Last Monday came back from a 60 mile ride out on my Suzuki GT380 triple. No problems and a nice and relaxing trip around the Worcestershire countryside. However, when I clicked the bike into neutral at the end of the run I noticed that the motor died - it normally ticks over nicely. Bit puzzled by this but wheeled the bike into the garage and left it until today.
I thought I'd start it just to make sure that it was OK but had big issues. It would run briefly after kicking it over then die. Thinking fuel starvation I primed the carbs but problem persisted. Also noticed a lot and I mean A LOT of smoke pouring out of all 4 exhausts. Took out the plugs and sure enough, coated in oil. Eventually I got it running at 4K but the neighbourhood disappeared in smoke.
I thought it might be a gearbox oil seal but in that case at least one of the cylinders is connected to the alternator side only so I would have thought that it shouldn't smoke on all pipes. The only other thing I can think of is that I've been running it on Castrol 2T for the last 2 years since I had the bike but recently ran out of the stuff and a chum gave me a gallon of fully synthetic Silkolene which I used for the first time to top up the oil tank before my ride out. I'm just wondering if this may be the cause of the problem. The Suzuki CCS oil pump system is normally very reliable.
I've cleaned out the oil tank and will fill it with fresh Castrol but I'm really not confident that this is the root of the problem despite the coincidental timing.
Any thoughts would be most welcome.