White sweet smelling smoke

[Easter]

I am pretty confident I know the answer but before we tear into my son's 1100 I wanted to run this past more experienced Wingers. He rides about 30 miles each way to work and now with the South Texas heat, the afternoon ride is pretty warm (upper 90's) by the time he gets home the right exhaust is giving off a bit of white smoke and "smells sweet". Not so in the morning.

Head Gasket? I encouraged him to park it till we get it fixed since it is likely to get worse very quickly if it is the head gasket.

[Gowing]

Yes, you can try to back off head bolts and retork to 46 pounds, but etc
Looks like both head gaskets and a month off the road are in your future, all honda
parts of course. Toughest part is surface cleaning. Sorry tough luck.

[robin1731]

Loosing any coolant? Oil look milky through the site glass? Could do a pressure check on the cooling system and a leakdown on the engine. That might show something. And yes, park it till you find out what it is.

[Easter]

Just did a water pump kit a few weeks ago and filled everything up with fresh coolant. He hasn't lost enough yet to notice.

[desertrefugee]

...
Looks like both head gaskets and a month off the road are in your future ...

No reason a determined garage hack should take a month to do head gaskets. If you have your ducks in a row (parts on hand before teardown) you can do it in a weekend. (Unless you're resurfacing the heads).

[Easter]

If the bike is running good with lots of power otherwise, is there any special reason to do both heads at the same time?

[Lucien Harpress]

I've always heard that if one goes, the other usually isn't far behind. Basically, if you're that tore into it already, it isn't that much more to get the other side buttoned up too. Cheap insurance.

[wingrider]

Snip....Basically, if you're that tore into it already, it isn't that much more to get the other side buttoned up too.

Most every time that is correct. Only big exception is if you have a sidecar hangin off the side.

[robin1731]

I've always heard that if one goes, the other usually isn't far behind. Basically, if you're that tore into it already, it isn't that much more to get the other side buttoned up too. Cheap insurance.

Yep, they are both the same age. I just did them both on a 76 I'm redoing. The LH side was spewing the dreaded smoke. I pulled the RH side too even though it wasn't smoking a bit. That side was not far off from going too.

If you have everything you need for the job and don't do anything to the heads an ambitious person could easily do both heads in one day. A real ambitious person could rebuild the heads in that same day. But it can all be done easily in a weekend.

[Lucien Harpress]

...unless, of course, you bend a valve, break a valve seal, break a bolt off, and ruin several minor gaskets along the way.

At which point it can stretch out to a month.

(Don't let me scare you, though. It was really all my fault and inexperience. Just take it slow, and make sure everything is loose (especially in the camshaft/valves area) before you tighten it all down.)

[robin1731]

...unless, of course, you bend a valve, break a valve seal, break a bolt off, and ruin several minor gaskets along the way.

At which point it can stretch out to a month.

(Don't let me scare you, though. It was really all my fault and inexperience. Just take it slow, and make sure everything is loose (especially in the camshaft/valves area) before you tighten it all down.)

If only he had listened.

[Gowing]

Doing both heads easily in one day, mmmm
Not at my house, with my abilities, my ducks refused to line up.
I remember it taking an hour for each valve spring. And my parts taking
two weeks to get here. They were sent around the country on a joy ride. Thanks USPS
I'm glad it's over now, and the improved power is really nice
after lapping the valves.

[robin1731]

Doing both heads easily in one day, mmmm
Not at my house, with my abilities, my ducks refused to line up.
I remember it taking an hour for each valve spring. And my parts taking
two weeks to get here. They were sent around the country on a joy ride. Thanks USPS
I'm glad it's over now, and the improved power is really nice
after lapping the valves.

Remember, I've done it once or twice.

[CYBORG]

I just totally stripped a bike down, including removal of a side car, and removal of rear cover on engine on the bench, in 6 hours. Air tools help. And like Robin said,"I've done it before".

[Gowing]

Jeez, it took me two hours to remove a tank lid and replace it with another. The old wiring,
rusted bolts, frozen and stripped. You must just air chisel em off, I'm kidding,