Piston soak success story.

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This year I "stole" a Harley, and brought it out of a 6 (maybe more) year slumber. Now that I have ridden it a few times, I started to pay attention to the little things. One thing in particular was burning oil.
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The rear cylinder had (and still has) a subtle puf-puff that is visible in direct sunlight, nothing that concerns me. I can't however get over the cloud from the front cylinder, similar to what hangs over LA.Initially I blamed all on the valve seals, as the valves were nice and wet when looking through the exhaust ports. But since the piston soak cost me roughly 25cents, and coking of the rings makes sense (air cooled+long time sitting) I went for it. Put ATF and gasoline into the cylinder for a day or two, disconnected the plugs, cranked over with plugs out, then in, then started her up. When the oil started burning off, I shut her down and did another 2 day soak. Now both pipes smoke equally little.
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At the moment I dumped a 1/4cup(roughly) of the atf/M1/PP/techron/gasoline mix (just because that was on hand) into each cylinder after warming up the engine slightly until tomorrow. I am sure the results will not improve, but hey for a few cents why not try?
 
Use some Berryman B-12 Chemtool and if it has stuck or partially stuck rings the B-12 will free them. You will need to do an OC right after the soak and another within a short time.
 
I know B12 is awesome stuff, but can't be had for 25cents
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I only have it to putt around to work and so that I don't have to wear my wife as a backpack on my R1. I'm keeping it because I have under 1500 into it, and more money I spend on it, the less I like it
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Originally Posted By: Dyusik
I know B12 is awesome stuff, but can't be had for 25cents
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True, but it is certainly less than $5 and if it cures the smoking, you will recover the $5 in pride and not spending it on top-up oil
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Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Don't be so cheap, buy the Berrymans!


Often it's not how cheap something is.
It's the satisfaction of concocting a personal home brew.
Like beer or winemaking.
If I ever have to do a piston soak I'll use some of my "super solvent", which is equal parts paint thinner and lacquer thinner (acetone).
I vary the proportion of acetone depending on how agressive I need the soup to be.
Add an equal part of denatured alcohol and I've got a pretty good paint stripper.
 
Smith nailed it. It is about the satisfaction. I could have easily went for a top end clean with the walnut shell blast or whatever but the simplicity and ease with next to no cost is a cool feeling.

As for running it hard, this thing is not capable. It's literally embarrassing to open the throttle. Like some one said " it is the most efficient machine to turn fuel into noise without the side effect of horsepower".
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thanks for the suggestions though
 
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