oil consumption???

[graybird78]

jumesage large Just went for 300 mile ride to see some friends.Bike used 1 qt of oil.Did have strong winds to fight on trip,average speed was 70-75 mph up and back on trip.no major oil leaks,plugs show no signs oil burning. So where did the oil go????? Has anyone else had this problem.Bike shows25k. Bike is a 80 XS1100 SG. Been using castrol synthetic 5w-50.

[Bob Falter]

I would guess that you burnt the oil even though it didn't show on the plug. I think the synthetics burn pretty clean. The 5W may just be too thin. Might try a 15W-50.

[skids]

That happened to the Beast also. I used a quart suddenly between tanks of gas! I was using Mobil 1 full syn oil. I believe that it is too slippery for the rings to wipe the cylinders, especially going fast. Go back to using either a blend or pure dino juice. I like the Castrol GTX blend oil. After that happened (quite a while) I travelled from Denver to Arkansas and back without using any noticable amount of oil.

[schpiff]

synthetic oil

Just wanted to let you guys know of the probs I/we have had with synthetic oil.
Now mind you this purely related to auto racing engines....
But we have tried using synthetics a couple-few times and EVERY time we have had probs with cam lobes wearing VERY rapidly.
Using the blended stuff seemed to work ok..but after switching back to plain old mineral oil based motor oil (20-50wt) we havent had a single case of premature failure of cam lobes.

Granted the cam profiles are pretty steep but synthetic just doesnt work.
I believe the cause of the failures are because synth. doesnt cling (leave a film) like regular oils do. And under the extra valve spring pressures needed for racing rpms it just cant protect the cam/lifter enough at initial start-up.

[graybird78]

oil consumption???

thanks for the feed back... will try your suggestion

[MartyA]

If I go 300 miles at 70-75, I will use just about 1/2 quart. If I stay local at the 55-60, I use only a little. Had 16K miles when I bought it, over 37K now, hasn't changed. Guess you have to use a little to get a lot. I usually use Castrol 20-50 GTX, or Havoline 20-50.

[Jerry]

Oil consumption on my XJ has decreased over the last 3 years. I change oil and filter every 3K miles or so. Ran a can of SeaFoam through the gas last year. Oil I use is Shell Rotella 15W-40.

Started off using a quart in less than 600 miles, now down to about a quart between oil changes. Bike never did smoke, never fouled the plugs. No gasket leaks or unusual oil on the engine. Most of my riding miles are freeway, speeds 65 - 75 mph (or maybe a bit higher...)

Two theories. 1. Rings were sticking when I bought the bike late in 1999, less than 20K miles, and rings were not sealing properly. Running and the seafoam teatment helped restore the rings to full function. 2. When I did my 2nd gear fix I found the oil pump pickup screen covered with a layer of 'stuff' which I cleaned off. I think the oil flow was restricted, and the oil that was gettting throughwas running hotter than normal, causing the oil to thin more and be burned. Since I cleaned off the screen the engine seems to run quieter and oil consumption dropped. Oil warning light never came on to indicate low pressure.

So, 3 suggestions to decrease oil consumption.
1. Try SeaFoam (or similar product) as a fuel treatment.
2. Pull the oil pan and clean the oil pump screen.
3. Ride a lot to free up rings.

[graybird78]

oil consumption

Weather permitting ,I usually put 3-4k on my bike in a year.I drive 30 miles a day 6 days aweek to work. Haven't noticed any problems, just when I took my trip, did I notice any oil problems.I have switched to coventional oil 20w-50 will see what happens.

[Geezer]

Re: synthetic oil

The plain truth is synthetics don't lubricate as well as mineral base lubes. The profit margin on them is great so they keep pushing them and sheepeople keep on buying them. It’s not as bad as the oil additives with Teflon but almost as much.

You can use a good grade of mineral based oil and change it twice as often for the same money as synthetics and your engine will last longer.

Geezer

Originally posted by schpiff
Just wanted to let you guys know of the probs I/we have had with synthetic oil.
Now mind you this purely related to auto racing engines....
But we have tried using synthetics a couple-few times and EVERY time we have had probs with cam lobes wearing VERY rapidly.
Using the blended stuff seemed to work ok..but after switching back to plain old mineral oil based motor oil (20-50wt) we havent had a single case of premature failure of cam lobes.

Granted the cam profiles are pretty steep but synthetic just doesnt work.
I believe the cause of the failures are because synth. doesnt cling (leave a film) like regular oils do. And under the extra valve spring pressures needed for racing rpms it just cant protect the cam/lifter enough at initial start-up.

[strom]

OK.... the problem (what else)

When accelerating, I trail smoke... or so they say... and quite a lot of it. The plugs are black, the engine could/should pull a bit harder,...

Can someone please explain again bout rich/lean fuel mixture symptoms and adjustments and what to do bout the oil.... the compression is good (10-10.5:1), the valve seals have been replaced 6-7 years and 200km ago, and Im using 10-40W valvoline durablend semi-synth. oil.

The bike always starts on 1st try, no choke just a bit of throttle... if I release the throttle, it'll die in a few seconds. If I use full choke, idle climbs to 2000-3000 rpm and stays there, if I use half choke, it dies.... no ideas what to do.

LP

[TopCatGr58]

Trailing smoke!

Hey there Strom,

Well, first about the oil. You can have good compression rings and still burn oil, if you have worn oil rings!! Secondly, that thinner oil can slip by the rings more easily, so I'd recommend going up to 20-50, and straight mineral base, it might burn better when/if it makes it into the combustion chamber!? You say the engine has 6-7 years on it, and ?? 200 km(kilometers), or do you mean 200,000 km(kilometers), ahhhhhh-errrrr or .......
200 k=(thousand) miles?? With a high mileage engine, you can easily have worn oil rings that are letting lots of oil slip by into the chamber. Going to a thicker oil might help to reduce it's ability to slip by the rings so much??

Now, with an engine that's burning a lot of oil, I think it would be much more difficult to gauge your fuel settings by trying to see it on how the plugs look since you may be getting way too much oil into the chamber artificially coloring the plugs so that you can't tell if you're running rich or lean!?

From what I've read, if it's too lean, it runs out of power at the top end, and can run quite warm/hot. If it's too rich, it tends to bog and doesn't respond quickly to throttle input. Since you say that you can start the bike cold without using the choke hints that you are possibly a bit too rich, and dark plugs also say that, again providing you're reading them as dry and sooty, not wet and oily!

BTW, what color is the smoke? Again, I've been told that if it's blue/black, it's oil, but if it's a bit lighter, it could be carb, too rich!?

HTH, Disclaimer...no carb guru here!! T.C.

[Geezer]

If the smoke is black you're burning too much fuel but if it's gray, you're burning oil. From what I've heard so far, you're having carb problems.

Geezer

Originally posted by strom
OK.... the problem (what else)

When accelerating, I trail smoke... or so they say... and quite a lot of it. The plugs are black, the engine could/should pull a bit harder,...

Can someone please explain again bout rich/lean fuel mixture symptoms and adjustments and what to do bout the oil.... the compression is good (10-10.5:1), the valve seals have been replaced 6-7 years and 200km ago, and Im using 10-40W valvoline durablend semi-synth. oil.

The bike always starts on 1st try, no choke just a bit of throttle... if I release the throttle, it'll die in a few seconds. If I use full choke, idle climbs to 2000-3000 rpm and stays there, if I use half choke, it dies.... no ideas what to do.

LP

[strom]

Thanks guys, appretiate it. I'll play with the carb settings a bit...
Smoke is... hmm... weird... doesnt smell like oil to me.
The bike sat for 6 years and I did 200km after putting it together. The total is 67000km.

LP

[Geezer]

Did you replace any of the jets when you were working on the carbs?

Geezer

Originally posted by strom
Thanks guys, appretiate it. I'll play with the carb settings a bit...
Smoke is... hmm... weird... doesnt smell like oil to me.
The bike sat for 6 years and I did 200km after putting it together. The total is 67000km.

LP

[strom]

Originally posted by Geezer
Did you replace any of the jets when you were working on the carbs?

Geezer

All stock... it had an original air filter before and a more or less free flowing 4 into 1 marwing. Very open.

Now it has a nylon stocking over the air filter housing, 4 into 2 almost stock extremely quiet home-made exhaust.

I did screw in pilot screws to original default yamaha repair manual settings. I did lower the bowl fuel level, but I just reset it to default and didnt try it since, gotta get me an air compressor first to clean em again while Im at it...

The middle two carbs were out of sync (check presync. carbs tip). I'll try to get the spark-plug-combustion-glowie-color-thingie to set the fuel mixture (colortuning carbs) and I'll borrow a set of vacuum gagues to sync them. Not sure which to do first.

I'll get back to all that in a few days... a friend just bought a new new ZRX 1200. Looks great.

LP