KLR died on the Klondike Highway
 

We hauled from Ky. to near Glaicer Park in Mt. Unloaded and riding was great while it lasted. After Watson Lake to Carmacks on the Cambell Hwy.and camping beside the Yucon I smelled oil burning. Naturally I blamed it on the Honda in front of me after all hadn't I bragged to the Harley guys we had met about the legenary reliabilty of KLRs?But after lunch break a cloud of smoke rose from my bike and back on the trailer it went. Pulled apart for a peak in Dawson City I wondered what this new vent hole in the cam cover was about.The bearing surfaces for the ex. cam were so worn away the decompressor unit punched the hole.I flew home from Anchorage according to the plan,but didn't store the KLR for my return trip.It's still on the way home on the trailer,so deeper investagation will have to wait.
P.S. I had to eat plenty of humble pie because I was adamant that we didn't need no stinking support truck!

Please do let us know what the cause of this catastrophic failure turns out to be. It sounds like there may have been a failure of oil delivery to this part of the engine for some reason. Thanks for the report.

Mike
Idaho
www.rtwrider.net

Yeah, very interested in the root cause of this failure. Hope you post once it's determined. Thanks & good luck.

klr died on Klondike
 

Well now I know and have acceped that I am responsable for murdering my engine.No real excuses I just failed to keep an eye on the oil level.
When the bike got home I drained the oil and only got 1.5 qt.s out of it.Now I've bought a '06 motor off E-bay so I'll plug and play hopefully.
Oh yeah I'm going to put a Check oil EVERYDAY note to self near the Instruments.

KLR died on Klondike
 

The 1.5 qt.s that came out includes .75 qt. that I put in just before the end.Even without oil the sight glass is dark and hard to see through.
I'm not so paitenly waiting for the delivery of my E-bay purchased 1000 mile '06 motor.I will take better care with it ,I promise. I got it for $1350.00,try that with a F-650!

I forgot to talk about my riding style. I tend to have a heavy throttle hand ,the day before I finished killing it we rode the Richardson Highway,400 miles of mostly gravel.If I got in front and failed to chaeck the mirrors I would eventually look back and find myself alone.Nothing too extreme,65to70 on gravel I'm comfortable running 70-75 allday on hardsurface. This likely factors into the oil disappearing somewhat.

KLR oil leak
 

I know the damage on the KLR 650 from one of my own vehicles but have not seen it happening myself as it was before I took over Le Cap.
The disintegrating cam journal is caused by lack of oil. The ex cam on the decompressor side is furthest from the oil feed into te cam journals and will thereby be affected by intermittend oil supply first. The location on the hot side of the cylinder head might contribute as well.
The fit of the decompressor under the valve cover is quite tight and the decompressor quickly knocks a hole into the valve cover once the journal goes. I would put the low oil level as culprit and the hole in the valve cover as sign of the engine exitus.
All my older KLR's (KL650C) started to use oil after 55000 to 60000 km. The oil consumption would reach 1.5l / 1000 km at around 70000 to 75000 km making a rebore necessary. On my lower mileage engines (KL 650A 2004 / 2005 +/- 30000 km) the oil consumption is still marginal.