*Pop* White smoke, stalls when put in gear.

When I say blown head gasket, I don't mean BOOM. I mean the early stages. As pressure builds, water is forced into the cylinders through the smallest imperfection/weak spot. It could proceed to get worse.

I had a similar problem on my Toyota. Water out of the block rather than in the cylinders/oil, but the principal is the same. At first it was just a tiny bit of seepage. I didn't think much of it till one day it over heated really bad. Poped the hood and "Thar She Blows!!!!" granted it was 8 months later, dead of summer, and me with no $ to fix it. Another 6 mo later I could afford to have it fixed, buuuuutttt...... now I have tons of lower engine problems because of it. Been driving it that way for 2 years now. Just waiting for the motor to go BOOM and then I'll replace it. (gathering parts now, but really could care less about the cage)

I tend to look at worst case. That way if it does turn out to be worst case, then I'm prepared for it.

 

Yeah but if its blowing white smoke all the time water is entering the cylinder somehow. That said the OP hasn’t given all the details, just a couple of panicky snippets and now we are trying to second guess what comes next... I guess if we don’t hear back it was just the engine warming up.

 

From what I could see, there was only smoke (with a blueish tinge) as the engine was heating up.
I didn't let the temperature run past halfway though so the fan didn't turn on (it turns on when temp hits about 3/4 right?)
I'm too scared to let it run up to 3/4, due to the possibility of burning something out.

When I was riding, the temp was down in the normal range (about 1/6), and I couldn't see any smoke in the mirror. Didn't notice much smoke when I was stuck at lights either, but then again, I couldn't see much.

The bike is at a mechanics, so I guess I'll have to wait to see him again before I get an update.

 

Burning oil would be rings or valve-stem seals.

 

Do the smell test - If its burning that much oil that you can see smoke, you will be able to smell it quite strongly, as you can smell oil burning before its bad enough to see it.

 

Don’t worry about letting your bike get to 3/4 on the temp gauge. If it gets to the red, time to shut it down.

Depending if you are in the shade or direct sunlight a small amount of black smoke can look blue. I would say its just running slightly rich a start up. Maybe just the choke or the fact the cold engine doesn’t burn fuel as efficiently. As dave said you can defiantly tell be the smell.

Quite frankly I don’t think you have much to worry about.

 

If that's the case, then it shouldn't be burning oil, as I could only smell it when the smoke was blowing heaps.


Thanks for the help/hints/tips guys.. from what I understand I *shouldn't* have too much to worry about. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->