QuestionI have a 98 suzuki VZ 800 5500 miles While riding I felt a complete loss of power like I was out of gas (But it was full) I drove 5 miles to home slowly it was spitting and sputtering if I gave it to much gas. It did blow a thick white smoke for about 10 seconds then Smoke stopped. It has exhaust is coming out of both mufflers.but again no power like it is running on one cylinder. Help where to start.
AnswerJeff, tough question for MrHonda....
A thick cloud of smoke, coming from a water-cooled engine, usually means that the head gasket has blown out, with coolant being drawn into the combustion chamber and then burned. Coolant is quite flammable, especially mixed with gas/air from the carburetors. Coolant usually shows up as white smoke, oil as blue smoke and fuel as black smoke.
Pull the spark plugs and look for signs of something other than fuel burning on the plug tips. If the tips are wet and oily looking, then that is an indication of combustion problems.
Performance issues can often come from low battery/voltage to the electronics, ruptured air-cut diaphragms on the carburetors, restricted fuel flow or contaminated fuel load and blocked air cleaners, but the head gasket seems the most likely issue from what you indicated.
Do a compression test to see if you have the same compression in both cylinders. Probably one is much lower than the other one.
http://www.bikebandit.com/houseofmotorcycles/suzuki-motorcycle-vz800w-marauder-1...
for illustrations.
Bill MrHonda Silver
