oooooo that oil smell

you guessed it. Im burning oil. I figure on a 20+ year old bike its probably the piston rings. To put this problem off until winter a buddy recommended using a heavier oil. I use 10-40 now, would switching to 20-50 really make a difference.

What else other than piston rings could be the problem? Any troubleshooting ideas?

If it burns oil when you first start it up, it would be the valve stem seals.

Measure your compression with the throttle wide open. Write it down. Then add a teaspoon of oil to each cylinder and measure it again. If the readings jump up then you know it's the rings.

I've never heard that higher viscosity can reduce oil leakage past the rings. I'd be curious to know if that will work.

compression huh? now what if i dont have a compression gauge, any other ways to test or a cheap way to make a gauge.

would have carbs that are out of sync effect this at all?

valve stem seals???? how would i tell if its burning just at start up. any way to check the seals there. i was going to adjust my valves soon anyway....

You can't make a compression gauge. If you own an older bike, it is worthwhile to buy one... autoparts store...

Get one with a rubber tip on the end that can be press fit into the plug hole so you will avoid having to worry about getting the correct size and thread pitch adapter that screws into the hole.

Kent gave you some good advice and you want to sync the carbs to check your oil burning problem? Bwhahahaha There are two places where the oil can come from that is being burned.
1. cylinder head
2. cylinder/pistons

If the cylinder head is the cause, the oil seals are bad or the valve guides are bad or both. End of story. Bad oil seals drool oil into the combustion chamber when the bike sits and the bike tends to SMOKE at start up... there will be smoke at other times but more at start up.

If the cylinder/pistons are bad, there is poor seal between rings and cylinder wall... this can be that the pistons and/or cylinder bores are worn past service spec, the rings are shot, the cylinders are no longer round, a ring is broken, a piston lan (slot where ring sits) is cracked.

Kent suggested checking compression to narrow down the likely source of the problem. Test 1 dry. Test 2 wet. Hold throttle open. A BIG jump in compression means the cylinder/piston is the culprit. A modest jump means some wear in that area but the head is most likely the problem.

Syncing the carbs won't correct any of this. To fix any of these things will require removing the cylinder head and/or removing the cylinder and possibly the pistons. Swap your cam chain and associated bits out when doing this work.

I like to use the screw in kind of guage. I tried to hold my old push style gauge, pull the clutch in, and hit the start botton with my nose. I dont think I need to tell you guys what happend after that:pinch: :whistle: :blush:

Chances are it needs valve stems guides and seals. I pulled the head off my kz and still saw crosshatch in the bore at 17,000 miles. That was 11 years ago and when I pulled the plugs last year I stuck a thin flexible led inside the cylinders and still saw a little crosshatching.