The International CBX Owners Association

If a bike might have too much oil, could this perhaps cause excess smoking when revving the bike while idling or gearing down?

Thanks

Yes, but how did it get too full? Simple over-fill, or perhaps a leaky float needle?

A leaky float needle would cause GAS to enter the oil pan through an open valve right? A potentially very serious problem.

DevonCbx wrote:If a bike might have too much oil, could this perhaps cause excess smoking when revving the bike while idling or gearing down?

Thanks

I always ran the ole dawgie a half quart high or so way back then and it seemed to run smoother and quieter than oil at the spec level. Surprise to everyone I am sure, but this over fill procedure was not done by any proven process or measurement......when it got near the top of the filler area that was about it.

The real reason ofcourse was to not have to top things off quite as soon on the brutal Marlinton sport rides.

So to answer your question....my personal experience has been that oil overfill for my CBX as described above did not bring on any exhaust smoke as you described.

I used Mobil 1 car oil....15/45 wt or whatever was closest to this since I really dont recall the exact weight designation.

Overfilling the sump may cause the crank to splash in the oil and cause foaming. This in turn could cause your oil pump to suck air, the oil film in the crank bearings to collapse and thus cause a catastrophic engine failure. There is a reason the design engineers put a max mark on the dipstick.

EMS wrote:Overfilling the sump may cause the crank to splash in the oil and cause foaming. This in turn could cause your oil pump to suck air, the oil film in the crank bearings to collapse and thus cause a catastrophic engine failure. There is a reason the design engineers put a max mark on the dipstick.

I did not recommend that Devon or anyone else overfill their CBX oil just because I did for years with intent, for a reason.... and without any issues.

I used this to point out that overfilling did not make my CBX smoke...which I thought was the question.

I would think over the past three decades there have been at least a few more things that people have done to CBXs besides me overfilling the oil level on mine... that worked out fine.... yet Honda CBX Engineers did not envision, nor would approve.

I think I need to quote myself in order to point out a few things:

EMS wrote:Overfilling the sump may cause the crank to splash in the oil and cause foaming. This in turn could cause your oil pump to suck air, the oil film in the crank bearings to collapse and thus cause a catastrophic engine failure. There is a reason the design engineers put a max mark on the dipstick.

It was intended to be a general warning to stick with the marks on the dipstick and trying to point out the possible ramifications if you don't. I have no idea how immune CBXes are to over- or underfilling the oil sump. I do not want to find out and I did NOT want to tell Devoncbx: "Overfilling is no problem, people do it all the time"

Also, splashing of the crank in an overfilled sump will also cause more oil mist to be sucked into the intake through the breather tube. This could be the reason for a smoking engine.

EMS wrote:I think I need to quote myself in order to point out a few things:

EMS wrote:Overfilling the sump may cause the crank to splash in the oil and cause foaming. This in turn could cause your oil pump to suck air, the oil film in the crank bearings to collapse and thus cause a catastrophic engine failure. There is a reason the design engineers put a max mark on the dipstick.

It was intended to be a general warning to stick with the marks on the dipstick and trying to point out the possible ramifications if you don't. I have no idea how immune CBXes are to over- or underfilling the oil sump. I do not want to find out and I did NOT want to tell Devoncbx: "Overfilling is no problem, people do it all the time"

Also, splashing of the crank in an overfilled sump will also cause more oil mist to be sucked into the intake through the breather tube. This could be the reason for a smoking engine.

Good points......Devon now has all he needs to make a decision on what path to take......lets simply leave it at that and see how it all turns out.