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Smoke from Under Heat Shield

Eldo1400

Cruisin' Guzzisti
Joined
Apr 7, 2017
Messages
145
Location
Los A
I've had my Eldorado in storage for about 9 months (family issues on East Coast, travel). I went to fire it up today. Stinky exhaust (eye-watering, like way rich), then smoke coming from under the exhaust heat shield on the "driver's side", right near where the footboard is.

Had no time or tools. Is that about where the O2 sensor plugs in? Was thinking maybe the wire was burning or something.

Otherwise the bike fired up on second hit and ran fine. Have any of you had a 1400 in storage long-term? Any specific issues to look for? I treated the gas a few times but other than that it's just been sitting. Do injectors get stuck, do fuel filters clog, air box issues etc etc???? It's been stored inside under a cover, temp controlled, don't see any insect nests or anything like that.
 
I've stored Cali 1400 Customs for long periods, at least as long as you have.

"Driver's side" will depend on which country you drive a car on, but the left exhaust might have collected a bit of oil seeping from somewhere.

I'd just ride it! :party:
 
Wrote in haste, sorry. Meant the right side. (don't know why I said driver's side anyway lol).

I was thinking of just riding but thought, 'better see if there are any issues to sort out first'. I've actually never stored an FI bike, only carb bikes. Never stored anything in the ethanol era, either.
 
I never had any trouble storing bikes with E10 fuel in California. There was a period when Guzzi didn't use fuel rated rubber hose for the internal fuel pump, but I would guess this shouldn't happen in enlightened times.

More than likely something has made its way onto the pipes when in storage. You should be able to see some residue after it had burnt off. Clean it up, and watch for it to reappear?
 
I never had any trouble storing bikes with E10 fuel in California. There was a period when Guzzi didn't use fuel rated rubber hose for the internal fuel pump, but I would guess this shouldn't happen in enlightened times.

More than likely something has made its way onto the pipes when in storage. You should be able to see some residue after it had burnt off. Clean it up, and watch for it to reappear?

+1 to that. Only time I've seen smoke on my Audace is when I've adjusted valves and not correctly tightened the 4 bolts on the head cover. After a few minutes of warming up time, oil then leaked past the seal and dropped right onto exhaust - much to the amusement of other drivers as we sat at lights together - I could almost hear them laughing out loud "Italian - what do you expect"
 
"More than likely something has made its way onto the pipes when in storage. You should be able to see some residue after it had burnt off. Clean it up, and watch for it to reappear?"

Could be. The smoke was on the outside, though. No smoke from the inside. The bike ran great, so I'm sure I'm being a weenie here.

Guys I should be more precise: it was like a little volcano from under the heat shield, as if there was something burning underneath it.

If you guys haven't run into problems storing these bikes with gasahol, then I will just take it for a long ride, bringing my AAA card and a fully charged phone lol. (I did treat the gas twice, so hopefully there's not crud at the bottom of the tank.)
 
It was a bit slow turning over at first, but it started right up. Didn't make too much noise. Once warmed up, the engine revved freely to 3 or so without breaking up. I ran it for a good 20 minutes so if gas was bad or something was leaking I'd think the smoke would have gotten worse.
 
Follow up:

Short answer, if you store the bike but touch up with finishing solution be careful not to spray directly on the heat shields because it you're not riding it the stuff accumulates and forms a flammable gunk. Ha ha.

So, I finally pulled the shield and that's what I found. The reason the bike ran fine is because nothing was wrong with it. I had been pulling the cover and touching up. For some reason it gets really dusty despite my (quite good) cover from my former Harley Road King in use.
 
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