[Khecari]

I'm not really sure if I've got one issue here or several.

I've got a 2007 Bullet 500 Iron Barrel.  It developed an oil leak from the oil filter cover and lost enough oil to not even register on the dipstick.  I swapped out a new o-ring which solved the leak, and put new oil in to bring the level back up.  After running the engine for a moment I checked the level and found the oil looking whitish and foamy.  I thought perhaps this was simply from the new oil working its way through the filter and it would pass, so I ran the engine a bit longer, whereupon it died, and wouldn't start up again, and had black smoke coming out the exhaust when it turned over.

I just bought it a few weeks ago (about 900 miles on it).  I'm not sure what kind of oil it had in it before, from the dealer.  I put in 20w50 from AutoZone.  Thoughts?

[mrunderhill1975a]

I could be several things.  Black smoke is usually rich mixture.  More information needed.  Pull the spark plug, how does it look, oily, white, black, brown, tan?

Check the oil flow, by loosening the quill bolt a few turns, kick the engine over and see if oil dribbles out of the quill. 

Open the tappet cover, kick the engine over, see if oil drips from the head.

Open the filter cover, see if there are any shiny  metal bits in the  filter.

Report back with your findings.

[High On Octane]

Foamy oil is the result of water being in the oil.  The question is how did water get in the oil of an air cooled bike?   

Scottie

[Ice]

Condensation. It happens in mine even in the summer.

 20° F  temperature shifts, high humidity or dampness, short runs where the oil does not get up to operating temperature, they all contribute to condensation.

 Get enough condensation going on and it may precipitate out of the oil and form water in the bottom of the sump.

[D the D]

Condensation. It happens in mine even in the summer.

 20° F  temperature shifts, high humidity or dampness, short runs where the oil does not get up to operating temperature, they all contribute to condensation.

 Get enough condensation going on and it may precipitate out of the oil and form water in the bottom of the sump.

Yes, I have this problem in the spring in the DC/Chesapeake Bay area.  Humidity will form mayonnaise in the oil can and, in severe conditions, in the oil tank.  Short rides make it worse as the oil doesn't get hot enough to evaporate the water out to the atmosphere.
You desert and dry climate guys probably never see it.

[Khecari]

The spark plug is black, no crud or build-up.  It's gapped at .27 though.  My manual says .5 - .6; Snidal says .46 - .5.  Could this be part of the issue?

Working on the other things - oil flow etc, a bit later.  I'll report back.

Thanks for the help.

[Khecari]

Two more things to report. 

The oil pressure seems fine, per quill bolt test.

When I checked the oil this morning, there were no signs of the foaminess I'd seen last night.  I'm a far cry from an expert here but I feel like the foam looked more like minute air bubbles than moisture.  Is it possible I just had air worked into the oil?  I'd just put in quite a bit of new oil due to the oil leak that had started this whole situation.

[Khecari]

Okay, third of the four tests done.  I opened the tappet cover and kicked the engine over a few times.  I'm frankly not sure what I'm meant to be looking for here, as far as oil dripping from the head.  What I did see is first, the pushrod adjustors are well lubricated, and second, as the engine turned over, there was a bit of spurting up of oil from two holes located on either side of a little fin at the center bottom inside the tappet cover.

I didn't see any signs of the black smoke I saw last night.  At this point the real issue is that I can't get the engine to run.  It'll turn over fine, occasionally it'll fire three or four times, but it just won't take hold.

[mrunderhill1975a]

Ok, it sounds like no major damage from lack of oil.  To get the engine to run you need compression, spark, correct fuel to air 14:1 mix, correct timing.   So, start with a fully charged battery. Next, make sure kill switch is in run position. Next see if you have a good spark, take out the plug, ground it to the head, ignition on, crank, is there a good spark?
If so, check compression, stand on the kick start, if you can put your weight of an adult man on the kick lever without pushing past the compression stroke, you have enough compression.
Next,fuel mix, if bike stored any length of time with ethanol fuel, drain it get some new fuel. Check for clogged fuel screen/filter, does the fuel drain from tap easily?  Remove the float bowl, check for sludge/varnish in the idle. main jet, and needle jet (alcohol fuel is very susceptible to clogged jets). If jets are  clogged, soak in carb cleaner.

If everything is clean, the only thing left is timing.  Check that the points open freely, and arenot burned.  If points ok, get a timing tool for to get TDC, get a continuity light, the timing light should illuminate when the piston is 0.8 mm BTDC.

If you do that , the engine should start.
My bet is on a dirty carb, clogged fuel screen, plugged fuel cap vent, weak battery, timing off, burned points.

[Khecari]

Cool, I'll look into that.  What do you think about the spark plug gap?  I found a .27 gap, looks like I should widen that to .5 or so?

[mrunderhill1975a]

I keep my plug gap at about 0.5 mm and the max point gap at 0.015 inch.

[Khecari]

So there's a clear spark when I pull the plug to check.  I'll open up the gap a bit though to see if that helps.  I can stand on the kick lever on the compression stroke though it gives if I drop my weight onto it a bit.  I weigh about 190 though so my guess is compression is fine.  I'll check the fuel situation tomorrow.  I haven't checked the point gap though I did pull the cap off to see that the points are at least moving okay.

[D the D]

Your plug gap is already big enough!
.5mm which is not quite .20 inch.  Opt for .20 inch if you don't have metric gauges.
If the plug is .27 inch, that's almost .7mm which is a bit large.  I run .25 inch gap, but I have a Bosch performance coil and electronic ignition.  It might be a little too wide on a stock points ignition.

[Arizoni]

I think D the D meant to say .020 inch and .025 inch rather than .20 inch and .25 inch.

Those pesky little decimal points and 0's keep moving around on him.

[ace.cafe]

Regarding the aerated oil, it comes from the way the Bullet's dry-sump oiling system works.
The return pump is always rated at a higher flow capacity than the feed pump, in all dry sump oiling systems. This is so that the return pump can clear the oil out of the sump under all conditions, including clearing a wet-sumped condition.
As a result, the return pump will ALWAYS be pumping some air along with the oil, because it is pumping more than the oil that the feed pump is supplying to the crank. The rest will be air, and the result is aerated oil. These are double-acting positive displacement plunger pumps.

There will be only slight evidence of oil running down the pushrod tunnels when idling. You have to look closely to see any. The oil surging up thru those little holes next to the tappets is because the large heads of our mushroom tappets are right under there in the  timing chest, and they might push oil up thru those holes as they move up and down.

Regarding the gaps, I also like .025", and a points gap of .015", and I have been using those gaps on various Lucas ignition products for at least 40 years, including many racing applications. I agree that you should have a good coil, such as a properly-spec'd Bosch Blue Coil.

[Khecari]

Right - I should've specified.  I meant the spark plug gap is at .27 mm.  While we're on it, what's a good gap (in mm) for points?

Thanks for heads-up on the aerated oil, & clarification on the oil running down the pushrod tunnels.  I can't actually keep it idling right now to check that but I don't any longer think oil's the issue.

[D the D]

I think D the D meant to say .020 inch and .025 inch rather than .20 inch and .25 inch.

Those pesky little decimal points and 0's keep moving around on him.

Ya caught me! 

ACE said it: Good Point Gap is .015 inch or about .38mm

[High On Octane]

From everything you've described it sounds like you have a serious carb issue.  I think if buy a rebuild kit and tear that thing apart.

Scottie

[Khecari]

As far as I can tell, fuel delivery is fine.  The battery's pretty low by now though.  Would that keep it from starting, even if I'm using the kick lever?

[High On Octane]

If you were blowing black smoke your carb was spitting out too much fuel and if you can't even get it too idle, but spark and timing check out, then it has to be a fuel problem.  You said the bike sat for a few years, it's very common for fuel to turn to sludge inside the carb and block the passages and contaminate fresh fuel.  Did you actually disassemble the carb?  Or are you just assuming there isn't a fuel problem?

Scottie

[Khecari]

You're right, I didn't disassemble the carb.  But I've put a hundred fifty miles or so on it since purchase; it was running fine up until last week, when I parked it to wait on the o-ring for the oil leak.  It was as soon as I swapped out the o-ring and topped the oil up that I had this problem.

[Arizoni]

The problem with the black smoke may have been there for a long time and just went unnoticed.
More than one person has ignored an indication of a problem until they actually do some work on their bike.  Then they notice all sorts of stuff while they are making sure their fixes are working.

A partially blocked air filter can also make the carb run rich but seeing as how it sit for a long time without being used there is a good chance the others are right.  Some varnish/crud might be in the fuel circuits.

I think before tearing things apart I would go buy some Chevron Techron and dump some of it into the fuel tank.
After a few good long rides you might see your problem disappear.

[mrunderhill1975a]

Is your enricher/choke stuck in the on position?

[Khecari]

No, I did check that.  At the moment I'm just letting the battery charge up.

[Khecari]

Report from this morning's work:

I didn't fully deconstruct the carburetor.  I did pull the bottom plug off and drain of the gas in the float bowl.  There was a tiny bit of sediment - a couple specks of rust or something.  Then I pulled off the float bowl, which looked clean, as did the floats and everything else I could see with the bowl off.  No sediment, definitely no gunk.  I pulled off the air filter (which looked clean) and peered in the side of the carb.  The action of the throttle looked fine.  I ran some gas into a jar with the bowl off, and it came through clean.  That's as much as I felt able to do with the carburetor. 

It might be a compression problem.  I tried standing on the lever a few times again in the compression cycle.  Mostly it'd hold for a second then give way as my full weight settled onto it.  I weight about 190.

Anyway I got a lot more familiar with the bike but can't figure anything out so I'm ready to tow it to a mechanic.  The idea of course is to learn to do all the work on it myself but this is a bit too much too soon and I reckon I'm in over my head.

Cheers and thanks to everyone for their help.

[mrunderhill1975a]

Get a can of carb cleaner, spray it into the main jet and the idle jet.  Varnish can built up in the jet that you would not see unless you unscrew these jets and look through them.  The needle jet can collect slime that  would collect in the multiple opening in the needle jet. 

[Khecari]

For those of you who've been following this saga.  Apparently the cylinder's been lathed, compression's down to 30 lbs or so.  I'm not exactly sure how this happened; when I parked it (after discovering the oil leak) it had compression, now it doesn't.  I mean I tried turning the engine over a few dozen times but it wasn't ever running.  In any case, now I'm trying to figure out if it's just replacing the cylinder or if there's other damage from the lathed bits of metal circulating the engine.  Clearly I must've discovered the oil leak too late and so am at fault here.  Still it's frustrating to have this to deal with after only driving it for a week or so after purchase.

[ERC]

I'd put it aside and go for a rebuild this winter. Get ahold of ACE to get something to make it worthwhile. You will spend some dough on it but when your done you'll love it.  ERC

[Arizoni]

Are you sure the compression release isn't open?
Are the rocker arms moving when you kick the engine over?  (A broken valve spring or stuck rocker arm could be holding a valve open.)

I guess my reason for asking is if your getting 30 psi compression (with the carb held wide open while you kick) is almost so low that even if the rings were toast they would produce more than that.

[Blltrdr]

Remove the spark plug and squirt a little oil int the cylinder. See if this raises your compression. You can try to manually turn the stem on the compression release valve. This might knock off any carbon bits that might be keeping it open just enough to give you compression problems. You may need to remove the compression release and inspect it more thoroughly if you find it suspect. If you try these two things and still have problems then you will want to do what Arizoni suggested. You should also check your valve adjustment.

[D the D]

Try what bill said.  Mine stuck shortly after I got it.  I had to clean the Comp Release valve and lube the cable.  The Comp Release valve takes a 21mm wrench to unscrew from the head.
Just use your fingers to see if you can push it up and down.  It may be stuck down/open.

[Khecari]

I'm getting increasingly skeptical of the diagnosis.  When I parked it to fix the oil leak, it had compression - it may have been already low but it was certainly running.  I can't see any way that it could lose that much compression while not running.  Certainly not lose compression via lathing the cylinder.  Also before parking I was running it on low oil but it had maybe a liter of oil in it - could that have been low enough to allow lathing of the cylinder?

[High On Octane]

Ummmm...  Did you read all the previous posts?     It's a good possibility that the decompression valve is stuck open.  You need to look at it.  And put in a new NGK spark plug too.

Scottie

[Khecari]

Sorry - I was unclear.  I meant I was skeptical of the "lathed cylinder" diagnosis, which came from the guy at the place where I had it towed.  I did read the posts about the decompression valve, which sounds a lot more plausible to me.  He did say he checked that but we'll see.  I'm headed down there today to look at it with him. 

[High On Octane]

Not to discredit ANY mechanic, but Enfileds are a breed of their own.  I've been turning wrenches for 17 years on all kinds of cars, bikes, lawn mowers, tractors and other farm equipment, and my Enfield has stumped me a few times and without the help of this forum (Brother ERC in particular) I may not have ever got the bike running.  At least, not as fast as I did.  What I'm getting at is if YOUR mechanic hasn't ever worked on an RE, he may not have a clue to what he is doing with YOUR bike (Enfield) and just making random assumptions based on what knowledge he has of other bikes.  If this is the case, at this point, you're probably more aware of what the actual problem might be more than your mechanic.  Just saying.

Scottie

[ERC]

Your giving me a big head Scotty.     ERC