Bandit 1200 Engine problem | GTAMotorcycle.com

Bandit 1200 Engine problem

rureddy

rureddy

Well-known member
I have an '01 1200 and have had it for 3 years. It did use more oil that I would have expected but ran really nice.

On Tuesday I fired it up and it ran like ****. After a couple minutes warming up, started to smoke real bad so I shut it off. Tried again today and it was worse. I have no idea why it went like this so fast but I guess its the problem some 2001 Bandits have. I don't know what to do know and don't know what the cost would be for a rebuild?? Or just sell it.

What do you guys think
 
how long has it been sitting?
was it stored properly?
what colour was the smoke?
 
I have been riding it all summer. There is mostly blue smoke and lots of it.

It only sat for 1 week.
 
well you said its using a lot of oil, so clearly its burning oil. you might have a bad piston ring(s)

pull your spark plugs and see which one is oil covered
 
Yes it uses about 1/2 ltr every1500 km or so but i have never seen smoke before. I have read that oil consumpsion is an issue for 2001 and 2002 Bandits. I too think a ring must be stuck or dropped but the bike ran perfect before i turned it off. Smokes worse than a 2 stroke.
 
If you decide to sell/part it out I am interested in the engine.
 
Last edited:
So I think the petcock is faulty or stuck floats. I smelled the oil and it reaks of gasoline..Need to pull the tank off and have a look.
 
rureddy said:
So I think the petcock is faulty or stuck floats. I smelled the oil and it reaks of gasoline..Need to pull the tank off and have a look.
Click to expand...
,

Drain tank and carbs change oil in case its full of fuel. Change spark plugs. Put in new fuel see how it runs. Also check coolant level before and after running. Squirt spray water onto header pipes to see if one is not running.
 
Coolant level? Where would you check that on an air/oil cooled bike? Don't mislead the poor guy, he has enough on his plate.
 
skapan said:
Coolant level? Where would you check that on an air/oil cooled bike? Don't mislead the poor guy, he has enough on his plate.
Click to expand...

No worries, the guy was trying to help and obviously doesnt know that Gen of Bandit is oil cooled. Appreciate all the suggestions though.

Petcock is fine but I suspect a stuck float on cyclinder 1 because the plug was a bit fowled. This is the least of my worries. Did a compression test and have 170lbs compression on 1 3 and 4. Cyclinder 2 is at about 120lbs, so probably a ring issue.
I now have to decide what to do with the bike. Rebuild the motor, buy another motor or sell the bike. I am not going to part it because that would take for ever sell everything...

Pretty disappointing day. :(
 
Last edited:
Confirm this by putting a little oil in the spark plug hole and trying the compression test again. If the compression pressure increases you've narrowed the problem down, if not keep looking.
 
Probably dumping the bike. that cyclinder took quite a few turnover even to get to that point where the other after one crank went to 100lb immediatly.

I have someone maybe doing a trade for the bike...back to old school bikes I go again
 
Sounds like the petcock failed and overfilled the carbs allowing raw gas into cyl on intake stroke. The gas pools on the piston and seeps past the rings into the crankcase. Then when you fire it there is no place for all that volume (oil/gas) mixture to go allowing the crankcase to breath (necessary) so the pressure pushed the oil into the airbox where it gets sucked in and burnt again (lots of smoke).
Stop running the bike until you disprove this as engine damage will occur.
Second and third guess is valve seal pushed off the guide allowing oil to drip down valve into combustion chamber. Next would be a broken ring.
 
As far as the petcock goes, there are three settings on it, run, res, and pri. If it was left on pri it primes the float bowls, allowing gas to run non stop with no vacuum shutoff.

I made that mistake on my 2001 GFS600s.

Fyi.
 
I pulled the plugs and one plug was crappy and likely a carb issue. Compression test showed 2nd cyclinder from the left sitting on the bike only has maybe 120 lbs compression. The crappy plug was not from cyclinder with weak compression.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom