Rookie Mistake! OVERHEATED ENGINE!

[Bramwell]

The other day I parked my bike in my garage, got distracted in the process and forgot my keys in the ignition. The next day I realized my mistake and of course, the battery died. So I decided to jump start it using my car. I successfully jumped the bike and it was running. I decided to let it run for a bit to charge up the battery. Stupidly, I left the choke on, and while it was running in the heat of the sun (it was 34 degrees Celcius!! really hot!!!), it overheated. I should point out that I didn't intend to leave so long, put got distracted by a bunch of things (I guess I'm easily distracted) and I think I left it running for about 20 minutes, maybe even more. I know, really dumb of me. So when I came out, the bike had overheated, I'm assuming, as it was brutally hot yesterday. The bike was off and the engine was smoking. I considered that maybe I had run out of gasoline and decided to open the gas tank. When I did, gasoline spewed out, gushed out even, and sprayed all over my face and over the bike. After cursing up a storm I decided to just put the bike back into the garage, where it's currently sitting.

Sooo, did I really mess it up? Do you think I should try to start it again now that it's cooler?? What would you do?
Thanks for any help you can offer.
cheers,
Bram

 

[benjamin]

Start her up and ride her. Yolo.

My 2 cents.

 

[Bramwell]

I tried starting it up today. Sounded like it was almost going to start, but then it didn't. Now it's just making a ticking sound when I turn the ignition. Any ideas on what's happening? It was running fine before...

 

[benjamin]

What's the oil like? Hopefully it's not cooked. I did that to a compressor once and had to chip out all the caked on crap. Can you crank her over with the kickstart?

 

[Bramwell]

There is no kickstart on this particular model. The oil was fairly new. Would I see the cooked oil somewhere on the outside of the bike??

 

[benjamin]

I doubt it, number of things could be stopping it from turning over.

Try and see if you can turn it over in second gear by pushing it. If no then it might be seized and you'll have follow some anti seize methods out there.

Another option is your battery is pooched from draining too much.

I vote bump starting it and seeing what happens.

 

[ratrodder69]

also check spark If your tank was that hot that it was spitting fuel at you you may have cooked your coils. good luck

 

[Scorpio1963]

I agree try to see if you can turn the engine over by kicking it over.If you cant bad news is the engine is probaly seazed up.hopefully not though.Also test your battery to find out of its drained.Drain the oil and see what it looks and smells like.

 

[corruptmind]

Willing to bet your battery is dead, originally from lack of charge and then who knows how long it was sitting there with the key on before you noticed. Probably not seized but there is always that chance. Start with checking the battery, dead battery will just click when button pushed.

 

[willem]

Yup and a battery won't charge while idling, the bike generates too little power then

So my bet is the battery is dead, and it stalled cause the mixture got so rich you drowned the bike in fuel. In the meantime the heat from the engine combined with the outside temps caused your fuel to heat up and spit..

so charge your battery externally (drip charger) or get a new one. Try again, carefully, and don't forget about it this time!!

 

[Scorpio1963]

If the battery is suspected dead and it has caps on top to check the acid/water level pull them off and see if the cells are dry.IF NOT check out my other reply.If the battery is toast replace it chances are if it got fried its not going to hold a charge and is ruined.

 

[Lou Ranger]

Depends why the engine stopped.

If it stopped because the oil broke down you should consider changing it if it's not seized.

If there is no oil on the outside, that is a good thing - means nothing burst.

If it stopped because the gas tank got overheated by the sun and the engine heat from below, maybe a vapour lock caused it to stall. If that's the case nothing should be broken other than the battery will be totally discharged by the headlight being on after stalling.

If it stopped because at idle there are not enough rpms to charge the battery, then it will just be the battery needing a charge.

If there were no water in the battery that would imply it was overcharging and boiled out the water. Seems unlikely in this case, but if the level is low, add water and charge it. My battery was boiled dry last summer and after watering it, it lasted the rest of the season.
Best of luck.

 

[corruptmind]

Got an XJ650 im working on right now and it had a bad battery that wasnt maintained. Ive charged it a few times but after a lengthy charge itll flash bad battery. Heard from a mechanic the trick is to put aspirin in each of the cells. I figured, what the hell, ive got nothing to lose trying. So I did... (topping the levels back off aswell) that was the first time the charge showed it completed the charge successfully.

 

[Scorpio1963]

I have revived old batteries using the aspirin trick before.Its amazing how simple things like an aspirin can fix a dead battery.