My 1980 P200 has been having trouble recently burning oil on startup ( What is it trying to tell me? ) but I have reduced the problem somewhat by replacing all the gaskets. I have not been able to ride much since I did that but it doesn't look like it has solved the problem.
Now I have another issue that may or may not be related to the smoke problem.
The scoot recently started leaking oil from someplace on the clutch side. I was hoping for something simple like a bad clutch cover seal, but no such luck. After cleaning everything and coating it all with talcum powder I found that oil is leaking from the exhaust box. There are pinholes on the side and the bottom as well as a leak around the mounting bracket. I suppose I could plug the holes with something (JB Weld?) but I'm thinking that that would simply force the oil out through the tail pipe.
The real question though is "How did the oil get into the exhaust in the first place?" Would that be loose rings? The scoot has autolube that seems to be working properly but could oil seep past the rings overnight and into the exhaust and could that be the reason that I get clouds of blue smoke when I start up in the morning? Is there any other way oil could get into the exhaust?
I have tried disconnecting the oil line overnight and then reconnecting it in the morning but I still get blue smoke. I am wondering if that could be from residual oil in the system before I disconnected the oil line. By disconnecting the oil line overnight I may be reducing the amount of oil (blue smoke) but I can't tell.
To make things even more confounding, the engine mounting bolt is leaking. No, of course the bolt isn't actually leaking oil, but oil IS puddling around the mounting bolt nut and then dripping down onto the floorboard but I can't find the source... even with talcum powder.
Any thoughts from the forum on:
How oil could get into the exhaust box?
If patching the pinhole leaks would help?
Could oil in the exhaust box be the source of my morning smoke?
Does disconnecting the oil line overnight tell me anything?
Why there is oil around the nut on engine mounting bolt?