Engine issues/Questions

[landygrundy86]

Hey All,

This is kinda long and drawn out, but looking for advice, or something obvious I'm missing, you guys always have great answers. I have two Voyagers, 86 and an 01. I bought the 86... and then found out it has 98 bodywork on it... so I'm unsure if the engine is original with 60k on it. It ran ok, but smoked badly, very bad on startup, and then at full temp just huffed blue smoke. Found a the crank vent hose was kinked badly.. no change after fixing that. Figured the extra smoke on start-up is valve seals. so I have an 01 (which was bought as a different project). That supposedly had 30k on it, but I hadn't ran it much when I got it.. and not at all in over year.

I decided to pull the motor out of my 86, and swap in the 01... and then go through the 86 motor and put that back in my project. Motor is in. all necessary electronics are hooked up to get her to run. It fires up and runs, but backfires out of both the carbs and exhaust pretty badly. and seeming a dead cyl #4 (verified 175psi compression). Am I correct that the left side coil runs #1 & #4? and Right side code is #2 & #3? This motor seemed to run ok in the other bike over a year ago and all the electronics worked on the other engine just fine. I swapped the CDI boxes from each bike but that didn't change anything. Certainly, feels like a timing thing to me? The carbs were the same ones on the 86 motor that ran fine. Gas is only a month or so old.

[Nails]

I think you need a repair manual, available from Grandpa Denny’s signature.

[triton28]

Yes the LH coil is #s 1 &4.
If you are certain the 01 engine was running fine then one can assume nothing has changed in so far as the motor itself, provided it hasn't been sitting outdoors in the weather with the inlet/exhaust ports uncovered for the past year. I say this because an unopened for work, long block swap would only be carbs, and maybe alternator/starter motor, and apart from a misaligned/split/cracked rubber carb holders there would not really be anything else to go wrong.
There is no ignition timing adjustment provision on these engines, other than the electronic igniter and the valve timing would require the camshafts to be R&R'd.
I wonder if perhaps something has been misinstalled during the carb install OR failing that, check the plastic plug caps are securely screwed into the plug wires. You can trim 1/4" off the wire and then screw the plug cap into the fresh wire end. Sometimes the plug caps get bumped and break the contact with the wire.
If as you say the '86 is belching BLUE smoke be aware that these engines are extremely expensive to repair as the cost for parts is astronomical. For example 4 piston ring sets are $160.00 plus; head gasket is $70.00 plus; stem seals , (non OEM), are $40.00 and so on. 16 valves take a lot of time to grind and 4 cylinder deglazings are $100.00 or more. It ain't cheap!
My money is on the plug cap/wire connections.
Just some ideas,
Dave

[GrandpaDenny]

I think you need a repair manual, available from Grandpa Denny’s signature.

Hey I represent that remark!

I want to add that if the 86 has the original igniter (I don't recall the part number) you'd definitely want to use the one from the 01. If the part numbers stenciled on the igniters are the same, then don't worry about it, it'd already been changed. There was (is) an issue with the original igniters on the 86s causing very very expensive starter chain breakage.

Hope you get it figured out. Keep us posted!

[landygrundy86]

I think you need a repair manual, available from Grandpa Denny’s signature.

Hey I represent that remark!

I want to add that if the 86 has the original igniter (I don't recall the part number) you'd definitely want to use the one from the 01. If the part numbers stenciled on the igniters are the same, then don't worry about it, it'd already been changed. There was (is) an issue with the original igniters on the 86s causing very very expensive starter chain breakage.

Hope you get it figured out. Keep us posted!

Yep, both igniters are the updated versions. I remember this from my first '86. I did swap them and verify nothing changed.

[landygrundy86]

Yes the LH coil is #s 1 &4.
If you are certain the 01 engine was running fine then one can assume nothing has changed in so far as the motor itself, provided it hasn't been sitting outdoors in the weather with the inlet/exhaust ports uncovered for the past year. I say this because an unopened for work, long block swap would only be carbs, and maybe alternator/starter motor, and apart from a misaligned/split/cracked rubber carb holders there would not really be anything else to go wrong.
There is no ignition timing adjustment provision on these engines, other than the electronic igniter and the valve timing would require the camshafts to be R&R'd.
I wonder if perhaps something has been misinstalled during the carb install OR failing that, check the plastic plug caps are securely screwed into the plug wires. You can trim 1/4" off the wire and then screw the plug cap into the fresh wire end. Sometimes the plug caps get bumped and break the contact with the wire.
If as you say the '86 is belching BLUE smoke be aware that these engines are extremely expensive to repair as the cost for parts is astronomical. For example 4 piston ring sets are $160.00 plus; head gasket is $70.00 plus; stem seals , (non OEM), are $40.00 and so on. 16 valves take a lot of time to grind and 4 cylinder deglazings are $100.00 or more. It ain't cheap!
My money is on the plug cap/wire connections.
Just some ideas,
Dave

Sure enough... cut 1/4in or so off each lead. I also swapped #2 and #3 (whether that did anything I'm not sure), but #4 is firing! I swear I checked spark at least 10 times haha. I'll be going through the other motor in time and get that back in my project bike at some point. Thankfully i seem to have a spare of almost everything now which is always nice. I appreciate all the info!