Where has all my oil gone?

Hi Kevin,

Maybe a long shot, but I have seen it happen! Your exhaust valves/guides worn?? I ahd to sort out a bike for a friend once that had lots of oil smoke from the exhausts. The bores were fine, no oil in the combustion chambers. He'd had a big valve done recently, so everything was fine on the inlet side, but he'd neglected to check the exhaust side, which was badly worn....a new pair of valves cured it ...lots of oil in the pipes, but it was only getting there from the exhaust side!

pvisseriii said:

Since we are in the mood for questions, I have a couple. Just another point of view.
Click wrote
"5. I can only think of three places the oil can go 1. Oil leak (I've no oil leaks from the engine) 2. Oil is burnt off through the combustion chamber 3. Oil is sitting in the head & not draining out quick enough OR the exhaust valve oil seal is shot OR the rocker spindles are not orientated correctly OR ALL three!!"
4. out the crank seal into the primary. This crazy new motor may have some serious crank pressure.

Have you opened the primary oil level plug to see how much oil is in there?

Click also wrote
"On the go I can't see any smoke coming from the back of the bike but when I stop & on tickover for a bit, when I rev the engine some smoke comes out, not as bad as a two stroke but very noticeable."

If you are smoking at tickover when you goose it a little, then maybe the pilot jet is too big or the air/pilot curcuit need freshening/cleaning? or something in that area. Maybe drop the needle a notch.

Click to expand...

Hi pvisseriii,

I've just drained the primary chaincase oil and . . . . . . . . sorry no prize I got out slightly LESS than I put in about 3-4 weeks ago when I stripped the clutch & cleaned the plates (with the help & guidance from all you guys)

You might be on to something re: carburation.

Since this bike is still new to me & I'm just really trying to get to know him (I've decided that it is a him I was calling my Norton a her but as others have said I think the Norton Commando is male, well at least my one is )

Part of my getting to know him is just getting a feel for usage of oil, general habbits.

I think the bike is running rich on the low end, pilot circuit. I'm going to adjust the pilot air screws over the weekend to see if I can get it to run less rich on tickover/low throttle settings & see if this makes a difference.

I'm going to try all the simple easy to do stuff first before I strip the engine down to the crank :mrgreen: :roll: :mrgreen:

Kevin

Seeley920 said:

Hi Kevin,

Maybe a long shot, but I have seen it happen! Your exhaust valves/guides worn?? I had to sort out a bike for a friend once that had lots of oil smoke from the exhausts. The bores were fine, no oil in the combustion chambers. He'd had a big valve done recently, so everything was fine on the inlet side, but he'd neglected to check the exhaust side, which was badly worn....a new pair of valves cured it ...lots of oil in the pipes, but it was only getting there from the exhaust side!

Click to expand...

Hi Seeley920,

I got an order of bits from RGM but they forgot to put in the exhaust gaskets. I will take the exhaust off to see if oil is getting into the pipes when I get another order from RGM, which at the moment is almost every 3 weeks :roll: . Thanks for the info.

I think I said this before the more I work on this bike the more I realise the chap who originally restored it really knew what he was doing. The engine has less than 3K miles on it since it was rebuilt in 1999. He originally built it for his son in law who was sick at the time & could not really use it but gave him a reason to get better having a bike like that waiting for him. It was then sold to a guy who kept it in a heated garage & polished it a lot The chap I bought it off had a few modern BMW's & the Norton was only an infrequent use bike but he did do the majority of miles on the clock.

Then I got it & started annoying everybody on this forum about it :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I still feel I have a good bike, I just need to get to know it better and not mess it up with my DIY mechanical knowledge :roll:

Kevin

I have to say that if it's visibly burning oil, the previous "mechanic" wasn't ALL that good. You can correct this stuff; it should not show any smoke at all under any conditions if everything is as it should be.

mike996 said:

I have to say that if it's visibly burning oil, the previous "mechanic" wasn't ALL that good. You can correct this stuff; it should not show any smoke at all under any conditions if everything is as it should be.

Click to expand...

Fair enough point but 1999 to present day is 11 years, I know it's only done 3K miles but seals etc. can alter over time & cause various issues.

On a positive note I'm learning lots about my Norton from all you guys which is all good.


Kevin

Had a similiar problem when travelling around Australia, not the wet sumping, but oil loss, found it in the primary, yep engine seal!

Update:

I dropped over to DaveH on the other side of Dublin bay so he could work on my carbs.

It was great to have somebody with patience & a methodical approach to setup the carbs.

I'd already got the slides well balanced, Dave cleaned out the pilot jets with the smallest drill bit I've ever seen. He also took a bit galling off one of the slides which he felt was keeping it from seating in the closed position.

Dave then setup the pilot & tick-over screws, from my point of view the bike was running a lot better but Dave felt the pilot jets might need another clean.

I had the bike out today for a 60mile spin, did a few plug chops, I'm running BPR7EiX iridium plugs, I was running BP7ES but they where very sooty. The iridium plugs are also sooty but a little less.

I put in BP6ES plugs, the bike is running really well, did a plug chop & the plugs are cleaner, still a little sooty but a lot better than the 7's. I'll run the bike like this for a while & keep an eye on the plugs.

Now I just have to sort out my rear brake, overhaul the oil pump blah blah blah

Thanks to everybody on this board for all their help & to DaveH for his patience and mechanical skill.

Kevin

Kevin -

Trying to figure out my smoke issue as well... I have symptoms similar to the ones your describe here.

After letting the bike warm up, when coming to a stop after a run at speed (coming off the freeway for example) I get a light amount of white smoke out the LH exhaust. Blipping the throttle makes a moderate amount of white smoke. When pulling away from a stop, I get heavish white smoke and then can see a very light amount of white smoke coming out the left exhaust until I get up to a good speed (40 mph or so). Other than this, my bike runs excellent... Plugs are sooty black.

Was your problem caused by your carb issues?

At some point soon I am going to do the trick involving removing the oil feed to the head and see where I'm at...

Cheers,

- HJ

Hungry J0e said:

Kevin -

Trying to figure out my smoke issue as well... I have symptoms similar to the ones your describe here.

After letting the bike warm up, when coming to a stop after a run at speed (coming off the freeway for example) I get a light amount of white smoke out the LH exhaust. Blipping the throttle makes a moderate amount of white smoke. When pulling away from a stop, I get heavish white smoke and then can see a very light amount of white smoke coming out the left exhaust until I get up to a good speed (40 mph or so). Other than this, my bike runs excellent... Plugs are sooty black.

Was your problem caused by your carb issues?

At some point soon I am going to do the trick involving removing the oil feed to the head and see where I'm at...

Cheers,

- HJ

Click to expand...

If the smoke is white and plugs are sooty its a mixture issue. Burning oil would cause blueish smoke.

Hi HJ,

Sorry for the late reply, I was away on the Norton touring Wales, got there and back no problems.

To answer your question, a member of this board helped me clean & setup the twin Amals, well Dave did all the work & I watched

The pilot jet was cleaned using the small drill bit method. I also changed to a hotter grade plug.

The combination of getting the Amals setup & the hotter grade plug has given me an almost perfect running bike, I have not noticed any smoke from the bike since this work was done so I think my original problem was an over rich running bike especially at low revs due to blocked pilot jets.

Hope this helps.

Kevin

Hungry J0e said:

Kevin -

Trying to figure out my smoke issue as well... I have symptoms similar to the ones your describe here.

After letting the bike warm up, when coming to a stop after a run at speed (coming off the freeway for example) I get a light amount of white smoke out the LH exhaust. Blipping the throttle makes a moderate amount of white smoke. When pulling away from a stop, I get heavish white smoke and then can see a very light amount of white smoke coming out the left exhaust until I get up to a good speed (40 mph or so). Other than this, my bike runs excellent... Plugs are sooty black.

Was your problem caused by your carb issues?

At some point soon I am going to do the trick involving removing the oil feed to the head and see where I'm at...

Cheers,

- HJ

Click to expand...