white oily residue in air box?

[gaz@nc23]

hi all i was taking apart my air box 2nite to find out if i was getting full choke as im having trouble starting my bike, n well it goes to the stop so i asume that means i am.

anyway the reason im posting is when i got in there i noticed a white oily residue (like water in the oil) in the top left corner of the bottom half of the airbox, now i had a further look n i found that there is a pipe at the bottom of this hole that goes into the top of the engine.

so my question is why would i be getting such oily residue? n what is the purpose of the pipe?

oh n any other ideas on my starting problem would be appreciated...

thanx gaz

[cbr-gam]

Well that pipe is a breather pipe for the engine. You will notice that youll have one on your car aswell.

As for the white substance without further investigation. id say that your head gasket may have gone. This would explain why you have trouble starting it aswell.

[cbr400_mad]

Hi gaz

This is the same problem i have with my cbr that i got back, white/creamy goo in teh air box and wont start due to low compression etc.

Have a look in you oil and see if it looks black or a bit grey and if its grey etc it will also be quite thick etc.

If this is the case then the head gasket has gone,

New engine time

Michael

[tanuki]

Well that pipe is a breather pipe for the engine. You will notice that youll have one on your car aswell.

As for the white substance without further investigation. id say that your head gasket may have gone. This would explain why you have trouble starting it aswell.

I think head gasket may be a bit extreme....as stated there is a cam cover breather that vents into the airbox so there is the explanation of the small amount of oil, mix this oil with a litttle water and get get slimy white gunky stuff, the water could have got in there a number of ways...dodgy seal on the airbox or if at some pint you have ridden through some intense rain....any number of reasons.

the way to check if you have a more serious problem is have a look for the same gunky white stuff around the oil filler cap.

[leopard_pagan]

or drain the oil and put a fresh 4 ltrs in.. no harm in fresh oil + you get to see what the old stuff is doing..

i have white gunk in my air box... i am not worried about it.

[scratchin]

+1 with leopard fresh oil and check compression

[wullvfr]

if you are worried about it check the condition of your oil and see

the sludgy stuff is what's known as emulsification,if it was the head gasket that was causing it then there should be signs of sludgy stuff in and around the oil cap and excessive smoke at the exhaust depending on how bad the gasket was.


william

[Sligeach]

however, the white residue can be due to not warming the bike up fully (i.e. doing short journeys all the time)
go for an hour long spin and see if that makes it dissapear. if it does, no worries.
if it doesnt, well then, you may have trouble.
bikes will always thank you for new oil, if tight for money, just buy halfords M/C oil

[gaz@nc23]

hi all and thanks for the gud gen,
ive had a look at the oil filler cap and there is a small trace of the white stuff, but not much. however i do often do a short 3 mile run to work on the bike. now u mention the short journey thing i did have a similar thing with my car. i took it out for a long run the other day n there was no white stuff so hopefully its nothing serious.

the oil is only about 1000miles old as my brother did a oil change on it before i got it from his mate as it was sorn for 2 years.

theres a small amount of white smoke at start up it looks similar to what you'd get on a cold day. oh n i had a look at the oil through the oil filler cap hole n it looked alrite.

so it seems ive got some of the things n not some of the others, i guess im gonna have to change the oil n have a look.

is there anywere i can view the coolant to check if its going the othere way, coz you cant see it in the resevoir?

thanx again gaz