Just read this

As a weight-saving measure, Yamaha fitted the XT with a chrome-plated aluminum cylinder liner (the same as on the TT600) instead of a more-conventional iron liner. We've heard reports that some TT cylinder liners get out-of-round easily, causing oil consumption to go up. Some TT600 owners even have resorted to installing iron liners. When asked about the problem, a Yamaha spokesman said out-of-round liners and oil consumption shouldn't be a problem if the bike is broken-in carefully.

Hope thats not your problem cos its a complete strip down if it is,well the top end anyway...........hope I,m wrong...

Valve stem oil seals. As said above, a little oil leaks past them overnight, and gets burnt off when you start it from cold. Had exactly the same symptoms on my 86 XT.

Previous owner clearly knew about it, thats why it was warm when you went to see it.

Try Fowlers in Bristol. 0117 9770466. They wont do anything without a frame number, so make sure you have it to hand when you call. They've always been good to me, and my bike is an import too.

I don,t know about your tt but my old 86 tenere s head cannot be removed with the engine in,maybe the tt is different and you can remove the head and have it overhauled by an engineering company if you are not too mechanically minded.

Some one will know ....just remembered I have a tt 2004 manual here and this is what it says,I hope its the same for your year....

The cylinder head, cylinder, camshaft and piston
can be examined with the engine installed by
removing the following parts.
• Seat
• Fuel tank
• Rear cowling
• Carburetor
• Exhaust pipe

Hello Chaps

Thanks for your advice,I do appreciate it.

Thought about valve stem seals but wouldn`t the oil that had run down overnight get burnt off in a matter of seconds when the engine is fired up rather than taking minutes?

Also regarding its cylinder liner being out of round,wouldn`t this have shown up when the bike was young and repaired under warranty..hope it isn`t that as it sounds expensive just after buying the bike.

Also surely the engine would smoke all the time with an untrue cylinder?

This clears up after a few minutes.

Just checked my oil tank level and it has not dropped since last night so it seems that the engine oil valve is ok,don`t know if this would have made the engine smoke anyway.

Regarding the bikes milage,I have checked all of its paperwork plus the bike and there seems to be no indication of clocking,I mean even the footpegs still have paint on them,it has its original discs plus the seat cover has no wear or shiney areas,seems to be original..7,800 km.

Had my bro-in-law round earlier to have a listen to the TT and he told me that the engine sounds sweet and has no piston slap or cam rattle what so ever and he has been around dirt bikes for nearly 40 years and was once South East Trials Champion and Expert Class 250/500 MX rider so I tend to believe him,he mentioned guides and seals.

Looks like its going to be a strip down but was wondering how I am going to get hold of torque settings for the engine when Yamaha UK will not talk to Import Owners..Any Ideas?

Yes will ring Fowlers..Cheers Mate.

Thanks
Paul.

You're right. If the bore was worn excessively, or out of true, it would smoke most of the time. I guess it takes a few seconds for all the accumulated oil to get hot enough to burn - most of it ends up in the exhaust header the first turn of the engine, I would think, so has to burn off from there.

Thats low miles for a ten year old bike. Can you tell from the old MOT's if its spent a year or 2 doing no miles at all? Valve stem seals are a bit like fork seals, in that they sometimes seem to go a bit crispy and stop working on bikes that dont move for long periods.

If the bike is overfilled with oil it can smoke a lot on startup. Its whiteish/gray smoke, and smells like one would think burning oil would smell.

Could be you're problem as theese bikes are easy to overfill, because its hard to tell the oillevel, or many dont now exactly how to.

I have done 70,000km on my XT 600e and occasionally it smokes when I start up, I have put this down to a valve stem oil seal leaking when the engine stops with a valve open, it does not do it all the time and does not smoke under normal use.My wifes XT on the other hand does not do this, same year similar milage
my bike uses no more oil now than it did at 10,000ks so I decided to ignore the smoke under start up.
Check your oil consumption over a 500km run and if its minimal don,t worry about it.
I am a bike mechanic and the old adage applies if it aint broke don,t fix it, all XT,s have there peculiarities, mine has had a rattle on start up from day one, its the same rattle today.
Great bikes the XT,s and fairly agricultural, not a lot goes wrong with these at your milage
Hope this helps
Pete