[conair]

I have done 1650 miles on my 990 2012 super duke r in the 2 months since buying it but noticing it has a thirst for oil ! its doing 400 miles to 350ml of oil ! now that seems excessive to me so i took it back to the dealer i bought it from as it is under warranty and they are telling me i am OVER filling it as i am not checking the oil correctly ! in the manual it says get engine fully warmed up or after a ride and stand it up level as in a paddock stand i use, leave it for 5 mins after switching off then check the level on the clear pipe on the side of the oil tank or thats how i have been doing it and did the same on my 950 sm for the 2 years i had that aswell, dealer says NO NO NO start the engine and as long as there is oil in the clear pipe thats it plenty of oil !!! ? so they said after the engine stops oil drains into the engine so checking the oil level on the clear pipe will always show its low and when i top it up to the max mark i am over filling it ! doesnt sound right to me, they have also said there is a scavage valve/1 way valve in the oil pump somewhere and if this is not working oil will drain back into the engine when engine is turned off so they are talking about replacing that.
Im not convinced because i have put about 3lt of oil in this bike in 1600 miles and if i had over filled it by 3lt im sure i would of seen it piss out all over the place but no oil leaks anywhere, motor runs mint sounds mint and i cannot see or smell burning oil ! any thoughts more than welcome.

 

[TrouserSnake]

An engine can burn a fair amount of oil without any signs of smoke.

FWIW.. my 990 doesn't require any oil between services, which is usually only about 2-3k miles.

However mine is a PITA to judge oil level. If I set it to normal height as per the manual (when it's hot but sat for a while) then it would be very high when the engine is running, like right at the top of the sight tube.

But these are dry sump engines, as long as there is oil in the tank then the engine is good, the actual level is not that important. The tank level can vary a lot in use as there is a delay between oil supply and oil return, so running briefly at high revs can drain the tank initially. I don't believe the non return valve is leaking as on these bikes it is one hell of a non return valve.

What I tend to do now is to check it when I stop at traffic lights, as long as it's half way up the tube (or more) then I'm happy.

 

[Ship]

When l do an oil change, l put in a litre, spin it over without starting, then top up to about a 1/4 on sight tube (or dip stick on adv) ........ when its properly warm, its then showing almost full. Every LC8 l have had has used a bit between oil changes, but nothing that has caused me concern.

 

[DucATIRadeon]

same here: 2012 SMT990 barely any oil consumption: 0.5L in over 15,000km if not more (kms that is)

 

[conair]

bikes only done 9500 miles so putting in over 2.5lt in the 1600mile iv done since buying the bike seemed a bit heavy as my 950sm proberly used 100ml every 1000 mile if that, dealer has asked my to keep an eye on it and take pics for him before i refill it but as you say as long as there is oil in the tank alls good.

 

[charlie264]

Take it for a ride, hot, check the oil and keep it on the bottom end if the sight glass. If I fill my SE to the top of the sight glass it just chucks oil out of the breather, when I first got it I made the mistake of topping it up per owners manual. I should have stuck to my knowledge with other dry sump bikes.

 

[conair]

no oil leaks anywhere or from the breather, its obviously just burning oil 100mile to 100ml now.

 

[Ship]

Are you completely sure it is being burned? That is an oil rich 2t premix ratio of oil and petrol - the bike would be visibly smoking, fouled plugs, spooge, the lot. The bike would also be running weak.

 

[TrouserSnake]

I reckon 100ml of oil to 12.6 litres of petrol is a 126:1 mix ratio (based on 36 mpg).
I think a 4T could easily burn that amount without visible smoke. I was on one ride where my mate ran out of fuel and was forced to run premix in his XR400, and that didn't smoke even though it was using a 40:1 mix (or something like that).

@conair I think your bike is likely burning that oil.
What now... is your warranty still valid?

 

[Ship]

Agreed, but engine oil doesnt burn in same way as 2t oil that is designed to be burnt .....

 

[conair]

iv only had the bike since end of Feb have 2 year warranty on it, dealer says im over filling it ! if i was im sure by now it would be pissing oil out everywhere with the amount of oil i have put in since Feb ! but he said he is going to order a scavage non return valve or something apparantly it stops oil draining into the engine when the motor is switched off its, bike has full akra system and if anything runs a tad rich black soot at the end of the cans but bike runs mint. never had a bike that uses so much oil and you cannot see/smell it burning. oil my FJ1200 used about a quarter of the oil this does but that had worn valve stem seals and only smoked and smelt when cold started for 30secs but it stunk of burning oil this doesnt and there is no oil on the number plate/cans/rear end of the bike. or is the lack of smell down to fully sinthetic oil ! i dont know.

 

[charlie264]

Only 1600 miles, barley run in. Borrow a bore scope and have a look down the plug holes, could be just not run in. Look for excessive carbon on the cylinder heads. ISTR my used oil until about 4500 miles, now I never touch it between oil changes.

 

[Ship]

Or. Dump the oil, put in some cheapo mineral, rag it for a 100 miles to try and bed the rings, then back to normal oil.

Running in on cheapo mineral and getting the rings bedded - on and off the throttle - tried and tested.

KTM used to use a motorex running in oil up until the 600 m service, dont know if they still do.

 

[conair]

bit of confusion lol bike had 9500 miles on it when i bought it and i have done 1600 miles on it since then.

 

[Ship]

Oh, l thought it was 1600 total, LOL.

 

[TrouserSnake]

Maybe it's going to take a process of getting the garage to drain it (leave the filters alone).. measure what comes out, fill it again with this known amount (ignore the sight glass), run for some miles then drain and measure the amount left.

If it's using 100ml in 100 miles then doing a few hundred (maybe even 500) should be a nicely measurable amount of oil loss that can't simply be put down to spill losses whilst draining the oil.

 

[charlie264]

Or it could be a solid oil ring on the piston. Bore scope, Ive got a cheap one that plugs into PC, phone. Decent one you can look in any direction, make sure it fits the 10mm hole though.

 

[charlie264]

no oil leaks anywhere or from the breather, its obviously just burning oil 100mile to 100ml now.

You've checked the air filter?

 

[Ship]

Well and truly oiled!

 

[conair]

Air filter is a Rotweiler jobby so just oil soaked foam filter all pristine and clean as the bike had the big service when i bought it including valves aswell, after doing a week to/from work its back to min again so thats another 2-300ml to refill to max mark lol im going to rename the bike the Torry Canyon !