I have an 11 14 (gen1) that is suddenly going through more oil than it ever did.
Mine too but I noticed much earlier than you did. Must have been about 10 k miles.
I went from a synthetic blend that a mechanic recommended to Redline and then to Mobile 1 racing oil.
Me too but I went from Kaw conventional to Repsol 4T racing full synthetic race oil.
I've been running the mobile 1 for about 2 yrs.
I only ran the Repsol for 2000 miles. Then back to Kaw. Funny thing, that's right about when I started to notice I needed to add oil.
She's not as smooth as she was and the engine is noisier than in yrs past but no knocks or any unusual noise that I can tell.
Are you sure? These things don't run real quiet. A normal noise can the better of you if you're looking for something wrong.
I did the plugs about 3 yrs ago.
Good! How were they? Black? Mine were at 10k. I've only seen one pic of reasonably clean looking plugs come out of a 14. It seems to me that carboned up black plugs are pretty normal. If they are wet with oil, I would consider that to be a problem especially if you have low compression.
I can go from oil change to oil change without adding a thing until a couple weeks ago.
Sudden leak.
Ive ridden maybe 400 miles since and its now down to midway between the marks.
...and sounds pretty bad but that's about the same as what I was dealing with.
I haven't notice a power loss.
Good. Probably just a leak.
It does take her a while to warm up and will stall at idle til shes warmed up but after that shes fine...I'm thinking about accessing my PCV to try and increase the idle speed.
The ECU should take care of idle at startup. 900 rpm is too slow of an idle. Some people have adjusted it that low to soften the clunk into 1st gear but Hub says 900 rpm is pounding the crankshaft and I believe him. Go for at least 1000. I stick with 1100 and live with the clunk. With your idle that low, the bike might be too cold to run when the ECU switches off of fast idle----maybe. Mine idles very slow if I start in really cold weather like freezing or below. Maybe the ECU does that to get the oil circulated or else it goes lean for a while at very cold starts before switching to fast idle. Then it goes to fast and finally to normal.
You can't change idle speed with the PC5. You can program how soon AutoTune comes on after startup and you can adjust startup fueling but no way to change the idle speed. That's the little silver knob hanging down on the LH side by the drain tubes. Adjust to 1100 when well warmed up. The ECU should take care of the startup fueling and idle.
Any suggestions or ideas? I was hoping to keep riding the bike as is for the rest of this season and pull it apart over the winter.
Hope you have a nice warm garage and some time. Remove fairings. Oil? Check front of valve cover by LH headers with finger, same around main hoses at water pump on LH side--check the springading on the water pipe. Oil there? Remove coolant reservoir. Oil on engine underneath? Remove top engine wires and open rubber flap. Oil around head cover? Or maybe you don't need to do any of that. Remove fairings and you will probably find oil somewhere if the leak is as bad as it sounds. You got the infamous head cover gasket leak. Let it sit over winter and it might just leak down to the bottom of the headers.
Test valve cover bolt tightness. Loose? That's it. Remove each, place washer under head of bolt, torque to spec---or skip the washers and put a new ring-o on each bolt instead then torque --there is a proper bolt sequence). That should slow it down. If you want to go all the way, remove valve cover, replace heasd cover gasket, spark plug well gaskets and ring-os. That will stop it. Check the head cover bolts for torque once/year ever after. I have tutorials on all of this.
If you're replacing the gasket, Might as well check valve clearance while you're at it. Your choice if you do the adjustment yourself and I'm sure you will need that at this point if it has not been done. Much work and much carefulness. I have tutorial on that too...ask if you need pics uploaded, most tutorials are out of photobucket pics.
* Last updated by: Rook on 9/17/2017 @ 3:06 PM *
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