Oil Consumption

["Tom Brown" <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Al:

>I have just bought my first oilhead -- 2004 R1150RT. I
>traded up from a /5 and /6.

Congratulations.  I traded my '99 RT for and '04 and I'm liking it better 
each time I ride it.

>My question is:

>Since my 600 mile service and oil change, I've added a
>little more than 1.5 quarts of oil. This seems
>excessive to me. Is it normal?

The first thing you have to watch out for is over-filling the engine.   It's 
easy to do because the oil cooler can trap oil.  If this happens, that oil 
won't come down into the sump and you will get an artificial low reading on 
the sight glass.   If you over-fill, the engine will blow the oil out into 
the air box.   There is a plug on the black plastic box just in front of the 
rear wheel.   You turn it counterclockwise half a turn and it comes out. 
If a lot of oil pours out of there, you've been overfilling the bike. 
Check your air cleaner for oil.  If it looks contaminated, replace it. 
Drain the oil out of the air box and do not sin again.

The best way to check oil is to put the bike on the side stand while the 
engine is hot, leave it overnight, then put it on the center stand for 5 
minutes or more and check the sight glass.   Never fill beyond half way up 
the glass.  Never add more than 4 oz of oil even if you see nothing in the 
glass.   Give the oil a little time to rise.   Ride the bike around again 
and re-check rather than assume it's out of oil all the time.    I still get 
tripped up with this after 5 years of riding oilheads.   You have to find a 
routine that works for you.

Running the bike with no oil showing in the glass is not instant engine 
damage.    More people have hurt their engines by adding too much than by 
not adding enough.

If you change your own oil, don't add 4 quarts like the manual says.   Fill 
up the new oil filter about 3/4 full with oil before you screw it in.   Add 
3 quarts to the engine and see where you are.  Then slowly add more until 
the sight glass shows oil at the halfway level.   This is a lot less than 4 
quarts even with the filter.

NEXT:   NO synthetic until you've really run in the engine.   This means the 
engine runs smoother and oil consumption goes down.   You can tell the 
difference.   It can take as long as 20K miles or as little as 10K.   Don't 
even think about synthetic until you're sure it's broken in and that the 
rings are fully seated.    Oil consumption will become a non-issue because 
you'll go out for a full weekend of riding and never check it.  When you get 
home and check in the same place in the same way according to your routine, 
it will barely show any change.   When it's running like this, you can go to 
synthetic and reduce the consumption even further because it will not burn 
any oil either.

Synthetic is too slick for break in.   It doesn' t allow enough wear on the 
cylinder walls and rings to allow things to bed in properly.

NEXT:   As has been said by others, after the 600 mile check, ride the bike 
progressively harder as the miles increase.   After 2000 miles you should be 
able to run it hard occasionally.   The rings will wear in best with lots of 
different RPMs and loads including hard accelerations (above 3000 - don't 
lug the thing ever) and running at all RPMs rather than droning along in 6th 
gear on the highway at 2800 rpms for hours on end.

- -TB 

------------------------------