It's a blown head gasket isn't it?
 

Long story that I'll try to make as brief as I can.

888 started to puff out white 'smoke' shortly after being started up. Smoke was puffing out of the vertical header to collector joint, so tightened it up and it stopped.

Next time it started, did it again - although not from the exhaust joint this time, generally from round the oil breather. Looked like there was evidence of oil misting and hose around the oil breather joint a bit perished/split so cut 10cm off and rejoined.

Got a paddock stand (at last) and then noticed that the oil level was half way between the full mark and the top of the sight glass - oil hadn't been touched since the bike was serviced when I bought it 3000 miles ago. I've been checking it as best I can but usually by way of it reading a bit low when on the stand - so it's been overfilled.

Changed the oil filter and changed the oil for 3.5 litres of 15/50 fully synthetic and the smoking all but stopped (but haven't had chance to take it for a good run). I had a theory that it was breathing in oil fumes from an overpressurised crankcase hence the 'smoke' and the reason that the zorsts look a bit sooty.

Left it ticking over yesterday to warm up and the exhausts started to look a bit 'smokey' after a few minutes (actually more like the condensation you get an a cold day than smoke) but at least it's only coming out of the exhausts now - not from the general header/oil breather area.

However, as it got up to near 80 degrees and the thermostat opened, it started to gush coolant from the expansion tank. Now I did overfill the expansion tank by a mere smidgeroo, but it seems to me that the coolant system is being over-pressurised.

I think I've got (or had) two problems that both give similar results.

1) Overfilled oil from previous service leading to puffing out of the oil breather and putting a fine mist over everything nearby due to the slightly perished hose - in turn creating smoke as it burned off (a tiny little bit of oil creates a lot of smoke and there wasn't that much smoke to start with - just wispy stuff that lasted a few minutes)

2) Potentially a blown head gasket - unless anybody has an easier explanation

Hi Jools, was there any water in the oil or oil in the water if there was then it's a blown head gasket. when the bike is on the paddock stand the oil leval will look high as the stand tips the bike forward.

Jools. if you took out one of the spark plugs and them fired her up, apart from sounding a bit rough you may see "water" coming out of the plug hole if the gasket has gone . Or disconnect the plug lead fire her up ,then remove the plug to see if any residue is presant. I hope neither is the case and its just "overfill" 4D

See this is what I love about this site, one minute you can be olympic sword fencing in the verbal arena for the pure fun of it, then next minute you can have your motor cycling knowledge expanded by you fine Gentleman.
I bless you one and all.
As you may gather, I did not know that!

Every blown head gasket that i have experienced has pumped most of the water out of the cooling system, through the overflow.
Diesels are the most spectacular - its a bit like mt. etna erupting under the bonnet, sending orrible brown stuff all over the place.
I shouldn't say this, but i've not had one go on a bike before, i imagine the result is similar though.
Look for the easy fix first, you'll know when it has really gone.

if it has not gone badly you wont get oil in to the water as there is enough pressure to pump air into the water system on the copression stroke but not enough to suck the water in
if it smokes worse when you first start it, it could well be head gasket as the water can seep in when the engine is idle

I have heard that the head gaskets can go on 888s. At least you can get the rear head off without taking the engine out.
Get it fixed, if you keep running it the head warps and causes real damage.

Check your compression if you can before you pull it all apart.
Griff

Have to say it sounds very simular to what happened to my 851 when the head gasket went. Have to say it was cheap and easy to replace.

Hi, It's possible to remove both the complete top ends, with the motor still in the frame.

Steve

if I was you Jools I would give nelly a ring, I'm sure he wuoldn't mind.

Thanks for all the replies guys...I still think that the oil was overfilled from when I bought it, cos although it's on a paddock stand, the path the bike stands on is on a slope...so when it's on the stand the bike is actually on the level. I'll start it up tomorrow and see if the overflow happens again now that the tiny bit of overfilling the header tank caused it to spit coolant out. I will try whipping the spark plugs out as well to see if there is water getting into the bores.

One thing i do know is that if it is a head gasket the oilway bit of it hasn't blown because there was no water in the oil and there is no oil in the water.

Plenty of time to sort it...the 888 goes on SORN for the winter next week and the ST comes out to play

Jools it could just be condensation,

Aah,its fooked mate.
Tell ya wot,..bring it 'round here,....I'll take off yer hands.

Jools, did you get this problem bottomed out ?? if so would you enlighten the masses ?
cheers

Neil

Hi Jools
Had the similar problem not long ago and it was a case of over filling the coolant it was spraying all over the rear.
Have you tried bleeding air out of all the bleed points?
Get a compression tester and plug in to each cylinder and compare with the manual a big difference between cylinders will show up allow for some reduction due to wear but they should be close, but be carefull as it could have poor readings due to worn rings but this normally causes crankcase over pressure and oil blowing out the breather.
ian
just looked through my Ducati Workshop manual and cant find the psi settings for each cylinder as someone's already said Nelly's your best bet.

Well, I did suss out what was wrong and it's quite alarming....but not in an expensive way.

Since it's been laid up for winter, I've been turning it over every couple of weeks to make sure the belts don't get set in one position. Since the fairings are off and in bubble wrap up my loft it's been easy to use Nelly's trick of disconnecting the crank sensor and turning it over until the oil light goes out.

One day, the lure of hearing it start got too much, so I plugged the sensor in again and tried firing it up....turned over a bit sluggish, but....nothing. Gave the battery another charge and it turned over faster but...nothing.

OK, try the age old checks for fuel, sparks etc...but I didn't need to look far, I popped the fuel cap and found the tank was bone dry. I had put it to bed with about a litre in the tank so I was suprised to find it had all gone in a month or so. Evaporation? wouldn't think so....

Anyhow, I sploshed a little fuel in, the pump primed and the old girl started at the first prod of the starter. I warmed it up...no smoke...no drama...nothing. Kept it running until it was good and warm and the fan cut in. No problems at all. Then I got to wondering why the fuel had run dry and started checking for leaks. Sure enough, one of the hoses is weeping....ever so slowly (even with the pump going it's about one drip every 10 minutes). That would explain why the bike always smells as if it's just come back from a run...funnily enough it's not a raw petrol smell but more like the mix of hot oil and hot brakes. Anyway, I reckon what was happening was that there was a very slow drip of petrol when the bike was standing that splashed off the rear of the crankcase onto the surrounding bits, a real slow seep so that there really wasn't any petrol pouring out and not so much as to soak the area or make it wet...just enough so that all the volatile stuff evaporated leaving a bit of residue to burn off.

Fixed now....