Fried

[HJH]

Here in the frozen north, I decided to start the GZ and run it for a while on this 45 degree day to charge the battery. It started, I got it to a smooth idle, turned up the throttle knob a little, and came inside. I heard silence about 30 minutes later and the bike was not only off, it was fried. I presume it quit getting oil, and got so hot the side cases turned a nice brass color before it quit. It just smells burned, so I presume the engine is pretty much junk. It's not a good day.

[mrlmd1]

Did you check the oil level? Is there oil in it?
Does the engine turn over or is it seized? Did you try to restart it after it cooled off?

How long do you think it was running at (?) fast idle or whatever rpm before it shut off? Not a good idea to leave it like that, little cooling to the engine with no air flow around it when it's running fast.

Did you ever get the battery charged?
That's not a good way to do that either, next time get a battery charger or tender.

Not enough info yet to know what happened to your engine or what kind of damage you may have done.

[HJH]

The engine turns over when I push it, but there's not much life in the battery, so it probably didn't run very long. There is no escaping that burnt oil odor, though, so I presume the damage is more than just the engine if it got hot enough to change the color of the side cases. I drained out the proper amount of oil, which was changed when I last rode the bike in November.
As for running the engine not being a good way to beef up the charge on the battery, this is my 20th motorcycle, the 15th with a battery, 8 without radiators, and running them has been a good way to keep the battery charged on all but this one. Particularly so on a day that never got above 45 degrees, with the wind blowing. The engine shouldn't self-destruct because it was idling unless it isn't getting oil to the right spots.

[alantf]

Originally Posted by HJH

As for running the engine not being a good way to beef up the charge on the battery, this is my 20th motorcycle, the 15th with a battery, 8 without radiators, and running them has been a good way to keep the battery charged on all but this one.

Yes, but they weren't GZs! The charging system is so puny, it just won't happen. The handbook says to charge at 0.7Amp for 5-10 hours, & this is good advice. Why run the bike for ½ hour (with the cost of fuel!) & gain not very much in the way of a full charge (plus risking the damage to the bike due to lack of airflow) when you can get the correct tender/charger for around $15-20? Sounds a bit redneck to me.

[jonathan180iq]

Having had so many bikes in your past, you have some experience to let you know what's what...

You said you drained the oil and the right amount came out. If you think this thing is fried anyway, why not pull some things apart and see what's going on?

I don't know what year bike this is or how many miles are on it, but the oil pump system is pretty simple and this might be something you can take up with Suzuki because it almost has to be a pump failure. Unless, of course, the bike has 1,000,000 miles and no one ever changed the oil and all passageways were blocked with a black gummy substance, causing the equivalent of a massive GZ coronary.

http://www.ronayers.com/Fiche/TypeID/26 ... /OIL_PUMP_

[mrlmd1]

Charge up the battery on a battery charger, see if the engine starts and runs.
You said you drained the old oil out - what did it look like and smell like?
Put in new oil, take it out for a short ride, see if it makes any funny noises and performs OK.
Can you post any pics of what it looks like?
Like Jonathan said, you may need a new oil pump or at least look at the one in the bike. I don't know how to test the old one to see if it's functioning other than looking at it.

[blaine]

If the engine got that hot to change the color of the cases,than the rings,valves,and internal seals are shot.But it will be good to investigate to see if it ran dry of oil,or overheated.If I had to make a guess I would say that it stopped pumping oil. :??:

[alanmcorcoran]

Captain Hindsight here.

Not sure this adds anything to the conversation, but I've run my GZ in the garage for 10-15 minutes, maybe longer (and it rarely gets below 45 out here) without the engine overheating. I have a battery charger - I was running mine to clean out the carburetor. 30 minutes could very well be a lot more traumatic, I'm no expert.

Also, with regard to prolonged stationary running of air cooled bikes, Yamaha definitely advises against this for the Stratoliner. It's got a much bigger engine of course, and the thing gets real hot, real fast.

Sorry for your loss. On the bright side, now you have a good excuse to upgrade to something with a little more oomph.

[mrlmd1]

So what ever happened here? Any followup or resolution?