2003 XT600e using oil
 

Brother in law got him a really good condition 2003 XT600e with 5500km on the clock 2 years ago. Never used a drop of oil. He mainly commuted about 40km's a day and done the occasional trip.
Bike is now on 21000km and using a bit of oil and smoking for a short while in the mornings (that he can see)

Could this smoking be of valve stem seals? do they last only in the region of 20000km,or could it be the bike is allmost 10years old. He did oil changes +/- every 6000km

Is this normal????

Mine is at 115.000km on all original motor, so no, not normal.

If the engine is overfilled it will smoke on startup, and apear top be low on oil as the exces oil is burned. Theese bikes are very hard to read the oillevel on.

Mine's almost 50k km and doesn't use any oil at all, so there's a problem somewhere. I would agree with Jens. It's very hard to get the oil level exactly right, and it will burn any excess (or pump it into the air filter box), which may be what you are seeing.

There's a lot of info on how to do it on this site, but roughly:

1. Get the bike fully warmed up and give it a thrash round the block

2. Stop the engine and allow to rest for approx 5 minutes (this lets the circulated oil settle down)

3. With the bike vertical, check the oil level. Just rest the dipstick on the edge of the hole, do not screw it back in. The oil level should be somewhere in the hatched area of the dipstick.

An ideal time to check the level is after fuelling up in the middle of a trip, when all these conditions are satisfied.

I overfilled the bike for months until I got hold of a manual and learned to do it right. Now, the oil level doesn't vary more than 1-2 mm between changes.

BlackDogZ,
You have provided me with a wry smile for today; that oil change procedure that you describe is exactly the same as for the BMW F650GS (it could be straight out of the Beemer handbook!) which is a dry sump engine design - so, you should be getting good at checking the oil level on both of your current bikes!! :innocent:

Yes, same procedure. I like to keep things simple, like only dating women with the same name. It reduces the opportunity for embarrassing mistakes.

I also have an 03 XT600E with about 23K miles,that was smoking first thing in the morning. I have bought rings, valve stem oil seals and gaskets but when i began stripping, the down pipes were fully seized into the barrel (not uncommon) and the exhaust studs were replaced by lumps of rust. i eventually hacksawed off the pipes but haven't removed them from the barrels yet.
i stripped down the rest of the bike but can't decide to rebuild it (time) or sell as bits or project. Andy B

Yes, in the same way when a pet dog dies the successor dog should have the same name - it keeps life simple!

As for the bikes, I have never understood if the XT600 models are all dry sump design (like my Yam TTR600). It seems that some are but maybe some versions of the XT600 are wet sump (like my XT225)?
FWIW, the handbook for the KLE 650 Versys refers to a "semi dry sump" engine which is not a term I have come across before.

thanks guys, I dont have this problem on my XT600e and it is an identical model with more or less the same amount of km on the clock.

Regarding the oil issue, jip it is not straight forward and i must admit, i also overfilled on my bike once or.......5 times:eek3:

We checked his XT's oil level and it is pass the max mark:innocent:........now if the excess oil is not going to the airbox how does it then get into the combustion chamber???

It also happened to me and I have the same question...

If the sump is overfilled with oil, an excessive amount of oil is splashed up into the cylinder where the piston oil ring cannot cope. So some of the oil will get past the oil ring and be burnt causing smoke out the exhaust.

Thanks for the concise explanation. An odd thing usually happens with mine; I generally put 3 liters in no matter what and still got not reading in deep stick and some smoke out the exhaust.

3 liters is too much, I believe my '03 calls for around 2,6-2,7l witout oilfilter, and 2,8-2,9 with.

I can only read a correct oillevel on mine after after a good run on the interstate. It gets harder to read in this cold weather.

Drain a couple of cupfuls of oil, or drain everything and add 2,7liter, and see if the smoking doesnt clear up after some normal use.

On my latest oil change one of my XT's (the red 1999 one) appeared to take nearly ALL of my 4 litres! Shock and horror - I checked it carefully and found the oil level exactly where it should be! It had been standing 6 months on a battery mate thingy.

I changed the oil fliter at the same time and know this sometimes takes a drop more oil. This doesn't explain where the damn oil went though... The engine runs like it should with no sign of an oil leak. It didn't dump any oil through the exhaust either.

All I know is that my 4 litre can of new oil now only has a drop left in it????? :( odd to say the least.

There were a few small patches of oil left on my driveway though, perhaps I split some without realising?

I think the service manual states it should take just over just under 3 litres. :thumbup1:

Yours confused. :eek3:

Exactly the same happened to me - a whole 4 litre can disappeared into the engine, and it still wasn't up to the full mark. Solution - I drained it all out again, and refilled with exactly 2.6 litres, ran it for a bit, and then checked the oil level as per the manual. Bang on, just had to top up 100 cc or so.

Unless you run the engine, and then wait for the oil to settle, you will never get a reading that is even remotely correct.