Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum

Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet with the UCE engine => Topic started by: Fjell on October 24, 2009, 10:36:35 pm

Title: Overheated C5?
Post by: Fjell on October 24, 2009, 10:36:35 pm
I bought my C5 two weeks ago and it has been running like a charm.  Normally I ride to work and around town under 60 mph.  At 750 mi. on the bike, I took it up to 75 mph on the freeway as a test before riding with some friends.  After a ten-minute, 65-degree freeway hop, I pulled to a stop and noticed smoke.  A considerable amount of oil had come through the air intake and was dripping down onto the exhaust.

The oil had turned black so I just changed it out again, which I was planning on anyways.  The old filter was fine and the mesh screen had a moderate amount of debris.  I had the 300 mi. oil change done at Harley because I was on the road.  They did not clean the mesh screen and I suspect they overfilled the oil since I bought 3 qts.

Is the black oil just a symptom of overfilling and oil going somewhere it's not supposed to?  From other comments, it doesn't seem like 10 minutes at 75 mph should cause an overheat.
Title: Re: Overheated C5?
Post by: Vince on October 24, 2009, 11:07:50 pm
     The smoke is probably just excess oil that is pumping out onto hot engine parts. HOWEVER, there is some possibility of other more serious issues. You are pushing too hard for the mileage you have accumulated. When you are in the 1,000(minimum) to 1,500 range (much better) you can start to work up to these kind of speeds. Don't go from break in to maximum use with no transition. Spend the 1,500 to 2,000 mile period by going up an extra 5MPH, then backing off. You can now go on longer trips so as to work up towards longer duration runs.
     The first step is to dump the oil and refill with the proper amount of good oil. Clean the bike and start riding normally again. Monitor the situation. If it seem Ok, great. If you still have issues you should see your dealer.
Title: Re: Overheated C5?
Post by: hocko on October 25, 2009, 10:36:34 pm
I had the same problem, due to inexperience, I put in too much oil at the first change, it came up through the crankcase breather hose into the air filter and from there proceeded to coat the entire rear end of the bike, looked like the bloody thing was on fire there was that much smoke from the exhaust . Lesson learnt.  :o

As Vince has said, just dump the oil and start again. I did that with mine and instead of the 2.75 litres as per the manual, I have level right at 1.75 litres, big difference !!.
(4.54 litres to the imperial gallon).

If you are still concerned you can attached a flexible clear fuel hose from the outlet of the air filter  and run it out of harms way with zip ties, just to give you peace of mind.
I've just covered 1100 kms and have only had it up to 100 kmph (60 mph) a couple of times on the highway for about 20 miles since reaching 1000 kms (600 miles).

Cheers