Alright so I feel pretty crappy. I was in my shop staring at the carburetor and thought "hey I haven't checked the oil in a while let's see how dirty it is.." And that's when I realized there was next to no oil in my bike! WTH! Do I really deserve a woopin for not checking my stinking oil every single time I get on it or did somebody let the oil out and put the drain plug back in? Is my bike drinking it? It runs clean. Then again it has been a long time since I check the oil level. Poop!!!¡

This sucks, I really love this bike. I mean it runs better now that I put the T6 i had left in it but son of a...  So hand it to me straight! what did I do to the inside of my bike?what needs to be replaced? The engine sounds great I mean, i was going back and forth from Riverside to Laguna like once a week. Plus all my around town driving cause its my only vehicle and I haven't checked the oil since psh.. a while.
 
Anyway besides all that I have this leak somewhere in my carburetor that's also killing my performance. I sealed up pretty much everything from the outside Do to process of elimination. I took the carb apart and looked it over And everything looks fine. Its like air whistling past the butterfly with every inhale. I think there may be something internally with the choke cuz pulling the knob out seems to make the sound go crazy loud. Even though I can't pull the knob rite now cause i sealed the whole area off with silicone.
 Anybody got any clue what that is?

If it still runs, at most you overheated the valves a touch. I ran mine clean out of oil the first time I put synthetic in it. Couple hundred miles and it lost a full 2 quarts. Has still never needed the valves adjusted or the rings replaced, and that was in 2000 or 2001. In Mississippi, in August, at a bike rally, so lots of very low speed high heat "put your feet down to stop because you had to dial back the idle the roads were so packed you could crawl backwards faster" riding. Exhaust pipe turned glowing red type engine temps, with a couple ounces of oil in it and the engine survived just fine.

WD - yeah I've gotten the feeling that this is a pretty "die hard" little engine.
I'm curious though... I've never noticed a decrease in oil like that,, and its not coming out the tailpipe so its not being burnt. Huh...

The carb thing has me totally perplexed though. Verslavy payed me a visit not that long ago and we were spraying around the carb and noticed a decrease in rpm when spraying over that seal with the e clip over it that's supposed to be one arm of the butterfly, starboard side. I also noticed a decrease in rpm when spraying over the choke knob area. I sealed all that crap off good with silicone but I still here the whistling coming out of my cone filter. That's why I suspect there's something going on in the inside. I noticed nothing visually when taking it mostly the whole way apart. The only part of the carb i havent gone thru is the float assembly, and it seems to work fine.

Some bikes flat out do not like synthetic oil. Mine is one of them. It will magically lose a full sump in under 300 miles, regardless of brand or weight. Dino juice it doesn't lose but a couple tablespoons in a year, and that is because it leaks like an old Ironhead Sportster or an old Triumph. I learned my lesson, my bike gets real oil, none of that hydrocracked or true synthetic crap has been in the sump in close to a decade.

The whistle is your pod filter coming apart. Look for a crack under the retainer band.

Oh right,, rotting dinosaurs. So your bike doesn't leak much When using real oil is what you're telling me huh? I do have a lot to learn. I thought that synthetic was better.

If it will stay in the engine, yes, synthetic is usually better. If it disappears, it is about as useful as having water in the sump.

Boogieman,

Are you still running the stock vac petcock?    

Jest curious if you are or did you have some "running out of gas" events that caused you to change it to a Raptor?


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What you describe is what we call "sudden onset oil consumption".

It is fairly common on these bikes between 15,000 and 20,000 miles.

Same general mileage range as the petcock going bad, so we ask questions to each new person that has SOOC to see if we can connect any dots about what they have seen, or done to their bike at about the same time the sudden oil consumption began.

Once your bike starts sipping oil, you have to check the oil every time you put gasoline in it.

Check out the references to the List Sidestand Oil Check Method, you may well now be a candidate for that little trick.

Boogieman wrote on 10/14/13 at 17:11:07:

No that stuff causes the clutch to slip