My friend has a bayou 300 2wd and he rode it all day the other day, and it was fine, but a lil hot, he had checked the oil that morning, and it was fine. After he got home, he left it in the barn for a while, and then decided to put it on the trailer for the next day. When he went to start it, it wouldnt do anything. So i went and looked at it because it sounded like it was doing the samething mine had a couple months before. When i was looking at it, i noticed, it had little, if any oil left,so we put some oil in and tried to start it. The electric start wouldnt work, but when i pulled it, it ran for like 15 sec. and shot out a bunch of white smoke, we checked the plug, and it was black, so we put in a new one, and it still shot out a bunch of white smoke. So, does anyone know what might be wrong with it, any help would be greatly appricieted.....

 

Sounds like the piston rings are shot.The white smoke is oil blowing by the rings.

 

You can only check the oil level on a Bayou after the machine has set long enough for the oil to drain into the sump and appear on the sight glass. At all other times, the sight glass appears "empty," because the oil is pumped into the various passages and areas where it does its job. Even cranking the electric starter or pulling the engine through manually pumps the oil from the sump.

From the description of your experience, sounds like you over-filled the sump; too much oil can cause "oil pumping" and foul the plug. (The rings may be shot also, as the other poster suggests.)

Both possibilities, too much oil and shot rings, are consistent with the white smoke from the exhaust.

Tree Farmer

 

Tree Farmer,

I have been keeping to oil level in my Bayou at a level where it still appears in the sight glass with the engine running. This places it near the top of the glass once it sits for a while after being turned off.

If you can't see it in the glass, how are you to know how low it might be?

Please advise.

Thanks.

 

When filled with the recommended amount of oil, I don't think you can see the oil level with the engine running or immediately after it is shut off. The Kawasaki manual recommends siphoning off excess oil if the sump is overfilled (Page 5-11: "If the level is too high, suck the excess oil out the filler hole with a syringe or other suitable device."), and checking the oil level only after the oil has had time to drain into the sump after running. Even so, I don't think you have seriously excess oil if you can see the top level in the sight glass after the oil has drained down.

Tree Farmer

 

Dave,

The sight glass has an upper and lower index mark etched on to it. With the engine stopped, and with sufficient time allowed for gravity to pull all of the oil into the sump, the oil level in the sump should fall between the upper an lower index marks.

While it is possible to see the oil swirling around at the very bottom of the sight glass when the engine is running, any measurement made in this fashion is incorrect. If you raise the oil level in the sight glass to even the lower index mark while the engine is running, you risk overfiling the engine. Too much oil causes its own set problems. But just as too little oil is not good for the engine, so is too much.

The oil capacity of the 300 Bayou is listed as being 2.2 liters. However, I have found by careful measurement that when I change the oil and the oil filter on my 300, it requires just over 3 liters to bring the oil level in the sump up to the upper index mark on the sight glass. I usually fill the sump to the top of the sight glass, start the engine so the oil pump fills the new filter, stop the engine and allow it to sit for 5 minutes, then top off the oil until it reaches the upper index mark on the sight glass.

Hope this helps.

Army Man

 

I really do not know much about the bayou, but if it is liquid cooled? it was probally the gasket, white smoke usually indicates water, blue smoke is oil and it smells.