Oil inside reed valves

Hey everyone
I'm noticing my bike uses a lot of oil after a top end rebuild. While I was doing a clean air delete I found oil inside the reed valve covers. I assumed it was due to the clean air system not functioning properly so I got rid of it and connected the two ports together. After a few hundred more miles I'm finding the bike is still going through a lot of oil and there is still oil inside the reed valves. Does anyone know what causes this so I can fix it and not have to worry about my oil level on longer rides

nickleo373 wrote: Hey everyone
I'm noticing my bike uses a lot of oil after a top end rebuild. While I was doing a clean air delete I found oil inside the reed valve covers. I assumed it was due to the clean air system not functioning properly so I got rid of it and connected the two ports together. After a few hundred more miles I'm finding the bike is still going through a lot of oil and there is still oil inside the reed valves. Does anyone know what causes this so I can fix it and not have to worry about my oil level on longer rides

That oil is the same oil that's spraying into your exhaust. Sounds like you have improperly installed oil control rings. It's pretty common to mess this up on the first try at replacing rings.

I'm pretty sure I installed the rings correctly, however I'll probably take it apart again to double check. Could this problem be caused by the timing being off on the engine?

If you take the pipes off and look at the valves, you should see oil coming down from the guides. If so, that's your problem.
Steve

The problem could also be a bad cam cover gasket around the passageway from the reedbox to the exhaust port. When the pressure is low, oil can be sucked from the cam area into the passageway and out the port. When there is a new exhaust pulse, the pressure can push any remaining oil into the reedbox.
This is common enough on the ZX11 / ZRX1100 that there is an aftermarket fix that involves an aluminum plug. I am not sure it will work on a KZ because the design of the passageway is a bit different.

kwickstand.net/Hyper-Formance.com/NoFlo%...Injection_Plugs.html

Ok so I'm finally about to get back into the KZ after purchasing a 1971....CB450 :whistle: to ride around in the meantime. Just for clarification, oil dripping down from the guides would indicate incorrectly installed oil rings or an incorrectly timed engine? The valve cover gasket was just installed a few months ago when I rebuilt the top end, so I don't believe it could already be no good

Valve guide seals could have been installed incorrectly. New valve cover gasket? Don't believe it could be bad. Keep thinking like that, you'll never find it.
Steve

I'm starting to disassemble the engine again to check the condition of the cylinder walls. I removed the cams and found that the cam holder dowel pins have flanged edges on one side. I didn't notice this when reassembling and found that some are facing up and others are facing down. Are these pins directional?

Yes, the beveled side faces up for ease on installation of the cam tower caps.
Steve

, oil dripping down from the guides would indicate incorrectly installed oil rings or an incorrectly timed engine?

No, duff valve guide oil seals cause smoking, oil control rings fitted wrong will cause this too. If you checked the ring end gaps and correctly butted the zigzag spacer maybe your rings are not bedding, either incorrect bore hone pattern or using synthetic oil?

Valve timing can be a tooth out and still run but it won't cause smoking I don't think.

Euro models don't have the reed valves.