Ok, new prolem, engine smoking !!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Hey guys I've been rebuilding my hawk with my father in law and just got it back together today. We had rolled the engine over without the spark plug wires on to lube up the cylinders first and then when we got it together we weren't getting fuel to the carbs. So in a brilliant moment my father in law put about 2 tablespoons of fuel in the carbs and tried to fire it. when it spit the fuel back from the carbs (duh!) He rolled it once more. This time the starter engaged but the engine wouldn't roll over. I pulled the plugs and of course they had fuel on them but I figured if the cylinder was fuel or vapor locked I could get it to roll over by pulling the plugs and rolling it again. However, I still get an engaged starter but no roll of the motor. Someone please tell me that he could not have permenantly damaged the engine in this way or I will make sure to injur him. I've been trying to get this bike on the road for almost a year now. Please any help or ideas would be apreciated.

Doesnt sound like he could have, unless for some reason it tried to fire and at some point bent a rod... ? I donno

Ok, I pulled the stator cover off and manually turned the engine over. Got the bike back together and it fired and ran for a second, had a hard time idleing (as expected at first) and then I shut it off to do some rat killing on fairing bolts and so on. When I went back to restart it, the damn thing will roll over but no fire. I noticed I have a valve cover gasket in the front that is leaking and hope that the earlier problem of no fuel and the new problem are the same. That is that it isn't building enough pressure to pressurize the tank and get enough fruel to the carbs. Well, gotta get to work I'll try again tomorrow evening and I hope to have my hawk back on the road next week :D

at least the father in law lives to screw up another day... i mean eh....

OKC: if I understand your post correctly, it sounds like you have two things going on.

When there is no fuel in the carbs the engine won't fire. The easiest way to do this is to push the kill switch and let the engine cycle over a few times. This creates enough pressure to fill the carbs float bowls. Do this then try to start her up.

Also before you start her up you should ideally take off the spark plugs and put in a small quantity of oil. Just a teaspoon. This helps to lube the engine, when there hasn't been any oil flow in a while. I mention this because it sounds like it has been a while sense she has been run.

Run a compression test to tell if you have a leak with the head gasket that you mentioned. This should tell you if you need to replace that gasket. This would also lead to rough running. Make sure you pull both spark plugs off when you do this.


You mentioned that she ran rough, did you swap out the CCT? If so did you check your cam timing?


Generally speaking - If you can still turn the engine by hand this is a good thing.

Give us some more info and perhaps we can help more.

I did put a bit of oil in the cylinders before firing her the first time, I've built enough small block ford engines to learn that trick, lol. I won't get a chance until tomorrow evening to work on her again but I can hear air leaving at the "valve cover? " not sure if that's what it's called on the hawk. I also see where the rubber gasket rolled a bit and created the leak so first things first I need to remove and use a bit of hi temp silicone to make sure that gasket stays in place long enough to get things bolted down. I think getting that done will create enough pressure to fill the floats again and get me some well needed fuel to get her running worst case I'll check the timing and go from there. It's been almost 2 years since this bikes seen the road and I can't wait to get it back to life. I almost shed a tear the first time I heard my high rise MIG's sound off this afternoon. Thanks for the input guys, I'll keep you up to date.

a helpful hint on the rocker cover gasket, get some ultra grey rtv, place rocker cover(rc) on its top, a few small dabs of rtv in the channel and around the semi circular plugs, take a couple of wood blocks, set on rcg to set in channell walk away for 20 minutes remove the wood and the rtv will have st enough to hold the gasket in place and still remain tacky enough to seal when bolted in place

leaking cover wont effect how it runs.

it will however cause a hell of an oily mess.

like others have mentioned ,check your cam timing doubly so.

also make sure your vacumn lines are in the correct position.

Alright, ss I got her running and still have a small problem with not getting enough vacuum to the petcock to keep the carbs full. When I do the old fashioned suck on the tube it works great so I'll deal with that issue later. First things first. Now after a few seconds of running it starts smoking WHITE smoke and I am not looking forward to pulling the head to check head gaskets. The bad part is that this is a motor from a salvage that I bought because my old one developed a hideos knock in the bottom end after a bad oil leak on a long trip ran it dry. I didn't notice until the knock started. :(

Anyway, I have to say do not buy anything from NE Cycle Salvage in Beaumont, TX. This motor was presented to me as a complete motor and when I got there to pick it up it was missing one engine cover and the stator cover was worn through. Also it was missing valve covers, which I had to reuse from my old motor and the carbs I got for it were rusted shut. Now after finally getting a chance to install it, it at least has no knock, but seems to have a coolant leak into the head. I'm so tempted to just give up... Thanks for listening to me rant.

OKC sent you a PM, give me a call