i have an artic cat 500 99 model could not turn choke off completly without dying changed plug same results, still smoking, cleanded carb cleaned gas tank choke works now but still smokes but not at idle any help would be nice did set up for about 2 months, would oil change help stop smoking

 

What color is smoke, blue is oil, black is fuel, white is coolant. Need to know which one to find cause.

 

smoke is white at low throttle black with more gas

 

Cowboy,

Don't hold my feet to the fire on this, but if memory serves correctly white smoke is an indiciation that you are getting coolant into the combustion chamber - which means that you've got a bad head gasket or warped head. Drain your oil and see if there is any indication of antifreeze in the oil. Also check coolant level to see if you're low. These would be further indicators of a head problem (engine, not yours) lol [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

hey denver thanks for the repley. but i do have a question. what would cause a warped head or blown head gasket? i have never abused the cat and it has been used very gentely and only has 800 miles. i have looked through a lot of forums and have narrowed down to possibly being a fuel mixture problem. two things i have to check next is a kinked gas tank vent tube and to take a look at the float valve needle. i have had a small slow oil leak in the right side casing gasket but have kept the oil level constent. let me know what you think with that bit of info.

 

if you suspect a fuel mixture problem pull your plug and check the color. White=Lean, Tan-good, Black= rich

 

Cowboy,

As I said I'm not certain that this would be the cause of the white smoke but as Tork stated, white smoke is normally caused by coolant getting into the combustion chamber. Head gaskets can go bad from time to time if they weren't sealed just right when installed or if the heads weren't torked properly. A warped head can only be caused by previous overheating (to the best of my knowledge). I suppose it could also be caused by rapid cooling, such as suddenly dunking a hot engine into freezing water or something. Drain your crankcase and see if you notice any coolant in it.

As far as fuel mixture ... hmmmm ... I've never known fuel to cause white smoke. You could be running rich, but as Petey pointed out you can verify this by checking the spark plug. My cat runs a little rich when I ride above 9,000 feet but even then it has never smoked noticeably. Spark plug shows carbon buildup, though. Pull your plug and see if it is black.