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LivingLife1's avatar
LivingLife1
Explorer
Jul 23, 2013

Honda EU1000I Smoking - Burning Oil

I bought a used eu1000i generator , it's smoking , leaking oil from the exhaust and burning oil . I checked the oil level - it was OVERWHELMINGLY FULL , I don't know what the guy was thinking . I drained the extra amount and started it , it's still smoking , not as bad as before but not much better either , there is still plenty of oil in the smoke (I left it on the concrete , couple minutes later , the smoke had created a trail of splattered oil where the smoke was .

So here I am , I feel like the extra oil had perhaps damaged something , can someone tell me what it might be so I can at least have a place to start ? Much appreciate it , thank you

Also , I've ran it about 10 minutes so far , do you think that's plenty of time for whatever oil was inside to have burned or is it still burning old oil and could get better if I run it for long ?

Thanks again

8 Replies

  • mchero's avatar
    mchero
    Explorer
    Jul 24, 2013
    Does it have a spark arrestor in the muffler? Might want to check & see if it's plugged-up.
  • LivingLife1's avatar
    LivingLife1
    Explorer
    Jul 24, 2013
    thank you guys , appreciate the info . I was afraid that from being overfilled and the oil reaching temperature , it might have expanded and broken a seal . Thankfully it hadn't . I ran it close to an hour with a vacuum cleaner plugged in and by the end , the smoke had dissapeared and after cooling it off and starting it again , it was no longer smoking . What a relief . I wasn't sure I was up to the task of taking it all apart and fixing seals . THANK YOU AGAIN TO EVERYONE , I was about this close | | to take it apart , but you guys talked me into running it for a while first . Thank you !
  • robert3's avatar
    robert3
    Explorer
    Jul 24, 2013
    LivingLife1 wrote:
    I bought a used eu1000i generator , it's smoking , leaking oil from the exhaust and burning oil .


    Unlikely to have hurt the unit from being overfilled, now that you have the level correct, the excess will just burn off. I would suggest double-checking the air filter element and confirm it it dry and clean; excess oil may have entered the breather tube and soaked the filters.

    Do you know if it was filled with SAE 10W-30? That is the recommended oil. If not sure, it's cheap enough to drain and refill correctly.

    -Robert@Honda
    Caveat: I work for Honda, but the preceding was my opinion alone.
  • LivingLife1's avatar
    LivingLife1
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2013
    RoyB wrote:
    In the old days it was BLACK SMOKE for gasoline and BLUE SMOKE for oil...


    It's mostly white - light blue
  • LivingLife1's avatar
    LivingLife1
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2013
    copeland343 wrote:
    A Honda EU1000 got over filled at the fire station the other day it took over a hour to burn the oil out of the exhaust. Run a tank of gas and then see what you have.


    I'm running it now , I connected a dirt devil vacuum cleaner to give it some more burning boost
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Jul 23, 2013
    In the old days it was BLACK SMOKE for gasoline and BLUE SMOKE for oil...
  • copeland343's avatar
    copeland343
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2013
    A Honda EU1000 got over filled at the fire station the other day it took over a hour to burn the oil out of the exhaust. Run a tank of gas and then see what you have.
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Jul 23, 2013
    If it keeps smoking well you knew that right?

    So what's the harm of filling the tank to the brim and letting the genny run until it runs out of gas? It has a low oil shutdown so what the heck? It ain't like you're staring at 8 blown sparkplugs in a Ford Triton V-10

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