www.zxrworld.co.uk

Hi guys,

I know that this question comes up a lot but i'm completely new to zxr's and have just picked up my first - a 2000 model.

It all looks good, looks well looked after etc, service history etc.

It starts very easily, ticks over nicely, revs cleanly, sounds good. However, after about a minute or so of running, the exhaust starts blowing white smoke. My first fear was headgasket - gutted! I also saw that there was a milky residue on the sight glass so I thought definitely head gasket!

So, i checked the coolant expecting to find oil in there but clean as a whistle. I haven't dumped the oil yet to check that because the previous owner said he hasn't used it much recently and has just occasionally fired it up and let it warm up a bit so i'm holding on to the possibility it might just be condensation??

I'm going to dump the oil at the weekend anyway but just wanted a bit of feedback.
Incidentally it has 18,000 miles on the clock.

It probably is water vapour, give it a good thrashing on some back roads and see if it's still smoking.

It's normal to have misting on the sight glass. HG symptoms are high water temperature and bubblew in the expansion tank

Thanks banner, i'll give it a decent run and see if it clears it out. Hopefully it will. An oil and filter change will do it some good as well.

When i checked the coolant level it was full to the top so didn't look like it had lost any, so fingers crossed.

I'm assuming if it has got a HG failure i'd find the oil is milky, frothy when i dump it out?

Yes, or you might find large droplets of coolant in it, or see oil in the expansion tank.