of Redex.
pretty standard requirement on a modern engine John, a recirculatory system? particularly nowadays but it's often quite a convoluted route and I wouldn't think oil would find it's way 'downhill' to get to the air cleaner in the time that bike was inclined. (what do I know though?)
Same thing happened to me on my 955 Sprint. Lowside crash LHS, left running for a minute tops but on its side a few more minutes. Pool of oil collected on the road under it when stood upright. Now my bike wouldn't turn over. It was locked with oil. The only way we got it to crank was to drag it backwards in top gear. Took 4 blokes to do it, then it cranked over and did burn oil for about 15 miles. Thumb still hurts after 2 months. I swapped the bike for a 600 as I was tired of it. Too heavy to chuck about.
manga interesting that you experienced the same symptoms as me including the thumb . Any idea how you hurt your thumb, as I have been trying to work out what happened to mine? Chris when I was 15 I had a Saturday job as a petrol pump attendant ( happy days) When I first started I was shown how to use the Redex dispenser, 1 press to give 1 shot, and lift up the plunger all the way and press down to give 10 shots. Of course being an inattentive youngster who was totally fixated with looking up the skirts of the female customers, I initially got the dispensing totally wrong and the first few times I used it I had customers returning , clouds of white smoke bellowing from there exhausts, as I had put in 10x too much Redex.
Just caught with this John and sorry to hear it. Glad you're not too bad. Sadly can't comment on the bike but as mentioned, I'd give these guys a shout Triumph Torque - Triumph Forum and Social Network If that fails (or even instead of), I'd strongly recommend Clive Wood in Bognor Regis - he used to work for Jack Lilley and what he doesn't know or can't do re Triumphs ain't worth squat. He runs his business out of his home garage / workshop but has all the tools. Very reasonably priced too, so if you need his contact details drop me a PM.
What a coincidence my mate today told me he'd put his outboard motor down on the wrong side this weekend ,when he needed to use it on his tender all the oil had disappeared (into the bore). So he filled his oil tank up again and started it ,it did start but was making enough smoke to hide the bismark (got that from Julien Ryder) . I've told him to take the plug out ,pour some petrol in and turn the motor over a dozen times, that'll get rid of the excess oil .
Is it a 97 - 01 and did you drop it on it's left side? bloke with 13K posts could be right on this occasion :- '98 T509 White smoke after light drop - Triumph Forum: Triumph Rat Motorcycle Forums
A TR5? You mean the Triumph car TR5? The car with a body like a packet of cornflakes and no chassis? Yiou should have had the real man's version:wink:........either the TR4A or the TR4......I had both, chassis like a railway line..... AL
My 4T lawn mower smokes like hell for at least an hour when I have been using it on a 30 degree bank or steeper. AL PS....and it uses a lot of oil anyway.................guess where the sump oil from the 750 SS gets used? ................that's it...I paint my workshop with it . ........and run my lawn mowers on it.
