78 kz650 SR BURNING OIL

Unless it's pumping out clouds of smoke I would probably just ride it and check the oil level frequently to see how much oil is being consumed. It could just be a sticky ring that may free itself up with use.

As far as torque specs - use the manual but keep near the low side of the ranges. Check on this site for the correct torque for the cam caps - some manuals have it way too high. Be sure to use the correct torque wrenches. In other words, don't use a foot pound torque wrench for torque specs that specify inch pounds, even if you do the conversion. The reason is that even the very highest quality torque wrenches are NOT accurate at levels lower than 20% of their range maximum, and cheapie wrenches are worse. Ed

650ed wrote: Unless it's pumping out clouds of smoke I would probably just ride it and check the oil level frequently to see how much oil is being consumed. It could just be a sticky ring that may free itself up with use.

As far as torque specs - use the manual but keep near the low side of the ranges. Check on this site for the correct torque for the cam caps - some manuals have it way too high. Be sure to use the correct torque wrenches. In other words, don't use a foot pound torque wrench for torque specs that specify inch pounds, even if you do the conversion. The reason is that even the very highest quality torque wrenches are NOT accurate at levels lower than 20% of their range maximum, and cheapie wrenches are worse. Ed

I put close to 300 miles on it this past weekend I figured if it was a stuck ring it would have loosened up by now. And the amount of smoke is just enough to irritate me. I can't see any behind me when I'm under power and moving along but sitting and idling you have to be in just the right light and hold your mouth right to see some puffs rolling up lol. For example at a red light during nighttime I can look back and the cars headlights behind me shows clearly smoke coming up. Here's the odd thing though.... If I goose the throttle it will puff out what smoke is in the pipe but not create any more. It seems to me it ONLY smokes very little at an idle. Very odd

Since you have no oil in the chamber, the only place I can think of that might cause this is the valve guides and/or valve oil seals on the exhaust might be leaking.

These bikes will burn "a little" oil in normal operation and what you are describing actually sounds pretty normal to me.