oil light

after running my bike awhile the oil light flickers when idling. even if i just changed the oil. new petcock and carbs are not leaking. no gas in the oil. shoul i worry about this? i put 50w oil in it.

thanks,

vach

is that on you 650??, if so yes I would be worried, I normally run 10-40 in the bike, so you have 50wt in it and the light is flikering.
the first thing to check is that the oil pressure is where it needs to be, if so then it could be the sender or a bad wire causing it, but I would check the oile pressure first

Oil sending units are typically designed to light when the pressure drops to about 8 - 10 psi. That is very low, it usually means something is wrong. In cars, it almost always means the oil pump is shot.

You won't know if the sender is accurate until you actually plug a gauge in and measure the pressure.

The pumps on KZ's are supposed to hold up pretty well, but they are easy to replace if that is the problem.

vach wrote:

after running my bike awhile the oil light flickers when idling. even if i just changed the oil. new petcock and carbs are not leaking. no gas in the oil. should I worry about this?

My factory manual only specs the oil pressure service limit at something like 3000 RPM, there is no spec at idle. Obviously, it would be a lot better if it wasn't that low, but I am not sure it means that it is unservicable.

Pardon me for asking the obvious, but why are you putting 50W oil in an engine that calls for 10w40? I would start by putting in the correct oil, maybe the oil pump just can't push that molasses through the engine. Ed

the main reason i went with 50w is because the oil keeps breaking down. it gets to thin after the bike gets hot. the 40w and 30w are even worse. no gas in the oil though. the bike seems to get so hot that it's killing my oil. the plugs look good, not running lean, so i'm stumped. it just flickers at 1000rpm. anyone else have any suggestions?

vach wrote:

the main reason i went with 50w is because the oil keeps breaking down. it gets to thin after the bike gets hot. the 40w and 30w are even worse. no gas in the oil though. the bike seems to get so hot that it's killing my oil. the plugs look good, not running lean, so i'm stumped. it just flickers at 1000rpm. anyone else have any suggestions?

Blown head gasket could be letting combustion products blow into the crankcase. That causes overheating and fouls the oil.

vach wrote:

the main reason i went with 50w is because the oil keeps breaking down. it gets to thin after the bike gets hot. the 40w and 30w are even worse. no gas in the oil though. the bike seems to get so hot that it's killing my oil. the plugs look good, not running lean, so i'm stumped. it just flickers at 1000rpm. anyone else have any suggestions?

could be a oil pump issue causing it to over heat, not enough oil will do that, at this point I think it might be safe to pull the pan and look for any damage before it gets worse

My KZ900 always flickered at Idle to Low RPM's when I used SAE40 Oil, but that stopped when I switched to Full Synthetic 20W50 or 10W40. Even with the SAE40 oil when I put an actual gauge on the engine, it showed decent oil pressure, but it is higher with the synthetic oil and the light rarely goes on anymore.

BSKZ650 wrote:

could be a oil pump issue causing it to over heat, not enough oil will do that, at this point I think it might be safe to pull the pan and look for any damage before it gets worse

I would say if its overheating and not running lean, this would be a wise idea.