1996 K1100 LT - Oil Burner?

[beemrdon]

 
I use 1 ounce of oil for every 91 miles.  OR...I've gone about 4,000 miles and added an additional 44 ounces of oil total since my last oil change. ...No, I don't leave it on it's side stand often. I now use Mobil 1 15-50. The PO used Golden Spectro 20-50 dino/synthetic blend. The motor now has 78,xxx miles. The oil turns very dark only a few hundred miles after changing it, from looking through the sight glass.

Is this natural and common for these beasts?

(Oil will be changed again before the next thousand miles, I guess.)

Would some Seafoam in the oil for the last few hundred miles help?

The bike is running well and the spark plugs looked very good but worn when i changed them two weeks ago.

[The Mighty Gryphon]

An ounce per 100 miles sounds pretty normal since BMW specs oil consumption at something like a quart every 600 miles(Nobody here uses that much).   

If the plugs aren't oil fouled but are tan in color, I would say that you are in good shape.  It sounds like your rings and valve stem oil seals are in good shape.

As far as the Seafoam,  I wouldn't put in more than half a can or run it for more than 20 miles because it thins the oil out and some lubricity is lost..  I would also do it with fresh oil and filter in the engine.  The oil can be the cheapest 30 or 40 weight you can find and the filter can be a $4 Carquest replacement for a AC Delco PF53.  Put the cheap stuff in, run for about 20 miles and drain it out, replace with a good synthetic and a fresh oil filter. 

The main reason I did the flush to my bike was to clean the crap out of the sprag clutch.  These are fussy little gizmos that need to be kept crud free to operate properly.  After 25 years and 110,000 miles it was giving me some grief and the flush took care of the problem.  If you watch the oil change intervals, I would think you shouldn't have to do the flush more than once every 4-5 years at the most.  After all, it was nearly 25 years before the first one was done on my bike.

[Martin]

Don I had a bit of a look and apparently BMW quotes maximum consumption of a quart per 1000 miles. Your bike is consuming .34 of a quart per 1000 miles about a third of the allowable maximum consumption. You could try heavier oil or contact previous owner to see what his consumption rate was on the Spectro 20-50w. The sights I looked at had quite variable consumption figures, it apparently has a lot to do with the initial run in. Information was obtained of the K11 Owners Group site.
Regards Martin.

[F14CRAZY]

I set my oil level so there's just a little bit of oil visible in the top of the sight glass. After 5k it'll be about in the middle of the sight glass.

But hey, oil is cheap compared to tearing into the engine.

I think the side stand is overrated, though maybe that's just on my bike. I've left it on for a couple days and no smoke. After a few weeks it'll smoke but definitely not for short periods.

BTW: do K's go through valve guide seals?

[The Mighty Gryphon]

BTW: do K's go through valve guide seals?

Maybe.

I just replaced 16 of them on my K100RS.  It was using a over quart every 5-600 miles, and you could smell the oil in the exhaust.  A compression test showed excellent compression, so I figured the rings were good.  Did the seals over the winter, and just took the bike out for the first time today.  Did 125 miles, and I haven't noticed any major change like I used to in the oil level, so yeah, valve stem seals might be a problem.  FWIW, when I changed them, two of the 8 exhaust seals weren't even on the guide.  They were just loose on the valve stem and several other came off with hardly any effort.

[beemrdon]

Thanks guys, good info.

[johnny]

greetings...

when i was out west we were 2up-ing from 16 to 20 thousand miles a year...

i would change the oil once per year... mobil 1 15w50... i would top it off along the way mobil 1 20w50 hot weather 15w50 cold weather... sometiimes it would be low and would put in there what ever they had at the gas station...

i did not experience single engine failure of any kind... cause the key is to ride them often and ride them hard... and keep the oil line above the middle of the glass... when it goes below the middle put some in there...

i carry a bottle in my side case if im gonna be out for a while... keep adding... keeps the oil in there fresh... it would still be honey colour even at 20 thousand... figger i put 6 to 10 extra quarts in there over 20k...

now in the chee... sitting in unheated garage for 4 months whacks the oil... it getts changed every spring regardless of the miles... butts i still add and add and add until next spring... it will be honey in the fall and black in the spring... whack whack whack...

this year i did the seafoam and cheap 10w30... rode it hard for abouts 20 miles... man o man that stuff come out black... dont think im gonna do it every year... butts wanted to do it this year... cause i wants to be like the mighty grypoon...

j o 

[beemrdon]

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[The Mighty Gryphon]

Another point of view on oil changes:

I do my changes at the end of the season rather than the spring.  It's a habit picked up from working around boats and their engines, especially the diesels.  The theory goes that during use, some of the combustion byproducts get into the oil, specifically acidic compounds that can do microscopic etching to the metallic parts of the engine and that the etching follows the grain structure of the part, potentially weakening it over time.  Since many of the engines in boats have expected service lives of up to 40 years the cumulative effect can be substantial.  By changing the oil in the fall, the time that all that nasty stuff is in there is reduced by up to 6 months.

The change is done as close to going into storage as possible to minimize the run time on the new oil.  Once the change is done the engine is only run for a minute or so, just long enough to run antifreeze through the raw water side of the cooling system.  This minute or so of run time allows the new oil to flush any remaining old oil from the system, diluting it with the new.  The end result is that the engine has the benefit of the full additive package of corrosion protection for the storage period.