650L eating oil

[rboe]

This bike burnt up at 1600 miles due to missing oil, now at 3500 miles it's trying to do the same thing. Kinked oil feed line at the bottom of the frame was the smoking gun that we blamed it on the first time. Now I have an oil cooler and yet when I checked the oil this morning nothing registered so I drained. Black oil came out with shiny dust in it. Never a good sign. I figure around a 1/2 quart drained out.

 

Can't recall the last time I checked the oil, but it was somewhere around 3100 miles. No dirt, all street, not much freeway. Seems to be fine, then all at once (so it seems to me) it decides to burn or dump oil.

 

I have not pulled the plug yet (does seem to run fine, up until now anyway) and I want to do a compression test. Checked for flow in the oil lines and she is doing good there.

 

I've never had a bike go through oil like this POS so I'm wondering some black sheep have a habit of doing this or I'm missing something.

[valvesrule]

Stock carb makes them run lean/HOT. If you ride them hard they burn up the piston rings and start using oil. My personal sentiments are you should never ride an L hard with the stock carb...specially in a place like Arizona. And street seems to be worse for them than off road because you set the throttle in one place for longer periods and they build the heat more than offroad where you would be changing throttle and letting them cool with different rpm more often.The metalflake oil is the  cam, rockers and/or piston severely damaged. Time for a rebuild.

[jjast]

That many miles without adding any oil would about put my oil level at pretty low if not out...I average 90 mile rides every time I go out, it drops about 3.5 diamonds on the dipstick per ride.IIRC.

the general consensus is that these bikes use oil and should be checked and oil added at the end of every ride.

Edited April 20, 2016 by jjast

[rboe]

Wow, so it's the nature of the beast to consume oil. Damn.

 

Thanks for the responses.

[MeCH_MaN]

I never leave the house without an oil level reading. It uses more sometimes and less sometimes. For me it's just peace of mind.

Same goes for tire pressure.

[Gripo]

Using oil in these air cooled will also happen due to the evaporation from the high heat they'll produce....boil the oil lol...

[rboe]

I agree, so I added the oil cooler to help. Looks like I need a 8 quart oil tank for her. ?

[JoeRC51]

Do you still have the oil separator on it.

[rboe]

The smog stuff? No.

[JoeRC51]

The black cylinder next to the carburetor , by the petcock , is the oil separator. It's not smog stuff. It separates oil mist from the air expelled by the crankcase breather and condenses it to be returned to the motor. Every single time the piston goes up and down , 650cc of air goes in and out of the breather. Without the separator you're blowing oil mist out of the breather , which is some of your oil loss.

[rboe]

Don't have that as you have described I do see breather hoses coming off the crankcase that go to the intake box. It exits behind the air filter (down stream).

[JoeRC51]

So you're sucking some of your missing oil thru the motor.

[jjktmrider]

Oil burning is a Honda thing ,not due to hot running air cooled motors . I have several Yamaha XT's , one high comp , 275-300F head temp is not uncommon to see and I don't have to add oil between changes on them , didn't have to on the 2 DR's I had either. But the XL I had did , though not as much as some have stated. 

[JoeRC51]

I might add a couple of ounces between oil changes and I generally run the piss out of mine. Same thing when it still had Honda rings in it.

[Thumper3]

Stock carb makes them run lean/HOT. If you ride them hard they burn up the piston rings and start using oil. My personal sentiments are you should never ride an L hard with the stock carb...specially in a place like Arizona. And street seems to be worse for them than off road because you set the throttle in one place for longer periods and they build the heat more than offroad where you would be changing throttle and letting them cool with different rpm more often.The metalflake oil is the  cam, rockers and/or piston severely damaged. Time for a rebuild.

So are you saying that if i would have been running a fcr carb on my bike the last few years with me driving it hard.....my rings would still be in good shape? I doubt it. I think if you said stock carb "with" the stock jetting that is known to be on the lean side...they will run too hot. My stock cv with the dynojet is set up near perfect. Runs strong from idle to redline with no hesitation or flatspots. Mine needs rings because i drove the absolute hell out of it for 3 -4 years. No aftermarket carb would have helped this.

[Thumper3]

This bike burnt up at 1600 miles due to missing oil, now at 3500 miles it's trying to do the same thing. Kinked oil feed line at the bottom of the frame was the smoking gun that we blamed it on the first time. Now I have an oil cooler and yet when I checked the oil this morning nothing registered so I drained. Black oil came out with shiny dust in it. Never a good sign. I figure around a 1/2 quart drained out.

 

Can't recall the last time I checked the oil, but it was somewhere around 3100 miles. No dirt, all street, not much freeway. Seems to be fine, then all at once (so it seems to me) it decides to burn or dump oil.

 

I have not pulled the plug yet (does seem to run fine, up until now anyway) and I want to do a compression test. Checked for flow in the oil lines and she is doing good there.

 

I've never had a bike go through oil like this POS so I'm wondering some black sheep have a habit of doing this or I'm missing something.

If its burning oil, change over to shell Rotella t 15w40 non synthetic. I tried this and it slowed down consumption quite a bit. Mine needs rings and drinks synthetic like a fat man who has been jogging in hot weather..lol

[rboe]

Mine has been rejetted. Me thinks that in the future I should run non-synthetic and just drop the oil every 1000 miles or a bit less as she seems to be OK up until around then (it lulls me into a false sense of security).

 

My tires are not that old, hardly worn, but are dated from 2011 and the rear is cracking in the valleys of the tread. Was going to replace them soon, now I'll just wait. Saved some cash there.

[Conifer_Mike]

My 2015 was eating oil so I switched to 20W-50 and I haven't needed to top off the oil since.

[valvesrule]

I think if you said stock carb "with" the stock jetting that is known to be on the lean side...they will run too hot.

You said it for me. I already get complaints for being long winded and a know it all. Sometimes it's better to play fill in the blanks.

[rboe]

I had to add that it's the stock carb but I've rejetted richer.