oil level rising. Coolant leak? Head gasket? Cost?

I finally spoke to a real mechanic (Marv at Rocky Mountain Kawasaki). Every other shop I spoke to couldn't come up with a possible explanation for what's going on, but they all offered to look it over and charge me $100 for diagnostic work. He said there is a crankcase breather hose connected to the airbox for emissions reasons. If there was any significant amount of gas in the crankcase then this would cause the bike to run poorly when it got hot (mixture too rich). My bike runs fine, so I asked about the gas smell. He said it's normal to smell some gas in the oil. He said to also check the tailpipe and see if it was sooty or greasy -- mine is clean. I asked why my oil level went up, Marv said it could be due to oil remaining in the oil cooler during an oil change, then draining down later. So we agreed that I'd do an oil change, fill oil just to the min. line, and ride it. Oil level went up after the first ride, but not in the following 300 miles. Looks like my problem is solved.

 

So a real mechanic said the same thing we said.

 

Ha Ha...my thoughts exactly Rangerscott. Guess working on bikes full time for 25 years doesn't qualify...

I'm a little disappointed though...I began thinking spontaneous regeneration of oil might make this Viffer very special...considering crude is up around 140 bucks a barrel.