After some maintenance under the head cover, my head seems essentially leak-free.   Hurray!

-but this bike drinks oil.   Maybe at a normal rate.   Exhaust doesn't seem extraordinary; last time I pulled the spark plug, it look unremarkable.   I really need to keep an oil log.

That said, after about 500 miles of sustained 75-80 mph, checked the level- and couldn't see anything in the window, no matter how far over I managed to tilt it.   Adding oil, at least I could see a coating inside the case.

Last time I ran it, it seemed like I could over-rev the engine if acceleration was too aggressive; might that be a by-product of being ran dry?

The Savage may be a dirty beast- but it didn't burn up, being so ill treated.   I wonder- do you have any other bike that drinks so much- or that would put up with such abuse, dry?

Also the bottom end is ball bearing. In much of that 1/2 oil is a coolant, including on the cylinder walls and piston undersides, and they get splattered with oil and the heat causes evaporation and poof a little oil disappears.

Cool.
Srinath.

What oil you using?

Armen wrote on 02/12/20 at 16:34:42:


I re-read this with new appreciation:

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1570415428/0

Gary_in_NJ wrote on 02/12/20 at 15:28:18:


Chain conversion and re-gearing are on the list.   Though I covet lower rev's at high speed, I fear a loss of git-up-and-go when passing.

I'm reluctant to switch bikes- the replacement would have to feature the mechanical accessibility and support I enjoy with the Savage, no more weight, at least as much power, and preferably growl more than whine.

If you continue to operate at sustained speeds above 50 mph, I believe you can dramatically reduce your oil consumption by using an independent breather assembly.  The stock breather setup pulls oil out of the engine at high rpm.

Mavigonon,
Think about the Kawasaki front pulley that Dave sells. Taller gearing and you  get to keep the belt. Very easy conversion.

Have you pulled the plug out of the drain tube coming from the bottom of the airbox to see how much oil was collected in the air box?

How much oil did you have to add when you discovered the level was low?

FWIW my bike has the stock intake and exhaust and as far as I know the jets in the carb are also stock - I've never looked though.

I have never run my bike continuously for 500 miles at 75-80 mph but I've done many trips that involved running those speeds on interstates for several hours at a stretch, interspersed with time spent on secondary roads and in traffic, and have never had to add oil on any those trips.

I have used Rotella dino oil since I bought the bike ( I'm not the first owner. I bought the bike with around nine thousand miles on it and I don't know it's history) I change the oil and filter at 3500 miles and have never added oil between changes.  I have gotten maybe a teaspoon full of watery looking oil gunk out of the airbox drain at each oil change.

Running the engine out of oil in 500 miles even at the speeds you are talking about seems like an awful lot of oil to be coming out the breather.