I'm chasing a stinky ghost.

My '12 14R recently started stinking up my garage after parking it.

I've got the fairing off, and looked at the "usual suspects": Brakes, coolant / oil hose leaks, electrical wiring, plastic trash on hot muffler or manifold, etc.

So far, Nada.

Smell seems to come off the top of the motor, up through the upper fairing and steering head space, on the right side of the gas tank.

No recent maintenance, just appeared a couple days ago.

I've been riding the cycle through years of Tucson AZ summer riding, and the cycle was fine, no stinky.

This is new, and I'm worried about being stranded or damaging the cycle.

There's no visible smoke, or burns.

On a cool winter day like today, I can get it to 201-205 deg. on the dash display. In the summer, I can get it a little hotter, not much.

Fans are well behaved, and cycle on/off, and run quiet.

Water and Oil hoses are tight, in good shape, and no leaks.

Air filter is relatively clean, no stink coming from the intake manifold.

I *think* mebbe I smell it out of the exhaust pipe, too. After awhile, my nose gets "uncalibrated".

Is there a "feature" of the emissions system that would cause unburned gas to percolate in the exhaust?

There's also another possibility, I now realize: I recently added Royal Purple "Max Clean Fuel System Cleaner and Stabilizer" to my gas in a measured and proper amount.

I'm wondering if this could be the cause of the stink?

I'm going with the Royal Purple stuff.

It's something new that you have done and now a smell you're
not sure of.

You might smell it from all the spots you mentioned.

Vapor, Exhaust, possibly a little blow by back into air box, etc.

I think you should get on the bike right now and go burn up
that full tank of 6 gallons and refuel. I mean today, right now!

* Last updated by: piken on 1/12/2017 @ 9:14 AM *

Are we talking about an 'engine' smell or possibly something decaying? Years ago I had a similar scenario with my 1000RX. A really unpleasant smell, getting worse and, on stripping off the bodywork found a dead sparrow wedged between the frame and the airbox, almost completely hidden. Don't ask me how.

Piken: I like the way you think! I'm Off!

Pegscraper: That's a good story. Nah, it's engine smell for sure.

I collected "something" onto the collector right where the 4 goes into two and it was small enough not to be readily seen . It stunck.

Yeah, I ran my hands over and over under there. Thanks...

I can understand your concern about the smell, guess I never worried too much myself as typically there will be a smell coming from the exhaust pipes when either some oil dripped onto the headers after changing the oil filter or usually dirt getting sprayed onto the collector... Burning dirt stinks!

If you don't want to wait until you need to refuel, you could always siphon the fuel out of the tank and fill it back up with fresh fuel, if the smell is gone or significantly reduced then you know its just the additive. Re-add the "old" fuel later when you have room and don't worry about the smell.

I've always wanted to see before and after pictures of the parts those additives claimed to clean. Marvel Mystery Oil claimed to basically do everything including whiten your teeth while you ride. Ages ago the wife was trying to get her car to pass the emissions test in Ontario as it failed the first time, she threw a bottle of "cleaner" into the tank, drove around with a bunch of smoke coming out of the exhaust, filled back up and it passed emissions the second time... So clearly it did SOMETHING (not sure if I would add the word good to the end of that sentence though).

If you soak dirty parts in pure Seafoam, I'm told it will eat away so voraciously it can even damage delicate parts. That stuff mixed with gas did seem to wipe away the slight stain in my T-bodies. Don't know, maybe pure gas would have worked just as well....it does come in a metal can and I never had it eat through that. It's been around a long time and people who use it seem to like it.

I'm having troubles with carbs these days, and I'm blaming the gas *and* the cleaner additives I use, on my problems.

I use a carb cleaner intermittently on all my carb'ed cycles, and I think I may stop doing that. The disassembled carbs are spotless in their interiors, but the O-rings are dried up very quickly, and crack. Even Viton type rubber lasts just 2 years, if that.

I know this, because I have to periodically remove and replace carbs, to replace O-rings that are leaking fuel.

I may use a stabilizer only product, but not a stabilizer / cleaner product. Nothing much I can do about the gas...

I'll do the R+R of the suspect stinky gas, good tip! Thanks...

I've heard the ethanol in our gas is hard in rubber parts. I have yet to notice a problem with any of the cars I've run since ethanol started getting used in gasoline. If you use premium here, most places it's marked ethanol free. midgrade has some ethanol and regular has a bit more. My cars have run trouble free on ethanol but they were FI.

Everyone has their own thoughts on this, but.......

I use 1oz per gallon of Seafoam in every tank full on every bike I've owned
for god, who knows, forever? I use on a bunch of other things too for
stabilizing and system cleaning.

Stabilizes, helps prevent phase separation and adds a light lubricant.

I read somewhere that gas stations have to serve like 90% of the fuel has
to have ethanol or percent by volume or something like that. So
percentage wise they can put it in the regular which is like 90% of
what they sell so no need to put in premium. Mid grade is just a blended at
the pump mix of regular and premium.

I throw a little Seafoam in about every other fill. I don't measure it unless going for the recommended max dose which is 1 fl oz/gallon. Most of the time I just dump some in and I'm sure it's less than recommended.

For your carbed bikes especially if they don't get much use if you can find ethanol free thats the only thing you should run in them. Ethanol gas starts to break down fairly quickly really, and even if it's still "good" after a month it's already started to break down and separate.

I was just perusing a 2015 Kaw owner's manual and for storage, it was suggesting running the bike out of fuel due to the break down of today's fuel. It even acknowledges that it can and will clog up the system.

Unfortunately looking at a couple reputable E0 sites (buyrealgas, etc) not seeing anything reasonbly close to Tuscon. There is E0 in the area in a couple places but it would be drive. Might be worth getting a few gallons when your in those areas for small equipment. You never know, could be a place or two around that's just not logged. Also you might be able to show there's a demand for it (there is a demand for E0, even ran across an article on a Tuscon news site).

We have ethanol free gas everywhere up here in all grades but it's leaded. It's for farm equipment which is probably what most ethanol free regular was intended for. Might be just the thing for your old Harley but I burn premium and that should always be lead free and ethanol free.

No ethanol free around here, although one station sells race gas out of a pump. You can only fill a can with it. I sold my zx11 because of the carb problems I was having with ethanol when I moved here. Now I use Startron in every vehicle and small engine I use. My mower and snowblower would surge so bad they were almost useless. All my neighbors had the same problem. Found Startron which was the first ethanol treatment, and problem solved. Now there's several brands, so there's obviously a need. Try one and your carb problems will be solved.
As for the stink, I had the same problem. When the motor got hot, I could smell it every time I stopped. Didn't smell like anything I'd smelled before. It was a fairing insulation panel that came loose and slid against a hot spot.

Lol... stinky scooters.

"Let's go for a scoot, fellas! Not you, Meb. Your scooter is too stinky!"

mebstinky!

Story of my childhood. "Everything I needed to learn, I learned in kindergarten."