Oil consumption, typical?

[wymple]

If it runs good, so what? Oil is cheap enough. I met a traveling bluegrass musician once that had over 300K on a Chrysler 318. He added a quart of oil to his gas tank on a fill up from near empty. His dad built race cars for decades and said it made things live long, calling it "wet engine" tech. I check my oil a lot so it's nothing I ever sweat. I've known older guys who tossed a touch of 2 stroke oil in the tank for the hell of it. I tried it, unless you use a lot, it won't give off a wisp of smoke.

[mikerophone]

a touch of 2 stroke oil in the tank for the hell of it. I tried it, unless you use a lot, it won't give off a wisp of smoke.

Interesting - have others here tried this?

[Sandy]

That's excessive and due to age it is probably not rings or compression related but dried up valve oil seals. You can do them now or ignore them until it gets worse. They can be done without removing the head and there are threads here on how to do it. You can also remove the head to do them but you risk a good chance of disturbing the base gasket but could be a good time to do a hone and fresh rings. That's what I did. I did however leave mine using oil for quite sometime before I did the job. Your choice, I did mine as winter project as there was no rush.

[Mr.Mom]

So what would the standard compression psi be on these engines new, after a good break-in ?
I may consider a valve seal replacement, but won't worry too much about the oil unless it starts smoking. The head does leak oil a little bit so another thing to watch.

[GSX1000E]

If you are burning/leaking a quart of oil in 5,000 miles, some thing or many things are very wrong with your engine. I have gone over 20,000 miles on an old/tired GS and it did not go down even a half a quart.
As for the standard compression reading range for your engine, that is dependent on the altitude range that you ride in. The safe range (minimum to maximum) is printed in the factory manual.

[GS1150Pilot]

A quart every 5,000 miles is excessive in a 30 year-old air-cooled motor? I don't think so.

[bwringer]

I'd agree with many of the above posts. Just ride it and watch the oil level. Don't overthink this. Your compression numbers are great.

I find that mine uses almost no oil in "ordinary" use. However, it will use oil at about 1 quart/1000 miles if I'm in the twisties and flogging it at high RPM a lot. This is pretty normal for air-cooled engines.

[bwringer]

If you are burning/leaking a quart of oil in 5,000 miles, some thing or many things are very wrong with your engine. I have gone over 20,000 miles on an old/tired GS and it did not go down even a half a quart.
As for the standard compression reading range for your engine, that is dependent on the altitude range that you ride in. The safe range (minimum to maximum) is printed in the factory manual.

You're going 20,000 miles or more between oil changes?