High oil comsumption CSR1000

My CSR uses oil too--almost at the rate you describe. Bike runs great, plenty of power, and doesn't smoke when riding or idling... I did see a puff of white smoke once when downshifting going through a canyon, but other than that, nothing obvious. I figure it must be leaking through the valve guides and being burned ever so slightly that its not obviously burning oil. Apart from a small drip from the tach cable it doesn't drip oil either. Maybe the guys are right and that these early J motiors just used a lot of oil.
I use ELF synthetic 20-50 oil.

OK Here we go. When it comes to oil you must be careful. First of all the heavier the oil the more you will burn. Because the rings will not be able to scrape it off the walls as well. Here is a link to one of the many OIL forums we have had here. Most of us run Shell Rotella-T in our bikes because modern automotive oils do not have the required amounts of ZDDP these bikes need. Some of us also run ZDDP additives.
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...d=2&id=374407#374836

Here is another.

kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...ew&catid=2&id=352062

In other-words do not run regular automotive oil.

Grantl wrote:

My CSR uses oil too--almost at the rate you describe. Bike runs great, plenty of power, and doesn't smoke when riding or idling... I did see a puff of white smoke once when downshifting going through a canyon, but other than that, nothing obvious. I figure it must be leaking through the valve guides and being burned ever so slightly that its not obviously burning oil. Apart from a small drip from the tach cable it doesn't drip oil either. Maybe the guys are right and that these early J motiors just used a lot of oil.
I use ELF synthetic 20-50 oil.

I believe that all of the KZ900/1000/1100s used a lot of oil. It is a nature of the beast. If you have one that uses no oil than there is something wrong with it. :laugh:

With 2 of these year,82 J motors. I have 1 with the same issue and 1 without. I have just done the top end on the 1100 with rings and a recon head. So far has not dropped any oil level in 1200mi. That was with 1 oil change around 500mi after work was complete.
The other is the 1000 I put together last year, and did the head but not the rings. I did replace the base gasket and looked at pistons & rings. Everything looked good, so I made the decision to forgo the rings. I never really noticed a major problem with oil consumption till I went on my 3600mi trip. Seemed OK for the first 700mi or so, but then in the desert heat, +100, it started. Now every tank, around 200mi I check it and it maybe used 1/3 a quart. This thing runs real strong, and even with all of the gear on I got a average 50mpg. I also dragged a couple of guys while traveling and the old Z kicked some ass with the hi-way gears even.
I have some fresh parts for the top coming from Z1.
I am going to look real close at the oil breather to see how it is baffled, as this can be a issue with oil burning, many manufactures have done updates to Valve covers etc when it has been causing problems.
I Have to fix it as while oil is still reasonably cheap compared to the hard parts. I hate having problems with any of my stuff.

Are there O ring or rubber valve stem seals on an 82 CSR 1000? It was 25 yr old when I bought it w/2.5K miles on it, so it sat for years in between. Maybe they are shot?

Yes there are valve stem seals in the head. I built my bike last year and everything on top is new. I still burn oil. In the first 500Mi I went threw a quart and a half. I changed the oil at 500. I am now on about 1300Mi on the engine and have gone threw about just under a quart or so in the 800 Mi.

Sure they will be all stiff, and probably not sealing well, but the valve guide its self would have to be pretty loose to loose the rate of oil you describe.
I am going to look closely at the breather cover its self. This is just under your rack of carbs, round, 1 hold down bolt in the center and 1 hose to the air-box. I want to see what sort of baffling is there, just to see, as this can be a issue.
Ride it as is till winter, then you can pull it down for a good inspection/ rebuild.

Motor Head wrote:

Oil ring is 3 pieces and the expander has to have the ends butted together, maybe possible that this was missed when engine was assembled.^

+1, that kind of oil consumption no way could be caused by bad guides/seals. Had same problem whit my 13500 km. 1100B1; 1qt per 200 km (130 miles), suspected (more a desire than anything) of really worn valve guides and seals in the best case or broken rings or damaged cylinder walls. What i found at dissasembling were perfect cyl walls, perfect pistons, perfect guides and seals and oil control rings not pushing the rings enough in all of the 4 cylinders; when i put control oil rings into the cylinder to check gap i noticed that the ends of the expander wasnt touching each other, so no tension was applied to the rings.