Oil consumption is really getting old.

Well, it seems ym oil consumption has gotten even worse. I'm now up to about 1 to 1-1/2 qts per 1000 miles and that's using 20W-50. I was blowing through it even faster when I used thinner stuff. The thing is there is not even a hint of a leak anywhere on the bike and no visible smoke at any time. It's not leaking it out and I can't figure how it's burning it without making smoke

I may not be a darksider for much longer, I'm thinking hard about putting the thing back to stock form, selling my accesories and trading it on a VFR800 or possibly a new Busa. The vibrating cruiser thing is starting to get a little old too, or so my back tells me after 300 miles.


Oh well, time to go change the filter and add some oil

George

George , take a look at this....
http://tech.vtxoa.com/index.php?action=artikel&cat=5&id=181&artlang=en

do you think this is what is happening?
let me know if this helps, Horse

What....... First I heard about the oil leak! How long has it been doing this?


................bobby

.

Mine is not leaking oil. thanks for the link, but it's not the case here. I have pressure washed the underside of the bike perfectly clean and ridden hard all weekend and come home with no oil anywhere to be found, never a single drop of oil on my shop floor where it sits every night, never a drop of oil in the breather housing (now running a BAK though) it just uses oil excessively. I checked my oil after a 1500 mile week and it took two qrts to bring it back to full.

I like my bike, other than the lack of power (it's hard being an ex- sport bike guy at times) and now the oil consuption has me seriously considering a trade to a sport touring bike. I had an ST1300, but think I will go with the more nimble VFR800 this time around.

Oh well, time to get back to work.

George

Well, so far the Triumph Sprint ST is the current leader in my choice of new bikes. The Honda ST1300 was too quirky (had one) the VFR is low on power and uncomfy for the passenger plus a grand for hardbags. The BMW's are just not going to happen, the Kawasaki Councours14 is too spendy and I'm not a big fan of Kawi's. The Yamah FJR will never be an option as I deteste Yamahas in general.

I'm not trading bikes for another month probably but so far it looks like a 1050 triple is in my future

As far as cruisers go, I've been missing the thrill of acceleration and as much as I absolutely love my VTX it's never been as comfy as a Sport touring bike. I would consider a Valk, but finding a used one is impossible around here and besides I want a warrenty and as nice as they are they are still a big heavy slow bike when compared to a ST.

Oh well, I'll stop venting. This has been a very frustrating week when it comes to me and bikes.

George

That Triumph Sprint is a fine bike. I would love to have one of them. Good choice!

.................bobby

.

Yeah, it just really sucks to get rid of the VTX after countelss hours of working on t to get it just right. I've painted he dang thing four times, deleted the tank seam, smoothed welds on the frame, built custom risers, made custom baffles for m Cobra pipes, mustang seat, windshield, throttle lock, etc etc etc. I almost had the thing perfect, all that was left was a set of lowers (material will be in Wed to make the) ad a trailer hitch and it would have been 99% complete (mius the turbo of course)

Oh well, time will tell what I decide. I'll still be on here even if I'm not on a darkside

George

I'm glad you are going to stay with us
your friend , Horse

George -

Could you please furnish a little background informantion on your situation for the rest of us??

What year and model is your VTX??
How many miles do you currently have on the bike??
How many miles were on the VTX when the problem started to show itself??
Had any modifications been made immediately prior to the oil consumption problem starting to show up??

If you're not leaking oil, not blowing oil out the crankcase vent system or blowing it out the tailpipes past bad oil rings(are the tailpipes oily wet ??), then the oil is being burnt very efficiently in the combustion chambers (still should be showing up on the plugs as oil-fouling and you should still see some evidence in the tailpipes). I've never seen oil escape from an engine in any other way, except through the cooling system due to a cracked block or blown gasket/seal somewhere. Oil just doesn't evaporate !!!

Please furnish as much info as you can. Maybe someone here has a solution for you, or the rest of us can avoid the same condition on their VTXs in the future.

Thanks

Mines a 03 and I have now just under 59,000 and havent put a drop of oil in between changes.

Its got to be going someplace, out the pipe or blowby, the crank case pressure hose.

How much are you getting in your air box?

May try a aftermarket crank pressure filter and see if it going there.

Alright, I figured this post would lead to more questions so I'll try to answer them as best I can.

Bike is a 2005 VTX1300C

Total miles as of now; 17,276

When did it start showing it's ugly face??
about 5 thousand miles back or so it started using a little and has been gradually worse ever since.

Mods done?
plenty but long before the oil problem started

In the airbox?
Nope, not one drop in the aribox, maybe a very faint mist at most just due to crank case pressure but no buildup and no oil stains in my air filter

tail pipes?
Solid black and heavy coated, but it's also been running very rich for the last few thousand miles due to me being too lazy to jet it proper, but mostly due to me riding in extreme cold so I leave my bike jetted rich so it still runs decent at 20 degrees and colder. I've found that when I have the bike jetted spot on in the summer at 100 degrees that it runs like poo when it's 15 degrees out so I compromise.

Spark plugs?
Very black, but see above answer. Not heavily built up with carbon though.

Possible oil evaporation?
I realise this doesn't happen, I've been a mechanic since I rebuilt my first engine (318 Dodge) at age 12. I've bult numerous race engines, high performance diesels, turbo'd stuff, perfomance mods on bikes and about everything else. I understand that it doesn't really make sense as the quantity of oil does not fit in anywhere in the places to look. I also understand that I'm tired of adding a qt a week to keep the oil light from coming on when I come to a stop quickly. I havn't given up on this bike yet, but I am starting to research my options should I decide it's time for change.

While I don't mind help I also tend to be stubborn (comes with years of experience I guess) so please don't be offended if someone suggests something and I don't rush to try it out. I am always listening even if I'm sceptical please don't take any of my ramblings as a que to "leave me alone" or think that I must "know it all"

Thanks for any suggestions,
George

What the hell?!? That makes no sense.

No smoke out the pipes at any given time?

I'd hate to see this make you get rid of the bike, but just outta curiousity would you want stock tins for the sale/trade in of said bike? Just a thought.

I do honestly hope it's an easy fix and you can/want to keep it though.

On the tuning part...why not tune it for the hotter temp and add the Hick's screw to make changes easier when it gets colder. Or was that much temp difference mean another shim too?

Why not get the easy adjust screw? Just lazy I guess

As to the tins, I dunno. I guess I need to decide what I am going to do first, then if I do decide it's time for it to go we can talk.

In an attempt to force a leak to be found I put the bike on my rear stand, started it up and let it sit in 5th gear with the speedo on 85mph for about 15 minutes and no oil drips anywhere. With the quantity of oil being used it should smoke, or puddle or something. I have checked for smoke at startup (valve seals) and checked for smoke at full operating temp (rings)

Maybe the oil really is evaporating

George

just a shot in dark, did you check your cooling system and bowl??? Is it mixing oil with coolant??

third thing I checked

George

Ok, shot in the dark but I've done this to a friend to mess with his smart ass.

Think anyone might be removing oil via the dipstick just to mess with you? Any practical jokers that you got awhile back and they never got you back?

This doesn't make much sense at all. There should be some evidence of it going somewhere...something.

I put gas in a friends gas tank at night for a month just to hear him brag about the mileage and never told him. when i stoped putting gas in at the start of the next month he took his car in to get it checked to find out why his milage went down so fast , he even thought someone was steeling gas at night. ... but oil that is not even funny , it would make someone want to tear down an engine. not cool and not funny.

Ok...first thing a tech at work here(freightliner shop) mentioned was "is he running rich?"

"if he his that's most likely his problem. 1000-1500 miles is alot of miles of those small pistons moving that fast and a mist of oil out the pipes for 1000 miles will never be seen by the naked eye."

So, with that guessimate I'd say properly tune it for the temp and get the Hick screw to make adjustments for winter and see. Change the plugs too.

He said he was willing to bet the heads were carboned up too from it.

I decided to run it a little lean for a few days and I'll let you know what happens. Right now I am running a tad lean just enough that I get a lisght stumble on accleration. I checked my milage and I'm currently getting 9mpg better than my average so it's definately lean. I've never seen a rich setup cause an engine to use oil, but hey i guess we'll see. The plugs are a tad fouled, not bad though and NO carbon buildup. I never leave the house without hitting the rev limiter or coming darn close on my 80 miles daily commute at an indicated 80-110mph so it's not being babied.

BTW, running 80-110 for 150 miels netted me 48mpg, think that's lean enough

After I get home from teaching this weekend it will have about 800 miles of slightly lean running and we'll see where the oil is then. I'll also move the needle another clip and turn the screw out a tad. When winter comes I'll just turn the screw back in and raise the needle a clip I guess. Still havn't found a real need for the fancy aftermarket Hick's screw yet. I can change my needle setting in 3 minutes without removing the air filter and with my home made tool reach the screw in another minute.

Like I said before, it's not incompetence it's just plain lazy

George

OK, still no idea although it is using a tad less now. My current formula for riding is this:

One week = One thousand miles = One quart oil

I ride a lot, especially teaching in the summer and now that I've moved out in the middle of nowhere. At the rate of a qt a week I'm really worring about the long term life span of this particular motorcycle (or rather it's engine) I'd love to save some money and figure out why, but I gotta figure it out soon or I will be forced to part ways with my steed.

Oh well, can't work on it this weekend, we have our state rally which means more riding and I'm leading the FastLane ride Saturday (on a cat tire VXT!!)

God bless,
George

gstanfield wrote:
Oh well, can't work on it this weekend, we have our state rally which means more riding and I'm leading the FastLane ride Saturday (on a cat tire VXT!!)

God bless,
George

Awesome George!!!!! Show 'em your darkside...............

..........bobby

.

We're riding our FastLane ride tomorrow. It's about 40 miles of narrow twisty, uneven pavement, decreasing radius, off camber, blind curves. It shoudl be fun but pray that we don't have any crashes as it's a nasty road with very little to no forgiveness and deep ravines to fall into without so much as a shoulder, much less a guardrail.

I had a talk tonight that it's not for everyone, so hopefully our fun is not ruined by death and/or dismemberment. I'm trusting in God on this one. I've ridden the dragon and I'd say this road is ten times harder to ride. It's not more crooked, but factor in almost every curve is decreasing radius and off camber and most are blind (cresting a hill mid turn) and it takes more skill than the nice smooth roller coaster ride of the dragon.

Yep, they will see how a darkside riding two up can handle these tight turns with no issues at all

George