Burning Oil on 5th gen

Hi all,

My 1999 VFR800 has about 42,000 miles on it, and for the last 300 or so, it seems to be burning a lot of oil. Now, the bike was dropped right before I bought it, around 4 months ago, but I hadn't seen any signs of trouble until just recently. Now it smells heavily of burning oil, and you can see smoke when I gas it. The oil level is falling at a steady pace. I'm wondering if there are any known issues that might be causing this, such as bad valve stem seals, or if I might be looking at a more serious problem. The oil appears dark and clear, so I don't think it's a cracked header. Any thoughts on what I should do about this?

 

The smoke it coming oot of the muffler and not just smoking around the engine?

 

How often has the oil been changed? Has the air filter been very dirty? Best easy way to see what's going on is to inspect your spark plugs? Hopefully just one is very black and oily? Next fairly easy thing would be a compression test? If one cylinder is drastically different that will tell you which is the bad one. A puff of smoke under acceleration is usually worn out rings. Is it worse after it warms up or does it not matter? But either way very rare on the 800. I would inspect those spark plugs first.

 

I'm not really sure, haven't seen visible smoke myself but a friend I was riding with said they saw it when I took off. I asked them again and they said it was mostly just oil smell, not visible smoke, so I don't know. I'll look more into it.

Oil was changed around 2000 miles ago, shortly after I bought it. 10w40 motorcycle synthetic, new oil filter, air filter was fairly clean so I just dusted it off and put it back in. I also replaced the spark plugs at the same time. None of them were fouled when I replaced them, however, there was oil on the outside of the plug like it had leaked down onto the top of the engine. I didn't pay it much mind since I knew the bike had just recently been dropped at that point.

I don't think the bike being warm or cold makes a difference, other than the fact you can smell it running rich when it's cold.

 

When you changed the plugs did you notice any fresh oil that had been leaking? Which plug was it? I'm with tinker in saying it sounds like the valve cover gasket is not in right? Do you know if the pair valves have been worked on? I have read that if those are not sealed good they can make a mess? But I would take your fairings off and start looking it over very well for the source of yur leak. Clean the motor off if you have to and warm it up letting it idle and look for a leak. How much oil do you think you have lost?

 

The plugs were wet with what looked like fresh oil around the top of the crush gaskets. Small amounts but definitely fresh and not old baked-on oil.
The valve covers and engine look pretty much spotless from what I can see with the plastics still on. I won't have ytime to take them off today, but probably Monday. I don't know what if any maintenance has been done on the valves. I can look through the records that were given me, but they were far from complete. I haven't lost much oil, but definitely a little. It was slightly overfull after I filled it a couple months ago, and the picture below I just took after warming the engine up. You can see some carbon buildup in the exhaust pipe, which makes me think the leak is internal somewhere, maybe a valve stem. I ran it for a while in the garage today to warm it up, and didn't notice a whole lot of smell, and no visible smoke came out when I revved it after taking it off the enricher.

I'll pull the plastics off Monday and have a closer look. I might have to postpone taking it in for any kind of shop inspection or service, since I'm between contracts right now and money is tight.

 

Where on the sight window was it after the oil change? An easy thing to check is to take your air filter out and look in the air box for excess oil. The crankcase vent is in there along with the pair valve vent. Maybe one of those are spitting excess oil and re- entering the intake tract that way explaining the puff of smoke. It only takes about ten minutes to check. Also which plugs had the oil on them? All of them? If it were all of them it would be highly unlikely all your cylinders are bad.when I pull mine off I usually have a little wet oil on my crush washers. So a little would be normal. But still doesn't explain the loss of oil.

 

Find out anything else on this

 

Not yet sorry, been really busy this week and haven't had a chance to touch the bike yet. Getting to the air filter on mine requires removing the luggage bracket and tail cover before I can lift the seat and tank, so I've been putting it off until I have time to sit down and do that.

As for your earlier question, the oil level was just above the full mark on the sight window after I changed it, so it has dropped some, but not a lot.

 

Oh hey I completely forgot about this thread.

Yeah I pulled the filter out and checked the intakes, and number 3 was wet with oil. 1 had a bit too, but probably just seepage from 3. Cleaned everything out, and had to really clean out the filter well before putting it back together. Smell is a tad less now, but still clearly burning it, I suspect only a few drops a day really. I'm thinking probably valve stem seals on number 3, but I'm undecided what to really do about it. As long as it's only a small leak it doesn't seem worth it to pull the head apart to replace a seal, not to mention the cost. I plan to do a valve clearance inspection next month and maybe see what more I can learn about the problem then.