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PDWestman oil mods to my 08 burner testing

30K views 119 replies 15 participants last post by  PT-13Pilot 
#1 ·
After a bunch of reading and a bit of back and forth with Paul, I’ve decided to try his mods on my recently purchased 08 with typical oil burning tendencies.
I bought an 08 with 36k on it back in March. PO said it burned some oil but not horribly so. He’d had it the last 15k. He gave me a lot of extras with it including a new eagle mike 685 kit with piston rings, and gaskets. I’m a mechanic so doing most work to it doesn’t bother me in the least. But buying a new toy and having it down for a month at the beginning of the season with shipping things back and forth isn’t something I wanted to do. So I’ve been riding it and keeping a close eye on it. And in 3k miles so far have a pretty good idea of what it will burn for given riding types.
After talking to Paul a bit I mentioned I hadn’t seen much in the way of post mod feedback. Lots of people had seemed to try it, but never said much after. Or maybe I didn’t search enough. So I’ll try to provide some. My intention is to ride it all summer as i had planned to. And do the 685 upgrade this winter in the off season. It’s obvious to me Paul and Tom already put in a ton of work on this. I won’t be running 9 pressure gauges and sending oil samples in. It’s simple, I’m gonna ride it, keep track of oil consumption vs type of riding done, and enjoy my “new” KLR for the summer. I drilled the 3 banjos the other day, and tapped and plugged the oil cap drilled to #44 for ease. If I have a reason to pull the clutch cover in the future I might do the 100% filtration mod. But for now my clutch is fine, the water pump is good and I have no leaks, so I’m leaving it alone.
 
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#3 ·
Paul and Tom,
Not scientific, but here are some basics, up to doing your mods.
Engine: appears virgin with no wrench marks on anything, leak free, has doohickey with torsion spring, I added KLX jet kit, cleaned and checked the carb, de snorkel, previous L mod done, uni filter, valves well within range, has thermobob, 16T front with stock 43 rear sprocket, full service, coolant flush and anything else I could think of when I bought it. Runs great and starts and idles with no choke at any temperature so far. Other than oil burn it runs perfectly. Seems fine on power. My riding friend bought a low mile 2015 with similar mods and equipment. We are neck and neck in a drag race. When I ride his, his isn’t as smooth as mine. I’m 6’3”, 240 with caribou/pelican 3 case setup always on the bike. Huge Cee Bailey windshield that I cut down a lot in height and width to fit me.

First 3k with no mods. Ran it about 400 miles with what was in it, which he gave me an extra qt of Lucas synth 20w-50. Mostly 2 lane 60 and under and back roads, gravel roads and very light off road. I added no oil but went from top of glass to about half way down cold when I changed oil and filter.

Next 500 miles was with valvoline MC 20w-50. More highway (non interstate) 65 and under mostly. And some backroading. Used about 1/4 qt. Shifting felt a little clunky with this oil for some reason so I drained it.

Last 2k to now was with mobil 1 15w-50. First half was 2 lane with several trips to national forest and some longer back roading and gravel trips around here. Probably 75% highway to 25% backroad by mileage. The last 600 or so of this has been highway to my moms house and back, 300 mile round trip. 65-75 mph. The last trip was on a 90 degree windy day and I rode it pretty hard. 70-75 both directions, it used almost a half a qt in 300 miles. I started with a 5 qt jug. At 2000 miles I have a half quart left with the sight glass full.

With mods in place I changed the oil and filter last night to rotella 10w-40. When it stops raining I’ll get back to riding it and see how it does.
 
#6 ·
If I have this right, you are averaging 2.25qt/1000 miles on the Mobil 1. That includes puttering about backroads and riding highway. IOW, general riding.

On the highway at speeds over 5Krpm, you see a usage of about 3.3qt/1000 miles.

This will be interesting.
 
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#11 · (Edited)
Is there any evidence of the air filter ever being mis-serviced? Dust on the flame arrestor screen, grit in the clean side of the air box, missing the drain plug on the clean side air box drain hose?
 
#13 ·
Paul,
Not that I saw during the initial service I did. It had the stock air filter, appeared to be oiled with engine oil. I replaced with a uni and their oil. Screen was clean. And drains in place with exception of the duck bill drain in the very back had damage.
Carb was clean
The last trip consumption was certainly alarming. But up till then, ball park it wasn’t too bad. Qt/1000-or so. I had to flog it pretty hard with a 30+ mph headwind. Guess it decided to swallow mass quantities on
That run. Got me?
Will see if it was a fluke or if it continues.
 
#14 ·
I’m just going to keep riding it and keeping an eye on it. Like I told you in the message, Paul. This thing is clean as a pin and has enough mods and farkles, I either got the bike for free or the stuff for free. If it blows up before the season is over? Oh well, I’ll buy another, move the goodies over and part it out. And other than the burn it runs so good i think it’ll make it till this winter when I can do the 685 kit. With my work schedule and all I’d be surprised if I put another 5000 on it this year. Will see
 
#16 ·
Sorry for the confusion Tom! And my methods thus far are less than scientific. I’ll try a little harder with the new mods and lighter weight oil. I get bulk oil and refill an airplane quart jug with the sight line in the side that I carry with me. That last trip may have been a fluke or I didn’t start at the top of the glass. Or maybe it did swallow that much. That’s a bother to me. Seems to be about 1/2 a sight glass plus or minus getting a reading on these damn things even after sitting overnight on a center stand on my flat hangar floor. Getting a decent reading shouldn’t be such a pain. When riding I just keep it in upper half of the glass at stops if need be.
I’m also going to do the same ride down to moms and back tomorrow, 300 miles. Will see how it does. Same trip, speed, and load out. Hopefully not the same wind. Only difference other than stated above is I also went back to a stock exhaust this weekend. That noisy Lexx had to go!
 
#17 ·
I use the cheap Hearos 'Rock n Roll' ear plugs. Remove the hard plastic pin & shorten by about 1/8th inch. Really quiets the used D606 that is currently on the rear wheel.
 
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#18 ·
Paul I may have to try some ear plugs. My highway helmet is quiet. My dual sport helmet isn’t. But between the roar in town and the drone on the highway, the Lexx had to go. I pulled and repacked it. Didn’t need it and didn’t help. Think it sort of echoed off the cases too when you’re on it. Let a friend ride it and I could hear him as he rode off for a long ways. Someone on eBay will buy it. Plenty of guys like noise.
 
#20 ·
Well, did the down and back to moms yesterday. And I’ve gotta say, I’m rather shocked. I added no oil. When I changed the oil I got a bit much in, was a splash over the top of the sight glass. Ride down and back was much the same as the last one where it burned a bunch of oil. Enough of a headwind to use a lot of throttle at 70 on the way down. Only got 36 mpg down and 41 coming back. Ran it harder than last time, with the stock exhaust not roaring made it nice. Put it on the stand when done and when I checked it before going home had just a small bubble visible in the glass. Heading to work shortly so will check again after all night of drip down. But from a back to back version of the same trip to go from a half quart to almost none is awesome! The experiment will continue............
 
#21 ·
That pretty much mirrors what happened on my '09 with a dusted piston (and a badly distorted set of rings).
 
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#24 ·
Paul has noted that there can be some oil that is kept out of the sump if the engine stops with the piston closer to top dead center as opposed to bottom dead center.

The crank pin has an oil passageway that comes from the center of the crankshaft. If the piston stops in the upward direction then the oil that is in the filter cavity cannot drain through that passageway and into the sump. Your over-night oil readings can vary according to the crank's stopped position.

I can't remember how much oil it is, but it is something to keep in mind. If you want to be precise about repeatability of the sight glass readings then the crank should be stopped in the same position every time. That's a bit of a PITA as it requires removing the two plastic caps in the alternator cover and turning the crank. If the sight glass reading '1/2 full' then it may not be discernable but it could make the difference between a wee bubble and no bubble.

@pdwestman, do you recall the amount that is held back if the crank is at TDC?
 
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#25 ·
Tom I had read that too as far at the plus/minus of where the cranks stops. I’m not that precise. Just in range and top half of glass is good enough for me. Oil usage will be equally as imprecise. Just want to keep track of what’s used and keep a running tab really. On trips at stops I just make sure it’s in the window around half.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Gotcha. Just to get it down, though, I made some measurements and did some math.

The filter element displaces 40cc. The filter cavity has a volume of 150cc. The filter, then, should hold back 110cc. I'm not accounting for the oil that would be in the cap itself becasue there aren't any readily available caps in the Shop of Horrors without getting a ladder out. I'd guess another 15-20cc.

If the piston is at BDC the top half of the filter should drain quickly, so ~50cc. The remainder should drain back through the pump and through the gap in the filter cap over a considerably longer period of time. Overnight oughta do it.

If I recall correctly, the sight glass, top to bottom, represents about a liter. If I'm right on that, then a complete drain back of the filter would change the sight glass by 10%.

More semi-useless shit people don't really need to know.
 
#27 · (Edited)
I will suggest that the amount contained in the oem oil filter cavity will vary between 2 - 4 ounces depending upon BDC vs TDC of the rod pin and parked on the side stand. I estimate the oil filter cavity to hold about 8 ounces total.

When parked on a center stand with oem filter cavity, the contained volume will be zero when crank stops near BDC, because of the few thousands clearance between filter cap & clutch cover bore. Of course dependant on tempurature and time parked.

When crank stops near TDC and parked on center stand the cavity may retain 4 - 6 ounces of oil.

If I Recall Correctly.

PS, I recon that I've always over-estimated the oil filter cavity capacity then. But then the Newer models have a smaller diameter cavity than the older models, which was part of what spurred me to modify the inlet. Remember the 1990 vs 2006 pic?
 
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