New boy and my RSV Mille R won't start...

Hi all.
I thought I'd pop in and say hello as I've recently inherited a 2002 RSV Mille R from my boy and I need some help....
He lives in Paris and came down for a weekend's biking with us. Rode down on his R and once he got here the bike was smelling strongly of hot oil and the engine would cut out when he rolled off the gas. He told me that he'd been running low on oil a while back (no, the warning light didn't come on) and when he topped it up he put the best part of 2 litres in....there was obviously a leak from somewhere near the front of the engine because he told me that when he'd start it up from cold it'd smoke from the front of the engine (oil burning off from the downpipes).

I've had the airbox off and, sure enough, there was a lot of oil as he'd overfilled it so it's possible that the smoke was just oil escaping from the airbox and burning off. I cleaned it all out, have changed the plugs, fully charged the battery and she just won't start.
Yesterday I think I flooded it so I waited until this morning and when I turned her over I just got a loud backfire and then nothing. She still turns over but gives no indication that she wants to start. It's cold this morning, below freezing, but the bike is inside a garage with an ambient of about 4 celsius.
Any thoughts? I've been working on this for a few days now and I'm running out of options........

Anticipated thanks! :thumbup

Thank you Mister Biker (or may I call you Battle?) :biggrin
1. check
2. check
3. check
4. where is it?
5. check
6. loose hoses....hmmmmm.....none under the airbox. Where else should I be looking?

For 2) & 3) I'm assuming that if I had a problem there the engine wouldn't turn over at all. Correct?

Thanks mate, keep 'em coming!

Pip pip

gwilliams290 said:

Just to go over the obvious...
There are 4 spark plugs..
make sure of the proper gap and that they are dry, not "fouled" (wet with gas or oil)

Here's the bad news ( and I hope I'm wrong)- overfilling the oil reservoir can have serious consequences. One possibility is bent valves. Bent valves means no/low compression. No compression- no fire- bike won't start.:thumbdown

Here's hoping that it's not bent valves and something much simpler.

Best of luck, Gary

Click to expand...

Ouch! Fingers crossed!

Hello everybody.
So, finally got it started. It fired up only once I'd pulled out, cleaned and warmed up all the plugs for the umpteenth time

This time i tried to start it up without replacing the airbox cover. Sure enough she fired up and started emitting exhaust smoke from both the exhaust and from the crankcase breather tube (which arrives in .....the airbox). I think she wouldn't start before as all that smoke was being sucked into the inlets. With the cover off the engine was getting some oxygen at last.
Problem now, of course, is "Why is their exhaust smoke coming out of the engine breather?". Looks like it may be worn rings and/or scored sleeves/pistons. At this point I give up and I'm going to get it recovered to a dealer for them to tell me what the next step is. I'll let you know. Thanks to all for your support

Well, I got it started but had to change the engine to do so
Got an engine with 3000kms (documented) and fitted for 1300 euro. Now pulling like a train
Looks like the previous engine had had a partial seize and was very, very sick. Ho,hum, onwards and upwards!!
Am I going to see any of you guys down here this year? Check out the site!